El Chapo

In 1985, a lower level member of the Guadalajara Cartel by the name of Joaquín Guzmán Loera took his superiors by surprise when he became the first person to smuggle an important shipment of cocaine from Colombia to the United States in less than 48 hours. He was able to do this because of an ace he had up his sleeve: he had just built his first tunnel underneath America’s southern border.

Mexico, 1988. A new President has changed the game for drug trafficking: now, it will be the government who is controlling the industry. Miguel Ángel, the Boss of Bosses, has been arrested, and General Blanco, chief adviser to the President, reassigns territories and names new bosses. When it comes to distribution, one name in particular stands out: Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán. However, being named a boss isn’t enough for him; his ambitions have now been triggered, and he decides to provoke a conflict with the Avedaño brothers, who end up murdering his best friend in response. The government, in turn, now must find a way to control what they have to control the monster they themselves have created. Don Sol, a young civil servant who has gained the confidence of the new political regime, argues insistently that they can find a peaceful resolution. Meanwhile, however, El Chapo has already executed his return strike.

Mexico, 1990. The war between El Chapo and the Avedaño brothers intensifies, destabilizing the government’s plans to control the drug trade. The U.S. government decides to intervene, and demands that the Mexicans release one of Miguel Ángel’s protégés by the name of Amado from prison and install him as the new supreme leader of the drug cartels. However, the order that Amado attempts to establish fails: the Avedaño brothers brutally murder the family of El Güero, one of El Chapo’s top partners. In response, El Chapo carries out his deadliest attack to date on the Christine nightclub. A number of innocent bystanders are among the dead. Now under pressure from both the Mexican and U.S. governments, Amado decides to eliminate El Chapo himself.

Mexico, 1993. Amado has found the perfect opportunity to take down El Chapo, while at the same time fulfilling a new request from the government: establish a veiled pretext for the assassination of the Cardinal of Guadalajara. The plan is to have both men in the same location—the Guadalajara airport—inform the Avedaño brothers of their primary enemy’s whereabouts, and orchestrate an attack that takes down El Chapo while simultaneously allowing the government to claim that the Cardinal dies in the crossfire. But everything goes horribly wrong: El Chapo manages the escape, and the Cardinal is the only one killed. Facing mounting public pressure, Amado and the government decide to put the blame for the Cardinal’s murder on El Chapo and immediately issue a warrant for his arrest. Overnight, El Chapo has become a national public figure. His legend is born.

Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán is now the most wanted man in Mexico. Betrayed by Amado and with a bounty placed on his head by the government, El Chapo must now prove himself to be more skillful than his most powerful enemies. Whether through buying people’s loyalty or thanks to faithful collaborators, El Chapo surprisingly manages to escape from the country. Meanwhile, back in Mexico City, the young, ambitious and confident Don Sol has been working his way through the corridors of power and sees an opportunity to make a decisive move. His next step will involve bringing down his own mentor and boss General Blanco: the last man standing between him and a direct relationship with the President.

El Chapo, now on the lam in Guatemala and El Salvador, is trying to establish a new base for his business. However, things do not go as planned. His enemies are multiplying: now, the American DEA is on his heels, as are the governments of two more countries. And the more he risks everything he has left, the more alone he finds himself. The power and luxury he once enjoyed are now things of the past. Finally, the noose begins to tighten, he is left with nowhere else to turn, and El Chapo is taken into custody in Guatemala. Back in Mexico City, Don Sol’s rise seems imminent: after orchestrating the dismissal of General Blanco, he will be appointed the President’s newest advisor on drug trafficking matters.

El Chapo is delivered to the Mexican authorities and transferred to the Almoloya Maximum Security Prison. Don Sol is there waiting for him, ready to fulfill his first mission: force El Chapo to take the blame for the Cardinal’s murder, and negotiate his silence. El Chapo accepts, in exchange for a swift transfer to a less harsh prison. El Chapo makes himself available to Don Sol, who presents him to the media at a press conference as “The Capo of Capos when it comes to Mexican drug trafficking.” It is considered as a great triumph for the Mexican government in its fight on crime, and El Chapo’s first fall from grace is seen on television throughout the country.

While serving time at Almoloya, El Chapo is subjected to the harshest and most restrictive treatment. It would seem that it was barely worth negotiating with Don Sol, who—after thwarting General Blanco’s attempts at revenge and murder—has become an inaccessible figure consolidated in his circle of power. El Chapo is alone again, and turns to his old tools of the trade in order to get along: bribery, manipulation, and intimidation. But the rigid Almoloya system is relentless. Despite earning certain loyalties and winning a few small battles, El Chapo ends up being dealt the most severe hand of all: being confined to “Los Acolchonados,” “The Paddies,” as they’re called: the padded cells where prisoners are kept in solitary confinement.

There in “The Paddies,” El Chapo endures his own personal hell. Insomnia, the frigid conditions, and the physical and psychological abuse push the limits of his sanity. Cut off from the rest of the world, he escapes into the only place that he can: his thoughts. He remembers how, at the age of 16, he met the town’s boss, Pedro Avilés, and began growing his first poppies. Dazzled by Avilés’ luxurious world of money, women, and power, El Chapo decides to join his ranks, though not before facing his father, a violent alcoholic who was convinced that his son would never amount to anything. Now, locked up in Almoloya, he refuses to let his will be broken and instead grows stronger than ever, absolutely determined to achieve what he’s always dreamed of: being the baddest big shot of them all, the most powerful drug lord in the world, the Capo of Capos that the Mexican government and media had already portrayed him as, the man he swore he’d become on that distant day when he challenged his father.