The origins of La Pestilencia can be traced back to 1986, when Héctor Buitrago was a DJ on a Bogotá radio station, playing the punk records that a relative had brought him from the UK.

The pair soon recruited guitarist Francisco Nieto and drummer Jorge León Piñeda, and began practicing in the house of Buitrago's mother in the working-class Bogotá barrio of Restrepo.

[1] The group's early concerts featured cover versions of Spanish and Brazilian rock bands, but they soon began to write and develop the songs that would form their debut album, La muerte... un compromiso de todos (1989).

León left La Pestilencia after the recording of their second album and joined Aterciopelados for a short while, before forming his own bands Excalibur and Estrato Social.

[7] Following another move to EMI Records, Productos Desaparecidos (2005) saw the band begin to incorporate synthesizers and other instruments into their sound, and the album was nominated for a Latin Grammy Award for Best Recording Package,[8] as well as attaining a gold disc in their home country, the first ever gold disc for a punk or hard rock band in Colombia.