Traición means "betrayal". It's a powerful and dramatic word that perfectly captures the passionate and tense theme of this song about infidelity.
Throughout the track, the artists repeat the line "Las traiciones se pagan con otra traición también" (Betrayals are paid for with another betrayal too). This word is the key to understanding the song's core message of a tangled relationship built on cheating and revenge.
"Culpables" throws us right into a messy web of revenge and secret attraction. Colombian star KAROL G and Puerto Rico's Anuel AA trade verses about cheating on their respective partners with each other, justifying the whole thing under a simple rule: "las traiciones se pagan con otra traición también" ("betrayals are paid back with another betrayal too"). Both have been hurt by their previous lovers, so neither feels an ounce of guilt about breaking the rules now. Anuel drops cold, sharp lines about how revenge works in romance, noting "no te cambian por algo mejor, te cambian por algo más rico" ("they don't trade you for someone better, they trade you for someone tastier"). He even brings in Puerto Rican pop culture when he compares his lover's looks to model and television host Lynette Chico.
KAROL G matches his cynicism beat for beat. When her partner tries calling to plead for another chance, she cuts him off completely with a brutally realistic rule of thumb: "el que falla una vez, te falla dos y tres" ("whoever fails you once will fail you two and three times"). While the two lovers admit "en el amor no creemos" ("we don't believe in love"), the spark between them is undeniable every time they meet up to laugh, talk, and sneak around. It is a bold, drama-filled anthem about turning heartbreak into mutual payback.