Actor Armie Hammer purchases rights to the "La Barbie" story

Posted by dd and  contributed by Chivis for Borderland Beat

How much of the "real" La Barbie story will be told?

Valdez being extradited to the United States

Perhaps it is because of the increasing interest in the “can’t make this stuff up”, adventures of El Chapo over recent years, but interest has spiked by film makers and journalists, exploring the lives and notorious exploits of Mexico’s infamous narco capos.

Fiction and non-fiction projects are being produced in numbers never seen previously. 

Since the Chapo recapture,  Chapo news has selfishly  dominated headlines, which is why the news of a deal made between a Texas actor and Valdez, for story rights received little notice.

 

Zeta sicario  "Vizcarra a second before being executed, from the 
infamous La Barbie execution video, the first of its type, a pivotal moment in drug war terrorism

Texas born, and San Antonio resident,  actor Armie Hammer, (at left in the Lone Ranger role) has announced he has acquired the rights to  the life story of  Edgar Valdez Villareal aka “La Barbie”.  Hammer says it was a three year acquisition process, that began in 2012.

Hammer’s wife Elizabeth, called on Valdez’ Houston Attorney, Kent Schaffer in 2012, when Hammer was in custody after border agents discovered marijuana laced baked goods.  The charges were dropped. 

Schaffer told Buzzfeed,  "Elizabeth contacted me when Armie was still in jail over a little marijuana charge and she talked to me for the first 20 minutes about getting life rights to Edgar's story, and then she said, 'By the way, my husband is in jail. Can you get him out?'”

The couple first became interested in Valdez’ story,  after reading the 2011 Rolling Stone article, ‘An American Drug Lord in Acapulco’. (read the RS article by using this link)

Legendary Pictures, based in Burbank California, snagged the film rights to the Rolling Stone article. Charlie Hunnam, is to star in the Legendary Pictures produced film about Valdez.

It has not been announced if Hammer will star in any projects produced by the couple, however it would be a good assumption that he would.

                                                                         

Although the Legendary Pictures project is widely anticipated, the deal the Hammers made would give exclusive access to Valdez for their project.

It remains to be seen how ‘real’ or factual any project will be.  Valdez was known for his brutal executions and for his apparent betrayal to his boss Arturo Beltrán Leyva, that led to the death of the capo.  Valdez denies he has been an informant  for the government, but evidence and circumstances indicate otherwise.

Proficient Zeta hunter and killer of innocents

According to his friends and foes alike , they all assert that Edgar Valdez Villareal "La Barbie" was one of the most efficient hunters of Zetas, he is described as a criminal master mind who had full control of airports and was also good in counterintelligence from within his group to help him discredit public officials.

Those who knew him best and later ended up sitting on a bench facing prosecutors of SIEDO giving information that sicarios under the leadership of Barbie conducted routine executions of innocent people without hesitation and some of which included the 24 farmers and masons from La Marquesa.

The execution video of Four Zetas the first of its type

The video marked a shocking turn of events in the narco war. It’s intention was to promote control by using terror.  It was a narco war game changer, and began the competition, of gruesome execution videos, that would span years before waning in recent years.

Four beat-up Zetas sit on black plastic sheeting; hands tied giving full attention to the interrogator, identified later as La Barbie.

Each of the first three from left to right, give information and are allowed to be as chatty as they wished.  The man in the red shirt, is especially talkative,  an obvious attempt to prolong the inevitable. 

When it is the turn of the fourth man, identified as, Zeta sicario chief Vizcarra, something is said or asked of him, but before he could respond, the gun muzzle is placed at his left temple, his eyes shift upwards towards the weapon as it fires. 

His body’s reaction to the impact is surreal, appearing as if in slow motion, the room is quiet, his head drops down to his chest, a trickle of blood begins to flow down his neck, his body slips backwards and downward. 

The other Zetas look stunned, they do not want to look, they look ahead, pretending not to notice what had just occurred. But their bodies reflect what is inside their heads, noticeable shallow breathing gives them away.  Although they are not executed on camera, they were executed right after Vizcarra.

The message has been sent, and the message was clear.

In December of 2005, former military turned commander for Los Zetas, Mateo Diaz Lopez was arrested. 

 In 2006 he gave testimony to SIEDO, in which he spoke about the infamous execution video of La Barbie, the execution of 4 Zetas sicarios.

He told SIEDO that it was La Barbie who filmed the execution, and that the video was sent to the Dallas Morning News on December 1. 2005, on the date of the execution.

"I know that on that occasion the Preventive Police and the AFIs abducted nine members of my group (Zetas) in a nightclub in Zihuatanejo, these men were in that city in order to fight for control of the plaza.

"Once my men were abducted, they took them to the city of Acapulco and that’s where  they delivered the men to "La Barbie. "  “La Barbie later released a video in which four of the men are seen being interviewed.  Among them were "El Peterete," Vizcarra”, his cousin and another man that I don't remember his alias. On the video these men said many things about Los Zetas," said Mateo Díaz on July 17, 2006.

According to Mateo during the interrogation "La Barbie" forced the gunmen to say that Osiel was receiving protection from Santiago Vasconcelos, then head of SIEDO, with full intention to discredit him.

After unseen interrogators (one is alleged to be "La Barbie") question the men, the video ends when a pistol enters the frame and shoots this man believed to be Vizcarra in the head.

"In the video itself one can hear the voice of "La Barbie" directing the men on what to say and one of the persons shown is executed and turns out to be Vizcarra. Later on I learned that they had also executed all of the rest of the men and their bodies disappeared. Also in this video my companions say that the attorney Vasconcelos was involved with us (Zetas), which is not true, as this was only a strategy of "La Barbie"' to force the PGR to go after us," said Mateo Díaz.

In another investigation, the "PGR/SIEDO/UEIDCS/217/2009" mentions that Valdez Villarreal took control of illegal operations in the airports of Cancun and Toluca, through a partnership with federal agents José Antonio Rosales and Edgar Octavio Ramos Cervantes "El Chuta".

To gain their cooperation, "La Barbie" gave Rosales a BMW, $65,000 (dollars) and he also gave him the nickname ""El buen hombre" "The good man," because since 2008, he had provided access to them for landing cocaine in Cancun, this was revealed in an investigation by the protected witness "Jennifer."

"Rosales, apart from being in charge of operations at the Cancun airport, made sure that when we arrived, we were not inspected in the terminal," said "Jennifer" before the PGR.

Video contains gunshot execution