Joaquin Archivaldo Guzman Loera, or "El Chapo" as he is better known, is a short, reserved, and on the surface, unremarkable guy, but he became the most powerful drug lord in Mexico.El Chapo was essentially born into the drug trade in Sinaloa, as were countless other families. His entire family worked the fields cultivating poppies to be processed into opium.
Growing up, El Chapo was surrounded by a fiction that the illicit drug trade creates to mask its roots.Like many of the children of Sinaloa, El Chapo started contributing to the family business from an early age, bringing lunch to his older relatives while they worked the poppy fields.Saviano cites that one kilo of opium gum, processed from the poppies, was worth 8,000 Mexican pesos, …show more content…
The hit men spotted the Mercury and unloaded."The shoot-out left seven men dead, among them Cardinal Posadas Ocampo, while El Chapo managed to escape, unscathed," says Saviano. "It was only recently that the FBI declared the killing a tragic case of mistaken identity.Shortly after the shooting, on June 9, 1993, El Chapo was arrested and later transferred to a maximum security prison, Puente Grande, in 1995. Saviano describes how El Chapo "continued to manage his affairs from prison with scarcely a hitch."But after eight years of running his empire from a jail cell, El Chapo finally decided he needed to be on the outside due to, of all things, a change in American extradition policy. So on january, 2001,one of the handsomely bribed prison guards escorted El Chapo to freedom."Francisco Camberos Rivera, known as El Chito, or the Silent one—opened the door to El Chapo's cell and helped him climb into a cart of dirty laundry," Saviano writes. El Chapo left the much more visible, and dirty, work to his subordinates. Territorial wars were carried out by his lieutenants, such as Edgar Valdez Villarreal, or "La Barbie," named for his blond hair and blue eyes.Saviano cites that the cartels were spending $5 million a month in 2011 to bribe officials, police, and military personnel to keep quiet and not make any significant arrests while a drug war raged and blood spilled from both civilian and cartel sources.El Chapo is suspected of having his rivals arrested at times, which shows the strength of his influence and his restraint in pursuing enemies."El Chapo didn't believe in showing his rage. He saw no point. He punished those who deserved it with death, but even when applying this definitive sentence, he didn't allow any emotion to shine through,"
Growing up, El Chapo was surrounded by a fiction that the illicit drug trade creates to mask its roots.Like many of the children of Sinaloa, El Chapo started contributing to the family business from an early age, bringing lunch to his older relatives while they worked the poppy fields.Saviano cites that one kilo of opium gum, processed from the poppies, was worth 8,000 Mexican pesos, …show more content…
The hit men spotted the Mercury and unloaded."The shoot-out left seven men dead, among them Cardinal Posadas Ocampo, while El Chapo managed to escape, unscathed," says Saviano. "It was only recently that the FBI declared the killing a tragic case of mistaken identity.Shortly after the shooting, on June 9, 1993, El Chapo was arrested and later transferred to a maximum security prison, Puente Grande, in 1995. Saviano describes how El Chapo "continued to manage his affairs from prison with scarcely a hitch."But after eight years of running his empire from a jail cell, El Chapo finally decided he needed to be on the outside due to, of all things, a change in American extradition policy. So on january, 2001,one of the handsomely bribed prison guards escorted El Chapo to freedom."Francisco Camberos Rivera, known as El Chito, or the Silent one—opened the door to El Chapo's cell and helped him climb into a cart of dirty laundry," Saviano writes. El Chapo left the much more visible, and dirty, work to his subordinates. Territorial wars were carried out by his lieutenants, such as Edgar Valdez Villarreal, or "La Barbie," named for his blond hair and blue eyes.Saviano cites that the cartels were spending $5 million a month in 2011 to bribe officials, police, and military personnel to keep quiet and not make any significant arrests while a drug war raged and blood spilled from both civilian and cartel sources.El Chapo is suspected of having his rivals arrested at times, which shows the strength of his influence and his restraint in pursuing enemies."El Chapo didn't believe in showing his rage. He saw no point. He punished those who deserved it with death, but even when applying this definitive sentence, he didn't allow any emotion to shine through,"