Narcos Mexico 2: "I Don't Have Partners"

As I indicated in my review of the first season of Narcos Mexico (itself a prequel to the three-season Narcos), I always admired the tunnel-building savvy of Joaquín 'El Chapo' Guzmán.  Not the drug-dealing empire that he inherited and built.  But there's something about those tunnels.  Maybe because it represents a technology that goes back more than 4000 years (the qanats, that carried water) to defeat the high-tech bravado of government.  Hey, when I was a kid, before I even knew that fact about tunnels, I realized that if could build a tunnel from where I lived with my parents in the Bronx, to somewhere in the woods in say, Ellenville, New York, I could pretty much do anything I wanted and then escape with ease to the Catskills.  Of course, I had no idea what I would do once I got there but, as I said, I was just a kid.

So I've always had a special interest in El Chapo's tunnel-building - well, since 2015, when he had a tunnel built to escape from prison a second time (first time was in a laundry cart, not nearly as cool) - and I was very happy to see him building a tunnel in Narcos Mexico 2.  This one was not to escape prison but smuggle more drugs into the United States.  Alas, a rival gang in Mexico destroys the tunnel, and since it says at the beginning of every episode that, although the overall story is based on truth, some facts have been changed for dramatic effect, I can't even say for sure that the young El Chapo actually built such a tunnel.  But it was good to see.

Meanwhile, that overall story was indeed top-notch action and drama, detailing the continuing story of the handsome Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo (well played by Diego Luna), as he strives to consolidate his hold on and mastery of the drug trade in Mexico.  This is no easy thing, to say the least.  Gallardo already leveraged his weed empire into in effect becoming a middleman for delivery of Colombian coke to the United States.  Now he has to consolidate all the drug gangs in Mexico, and move ever more massive amounts of cocaine from Colombia.  His strategy is to eschew partners in Mexico - "I don't have partners, I have employees," he tells anyone who will listen.  If you know the drug war history, you know how that works out.

As in Narcos Mexico 1, and all three seasons of Narcos, there's a great group of supportive actors and actresses, playing characters in all facets of the story.  It was good to see Pacho again (well played by Alberto Ammann, the one character who, if I recall correctly, has appeared in all five seasons, playing one of the big shots in the Cali cartel in Colombia, who do believe in partners.  In Narcos Mexico, he's the sole representative of the Kings of Cali to appear on screen.

This season will keep you glued to the screen, and is highly recommended.

 

the Neanderthal cartel

Narcos Mexico: A Riveting Prequel

With Joaquín 'El Chapo' Guzmán on trial in New York, what better time to watch - and review - Narcos Mexico, the fourth installment in Netflix's justly acclaimed Narcos series.  Actually, it's a prequel to the other three Narcos, but it's just as powerful.   It takes place (obviously) in Mexico, but it's the story of Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo and the massive weed cartel he and his brother Rafael Caro Quintero put together in the 1980s.

El Chapo appears as a low-to-high-level henchman of Rafael's.   And Pablo Escabar and the Kings of Cali put in an appearance in a great episode in which Gallardo goes to Colombia to get make a deal for the coke distribution which is beginning to rival and exceed his weed trade.   Indeed, Gallardo's shift from marijuana to cocaine is one of the turning point in Narcos Mexico, and has some unforeseen and unhappy consequences for Gallardo.

The other central theme is the dedication - some would say obsession - of American DEA Agent  Enrique 'Kiki' Camarena to bring down Gallardo's Guadalajara/Mexican/world drug cartel.   In case you're not familiar with the real history, and/or haven't seen Narcos Mexico, I won't tell you how this all turns out.  But I will say that there are close calls galore, and death expected and unexpected meted out in almost every episode.

There's a narrator - Scoot McNairy - who sounds a lot like like the narrator of the first three seasons but is not.  The acting is excellent - especially Diego Luna as Miguel, Tenoch Huerta as Rafael, and Joaquín Cosio as their uncle 'Don Neto' Fonseca Carrillo. Michael Peña does memorable work as Kiki, as does Alyssa Diaz as his wife. And it was a real treat was seeing Wagner Moura as Escobar and Francisco Denis and Alberto Ammann as the Cali bosses back in the 1980s one more time.

And here's the confession I often make when I watch these series:  I know the drug cartels murdered a lot of people and did a lot of very evil things.  But in the narrative framework of the story on screen, I always feel a little bad when things don't go right for them, and a little bit glad when they do.  For that reason, I wouldn't be totally devastated if El Chapo dug a tunnel and got out his jail in New York, just as he did in Mexico, but that's another story.

See this series.  If you like this kind of stuff, you'll love it.

 

the Neanderthal cartel

Mayans M. C. 1.4: Finger and Face

Mayans M. C. keeps getting better and better, with an altogether excellent episode 1.4 in all sorts of ways.

First, it has my favorite line in the series so far, a line which perfectly typifies the mix of brutality and cool that is the essence of the narrative.  It comes from Angel, who tells E. Z. to cut off a dead guy's finger, so they can have continuing access to his phone.   E.Z. objects with "seriously?" And Angel replies "you're lucky it's a not a new phone, you'd be cutting off his face".  What can I say?  Brutal and ugly, yes, but thoroughly hip to the latest tech.

Meanwhile, the big continuing reveal in the plot is that there is a lot more to Felipe than even was revealed last week, when we saw how handy he was with an old-fashioned gun.   Tonight we learn that Reyes was an identity he assumed in 1985.  So, who was he before?  My guess is some kind of very powerful drug cartel leader, but we'll just have to see.   The Reyes are one complex and compelling family.

Also significant is Coco's sister really being his daughter.   The Reyes may be the most complex, but it's looking like no one in the M. C.  has a straightforward family life.   The advice that Marcus gives E. Z. to be loyal to club above family may make sense, but it will be difficult if not impossible to follow for just about everyone.  Just as it always is.

And last but not least, there's the tunnel that Angel's company literally falls into.  Tunnels are always good conduits of storylines - in reality like El Chapo as well as in fiction - and it will be fun to see what this tunnel brings to the Mayans M. C.

See also: Mayans, M. C. 1.1: Pulling Us In ... Mayans M. C. 1.2: The Plot Thickens ... Mayans M. C. 1.3: Two Presidents

 

The Day I Met El Chapo: Rings True

I just saw "The Day I Met El Chapo: The Kate Del Castillo Story" on Netflix.  I've half-joked that I admire El Chapo's construction of a tunnel (or his people constructing a tunnel) which enabled him to escape from a Mexican prison a few years ago - well, more truth in that joke than half, I've always thought tunnels under buildings were cool - but nothing that I'll say in this review is joking.  Like the documentary, it's 100% real.

I first became aware of Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto when U. S. Presidential candidate Donald Trump went to Mexico to meet him.  That meeting did people who opposed Trump in the U. S., and therefore the people of the United States, no favors.  It helped legitimize Trump and his dangerous bluster.  I therefore didn't like Peña Nieto, for that very important reason, from the moment I first heard of him.

Having seen "The Day I Met El Chapo," I like Peña Nieto even less.  If we are to believe what is shown in the movie, and said by many of the people interviewed - journalists, actors, producers, and mostly Kate Del Castillo herself - the Mexican government under Peña Nieto, embarrassed by El Chapo's escape, have persecuted Del Castillo, even though El Chapo has since been recaptured, extradited to the U. S. (the day before Trump's inauguration), and is now awaiting trial in Brooklyn.

The reason is Kate's meeting with El Chapo, along with Sean Penn, several months before El Chapo's recapture.   The purpose of the meeting was undeniably murky, and included making a movie about El Chapo (Kate's main reason for going to the life-endangering meeting), an article Sean Penn was writing about El Chapo for Rolling Stone, and the excitement of meeting an iconic actress (apparently El Chapo's reason, partially reciprocated by Kate, which makes that a second reason for her).  How or why any of that should be illegal, or grounds for the Mexican government coming after Kate, defies logic, and makes Peña Nieto the worst bad guy in this documentary.

Sean Penn doesn't come out smelling like a rose, either.  He denied (in an interview by Charlie Rose) tipping off the U. S. or Mexican government about El Chapo's whereabouts, and points out that El Chapo was ultimately captured nowhere near where  their meeting took place.  But why then did he refuse to appear in the documentary?  What was he afraid of?

And some of the media, who suggested that Kate was having an affair with El Chapo (she admits that she slept with Penn), or laundered money for him, on zero evidence, come off poorly, to say the least, as well.   Being an already well-established actress, her stated reason for taking the meeting - to discuss making a movie about El Chapo - seems much more plausible.  And Kate indeed seems like a passionate person -  but passionate about her work, and her desire to help the Mexican people - not to share El Chapo's bed or his money.

The current crisis with opiates in the U. S. should tell us something about drugs in America.  Years ago, a friend of mine from Colombia told me something which has always stuck with me: the group most responsible for the drug problem in America are not the suppliers, but the people who take the drugs.  Until we do a better job as a society in getting people not to take addictive drugs, we'll always have a drug problem, whether the drugs are supplied by foreign cartels or American pharmaceutical companies.

In the meantime, we should be grateful that people like Kate Del Castillo, who started it all with a tweet, are willing to stand up for their beliefs.

  
It all starts in the hot summer of 1960, when Marilyn walks off the set
of The Misfits and begins to hear a haunting song in her head,
"Goodbye Norma Jean" ...

El Chapo: Awaiting the Tunnel

I have to admit that from the moment I heard about El Chapo's escape from a Mexican prison via a tunnel built for him from his cell to a house somewhat down the road from the prison ... well, it struck a chord in me. When I was a kid, a long time ago, I thought that one way of remaining free if anyone from the government or wherever came after me was to build a tunnel from underneath my house to some nondescript town in upstate New York.  Of course, that tunnel would have needed to be a lot longer than what El Chapo had built, but, I still had to admire his accomplishment.

I was therefore eager to see this new Netflix series (shown first on Univision).  Alas, it leaves El Chapo in prison long before his tunnel, before even his earlier successful prison escape via other means.  But it's still a pretty good short series, with more to follow in September.

This first season in effect consists of two parts: El Chapo rising to power as a drug lord, and his apprehension and incarceration in prison.  Both are interesting in different ways.  The first has young El Chapo meeting Pablo Escobar in Colombia - a harkening back to Narcos and Pablo's story.  The second is a grim and gritty prison story, and the hell that El Chapo was put through, his spirit remaining unbroken.

There's also a lot, in both parts, about the Mexican government, and its struggle to contain corruption in its own ranks.  All in all, a riveting story, well told and well acted by Marco de la O in the title role, and I'm looking forward to more.  Although El Chapo cannot be considered a good man, his story nonetheless is a tableau of the resilience of the human spirit.

no tunnels here but plenty of crime

El Chapo - Narcos Connection?

The news just came through today that El Chapo was captured because he was attempting to get word out to potential producers to make a bio-pic about his life, and the Mexican Marines picked up on this.

Which led me to think:  Was Narcos, released this past summer on Netflx, what got El Chapo started on thinking he would be a good subject for a movie?   After all, El Chapo likely sees himself as the successor to Pablo Escabar, the Columbian drug lord who was the subject of Narcos.

And El Chapo does have a great, cinematic story.  The tunnel, almost a mile long, which he used to escape was a real feat of engineering.  Ironically, his capture now will made him an even more fitting subject for a movie or TV series, providing an ending with much more closure.

TV and motion pictures have often been criticized for glorifying crime.  But Narcos on Netflix could be an example of just the opposite in its ultimate effect.

Score another accolade for Netflix and its live streaming.   Between Making a Murderer (a documentary) and Narcos, these new television series are having a real impact on our world.

See also my reviews of Narcos and  Making a Murderer.