Inspired by Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán. This character first appears on screen at the age of 45 years. He is the absolute leader of the Confederation, which has been set up due to his own initiative.When we first meet him in Episode 1 of the series, he has perpetrated two spectacular escapes from maximum security prisons in Mexico and has taken advantage of these events and his other actions to consolidate his image to the point of becoming a global living legend. Joaquin is a skilled planner, excellent in public relations, strategic in alliances and strong and upward-moving with the Colombian and Central American drug traffickers he has dealt with for decades. He uses bribery and corruption as the main tools for obtaining security, immunity and official information. He has relationships with countless characters, ranging from his own with the othernarcos, passing by important artists, politicians, officials and military. He prefers agreements before conflicts, but, when absolutely necessary, he is ruthless and highly violent with enemies, traitors, or anyone who gets in his way.
He admires the USA very much and sees that country as the main source of his wealth and illicit efforts. He’s a gallant womanizer and has several marriages and children under his belt. He likes to dance but does not to drink a lot and fundamentally when there is party or the need to entertain, he almost never loses his composure. The Sinaloan sierra mountain range is his comfort zone, where he was born and where he moves like a fish in water. Joaquin is an unconditional friend of the locals and he establishes bonds through compadrazgos(familiar friends) and provides permanent help to those who protect and support him.
Many consider him a modern-day Robin Hood, an imagethat doesn’t bother him at all. When he speaks, he’s sobering and rather blunt, choosing a monosyllabic approach and always with a deep and sparkling look. He likes good food, especially Asian food.
He traveled a lot as a youngster and despite having little academic preparation, he projects authority and much knowledge of life. Joaquin’s principal virtue is his ability to bring together thousands of people around him and involve them in his activity, of which his close and distant relatives form his first circle of trusted associates and inner- hierarchy.
He has a great instinct for business matters, advanced and prospective, and seems to be a natural-born deal-maker. He is utilitarian and functional but also becomes suspicious and has no problems in putting forward or sacrificing people, even those who have been loyal, if that guarantees him to escape or save his skin.
His family comes first to him and despite being a good friend to his friends and a good compadre to his compadres, his loyalties are not always sure or total. Being a great smuggler and conveyor of merchandise, he constantly innovates routes and methods of transport and has a great smell and vision for business opportunities and is bold and expansive in them. His scope is multinational and year after year, his businesses reach over five continents.
El Chapo works and incorporates the money and infrastructure of others, risks little of his own assets, articulates relationships and infrastructure of third parties and puts them at the service of his own projects, but he gives everyone a win-win in the end and that allows them to have a lot of mobility and flexibility in the business.
Inspired by Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada. He is 50 when we first meet him in the series. He is the true power behind the throne. Self-made countryman, boss of bosses, bloodthirsty and violent, but very discreet in his actions.
He is one of few words when in large groups but talkative with his friend and partner Joaquin with whom he has a very special mutual synergy and respect. He is a man of thehacienda, a ranchero, rougher and more rudimentary than Joaquin, marks his power with his great capacity to work and is capable of mobilizing his men when violence is necessary.
Like Joaquin, family comes first as they are his immediate circle of collaborators. He does not over-react publicly and manages a more private and closed private life than that of his partner. He’s territorial and distrustful of outsiders. He controls the Mexican municipal and state police and monitors roads and highways in his state and neighboring states.
El Mayo Zambada has great mobility and is not sedentary and is usually pragmatic in his actions, he does not cling to any place and manages his own security without much fanfare and is supported in his access to privileged information and to the constant compartmentalization to which he submits to his own structures.
He sets up his people so that one group is not aware of what the other group does. His military apparatus is not as large as that of Joaquin’s, but it is very effective and brutal.
