Meet the Mexican soldier trying to revamp a musical genre accused of glorifying cartels

MEXICO CITY (AP) — At a Mexican military base, Captain Eduardo Barrón picks up not a rifle but a microphone. Swaying boot-to-boot, he belts out a song as the sounds of trumpets and accordions roar from a band of a dozen camouflage-clad soldiers.

The rhythmic style — known as a corrido — is recognizable to just about every soul in the Latin American nation of 130 million. But Barrón’s lyrics diverge sharply from those blaring on speakers across Mexico.

“I still remember the day I joined the military,” he crooned. “This is a dream my soul longed for, and if I were to live another life, I’d become a soldier again.”

Barrón, who performs under the name “Eddy Barrón," began releasing music videos and songs on Spotify last year in coordination with the Mexican military. His lyrics extol the army’s virtues, celebrate proud parents and honor the fallen.

They stand in stark contrast to the controversial narco corridos, a subgenre that has sparked controversy as famed artists pay homage to cartel bosses, portraying them as rebels going against the system.

Faced with the challenge of addressing a musical style that depicts cartel violence, local governments across Mexico have increasingly banned performances and pursued criminal investigations of bands and musicians. Mexico’s president even vowed to reduce the popularity of narco corridos while promoting other, less violent musical styles.

But Barrón, 33, is taking a different approach. Instead of censorship, he wants to build upon the momentum with his own military corridos, an effort to both infuse the genre with more socially acceptable lyrics and recruit young people to the military.

“Narco life is in style and they make it sound really pretty … but the reality is different,” he said. “We’re playing our part to invite young people to join this movement of positive music.”

Barron's military ballads are part of a wider government push spearheaded by Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, who has proposed that the government promote corridos about “love, falling out of love and peace.”

She even announced a government-sponsored Mexican music competition in the northern state of Durango showcasing music that avoids “glorifying violence, drugs and discrimination against women.”

“It will completely change Mexican music,” she said.

But in a subculture long defined by resistance and putting words to the harsh realities facing the poor, the government's initiatives around the genre have been met with skepticism about official attempts to promote family-friendly narratives.

“I don't think using corridos as a way to incorporate other kinds of narratives, is a bad idea,” said José Manuel Valenzuela, a Tijuana sociologist who studies the genre. “There are a lot of songs that sing of peace and love. It’s just that those aren’t the ones that are turning out to be hits … because we’re living in a moment of aggrieved youth.”

Corridos were born in the 19th century, their classical band instruments and the accordion rooted in German and Polish migration to Mexico. At a time of widespread illiteracy, they were used widely to pass on oral histories.

The ballads took off during the Mexican revolution, when they were used to share stories of war heroes and glory from the conflict.

That is why Barrón says he didn’t invent military corridos, but that he’s simply bringing them back.

“Corridos come from the revolution, and we’re doing the same thing as those soldiers and revolutionaries, albeit in a different age, but the result is the same,” he said.

The genre evolved over generations, from singing about smuggling tequila during the 1920’s Prohibition era in corridos tequileros to grappling with the rising wave of cartel violence in Mexico with narco corridos.

“All the big social issues are told through corridos,” Valenzuela said. “It’s a metaphor to speak about what we’ve been living through.”

Barrón said he would play guitar with his father’s Mexican regional music band as a teenager, and write his own music. He would bring his guitar to play on deployments after he joined the army at 20.

In 2021, he said he began writing his own songs about his time in the military and singing with a military FX Band, named after the type of gun the military uses. But the music never went public.

Around 2023, the genre exploded when artists like Peso Pluma, Fuerza Regida and Natanael Cano began to mix the classic style with trap music in what are known as corridos tumbados. That same year, Peso Pluma bested Taylor Swift as the most streamed artist on YouTube.

A year later, the Mexican army decided to post Barrón's music under his artistic name.

The music videos, which have clocked tens of thousands of views on YouTube alone, are layered with images of heavy duty weapons, the Mexican flag, barbed wire and Barrón belting out in camouflage and infrared goggles pulled above his military helmet.

Originally intended to entertain troops and boost military recruitment among young Mexicans, Barrón's songs took on a different meaning amidst the renewed controversy that has come with the corridos boom.

The musical style has long been criticized for romanticizing cartel violence, but has hit an inflection point in recent years.

Mexican states have implemented performance bans, and prominent artists have received death threats, often claiming to be from rival cartels whose leaders are glorified in their music. And musicians have been forced to cancel shows due to concerns about potential violence.

The controversy intensified last week, after the face of top cartel boss Nemesio Rubén “El Mencho” Oseguera was projected onto a large screen behind the band Los Alegres del Barranco at a music festival in the northern state of Jalisco. The incident, occurring shortly after Oseguera’s cartel was linked to a ranch under investigation as a training camp and body disposal site in Jalisco, sent shockwaves across Mexico.

The performance was met with a cascade of criticisms. Two Mexican states announced criminal investigations, concerts were cancelled and the Trump administration revoked the U.S. visas of band members.

It also marked a hardening in tone by Sheinbaum, who called for an investigation into the concert, adding: “You can’t justify violence or criminal groups.”

Barrón, who opposes a ban on corridos, believes the solution is to continue to sing cloaked in camouflage with the hopes of reclaiming the Mexican music from his childhood from the negative stereotypes that have grown to define it.

He said the army is already planning to release new songs in the coming months.

"Sadly, we've been stuck with this label of corridos as negative music," he said. “A better approach is to reclaim the genre and take a different path to shift the conversation.”

Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america

Captain Eduardo Barron sings a corrido during a performance for the media at a military base in Mexico City, Monday, March 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

A military band plays a corrido during a performance for the media at a military base in Mexico City, Monday, March 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

A soldier plays a trumpet during the performance of a corrido for the media at a military base in Mexico City, Monday, March 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

A military band play a corrido during a performance for the media at a military base in Mexico City, Monday, March 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

Captain Eduardo Barron sings a corrido during a performance for the media at a military base in Mexico City, Monday, March 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

A military band performs a corrido during a performance for the media at a military base in Mexico City, Monday, March 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

A soldier plays an accordion during the performance of a corrido for the media at a military base in Mexico City, Monday, March 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

DETROIT (AP) — President Donald Trump will travel to Michigan on Tuesday to promote his efforts to boost U.S. manufacturing, trying to counter fears about a weakening job market and worries that still-rising prices are taking a toll on Americans' pocketbooks.

The day trip will include a tour of a Ford factory in Dearborn that makes F-150 pickups, the bestselling domestic vehicle in the U.S. The president is also set to address the Detroit Economic Club at the MotorCity Casino.

November's off-year elections in Virginia, New Jersey and elsewhere showed a shift away from Republicans as public concerns about kitchen table issues persist. In their wake, the White House said Trump would put a greater emphasis on talking directly to the public about his economic policies after doing relatively few events around the country earlier in his term.

The president has suggested that jitters about affordability are a “hoax” unnecessarily stirred by Democrats. Still, though he's imposed steep tariffs on U.S. trading partners around the world, Trump has reduced some of them when it comes to making cars — including extending import levies on foreign-made auto parts until 2030.

Ford announced last month that it was scrapping plans to make an electric F-150, despite pouring billions into broader electrification, after the Trump administration slashed targets to have half of all new vehicle sales be electric by 2030, eliminated EV tax credits and proposed weakening the emissions and gas mileage rules.

His Michigan swing follows economy-focused speeches the president gave last month in Pennsylvania — where Trump's gripes about immigrants arriving to the U.S. from “filthy” countries got more attention than his pledges to fight inflation — and North Carolina, where he insisted his tariffs have spurred the economy, despite residents noting the squeeze of higher prices.

Trump carried Michigan in 2016 and 2024, after it swung Democratic and backed Joe Biden in 2020. He marked his first 100 days in office with a rally-style April speech outside Detroit, where he focused more on past campaign grudges than his administration's economic or policy plans.

During that visit nearly nine months ago, Trump also spoke at Selfridge Air National Guard Base and announced a new fighter jet mission, allaying fears that the base could close. It represented a win for Michigan Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer — and the two even shared a hug.

This time, Democrats have panned the president's trip, singling out national Republicans' opposition to extending health care subsidies and recalling a moment in October 2024 when Trump suggested that Democrats' retaining the White House would mean “our whole country will end up being like Detroit."

"You’re going to have a mess on your hands,” Trump said during a campaign stop back then.

Curtis Hertel, chair of the Michigan Democratic Party, said that “after spending months claiming that affordability was a ‘hoax’ and creating a health care crisis for Michiganders, Donald Trump is now coming to Detroit — a city he hates — to tout his billionaire-first agenda while working families suffer."

“Michiganders are feeling the effects of Trump’s economy every day,” Hertel said in a statement.

Weissert reported from Washington.

President Donald Trump speaks to reporters while in flight on Air Force One to Joint Base Andrews, Md., Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)