Who is Ernesto Barajas of Enigma Norteño? What killed him? Here’s what to know
Ernesto Barajas of Enigma Norteño, gunned down in Zapopan, Jalisco, leaves behind a legacy of narcocorridos and a career shadowed by controversy.
Mexico’s regional music scene has been shaken by the violent death of Ernesto Barajas, the charismatic lead vocalist of the popular band Enigma Norteño. The 38-year-old singer was fatally shot on Tuesday in Zapopan, Jalisco, a municipality in the Guadalajara metropolitan zone, in an attack that also claimed the life of one companion and left a passerby seriously injured.
The Attack in Zapopan
Local reports indicate that Barajas, originally from Culiacán, Sinaloa, was inside a pickup truck when two armed men on a motorcycle intercepted him in a parking area and opened fire. Authorities quickly sealed off the scene as forensic teams gathered evidence. The Jalisco Public Security Secretariat confirmed that an investigation has been launched to track down the assailants.
A Career Marked by Fame and Controversy
Barajas fronted Enigma Norteño, a group founded in 2004 that grew into one of Mexico’s most recognizable exponents of narcocorridos, boasting more than 4 million monthly listeners on Spotify. The band’s repertoire included songs referencing cartel figures from both the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) and the Sinaloa Cartel, such as El Mencho, Los placeres de Archivaldo, and El Sr. Mayo Zambada.
Although the group consistently denied any formal links to criminal organizations, Barajas acknowledged in interviews that cartel figures sometimes requested corridos, forcing him to carefully navigate Mexico’s volatile criminal landscape.
Threats and Tensions in Recent Years
In August 2023, Barajas was forced to cancel a show in Baja California after receiving a narcomanta threat allegedly from CJNG, warning him against performing corridos tied to rival factions. Months later, in March 2024, fellow singer Arley Pérez accused Barajas of sabotaging his career under the influence of Néstor Isidro Pérez Salas, alias El Nini, a high-ranking operative of Los Chapitos.
These incidents placed Barajas at the center of growing tensions between competing criminal groups, tensions that inevitably shadowed his career despite his insistence on remaining neutral.
Beyond Corridos: Music and Media
Aside from his work with Enigma Norteño, Barajas cultivated a following through his YouTube podcast, where he interviewed prominent names in the Mexican music scene, including Carín León, Gabito Ballesteros, and Eduin Caz of Grupo Firme. His podcast offered fans a glimpse of his personality outside of narcocorridos, painting him as both entertainer and cultural commentator.
A Loss Felt Across the Music Industry
Barajas’s murder has reignited the conversation about the risks faced by regional Mexican musicians, especially those linked to corridos that portray cartel figures. For fans, colleagues, and the broader music industry, his death underscores both the dangerous intersections of art and organized crime in Mexico and the fragility of artists who navigate that terrain.
As the investigation unfolds, Enigma Norteño and its millions of listeners are left grappling with the sudden loss of a figure whose voice defined an era of corrido music—and whose life ended violently in the city of Guadalajara’s orbit.
