The second series of "El Chapo" on Netflix

Translated by Otis B Fly-Wheel for Borderland Beat from a Proceso report

Subject Matter: Second series of "El Chapo" on Netflix
Recommendation: No prior subject matter knowledge required

Reporter: Columba Vertiz De La Fuente
This 15th of December, Netflix will launch a second fictional series of El Chapo, created by Silvana Aguirre Zegarra and Carlos Contreras, and produced by Daniel Posada.

It will see Joaquin El Chapo Guzman represented by the Mexican actor Marco de la O in his first escape from prison, and will reveal the key role played by "the corrupt government" to help him rise above the heads of the opposing cartels, according to a statement from the American platform.

The chapters will show the consequences of their search for the leadership of the Sinaloa Cartel, as well as the impact that these organizations have on the lives of their closest neighbors, such as their families.

The cast is made up of outstanding actors: Humberto Busto as Lawyer Conrado Sol, Don Sol ( important political figure); Juan Carlos Olivas, El Guero ( Joaquins business partner ); Alejandro Aguilar, Tono (Joaquins main sicario); Rolf Petersen, Ramon (leader of an opposing cartel(Otis: suspect this will be Ramon Arellano Felix); Hernan Romo, Bejamin ( another leader of an opposing cartel).

Diego Vazquez is Ismael, the most trusted partner of Joaquin; Juliette Pardau as Graciela, Joaquin's second wife; Roberto Uscanga is El Arriero and Antonio dela Vega is Arturo BI (brothers and partners of El Chapo; Harold Torres as El Cano, leader of El Emes, Chapos strongest rival this season; Juan Pablo de Santiago as Francisco Sebastian; Laura Osma as Elba, Chapos third wife, and Hector Munoz as Moreno, son of El Chapo.

El Chapo is a co production between Netflix and Univision Story House Entertainment. The first season was successful. This second series is directed by several filmmakers from different countries, such as Ernesto Contreras, Mexico, Carlos Moreno, Colombia, Hammudi Al-Rahmoun, Spain, Daniel and Diego Vega, Peru.

The producer, Daniel Posada has already declared in several media that the third series has already been filmed, where the international power that El Chapo came to be, and his fall, will be seen. Posada also explained that the series is inspired by real events, and to develop the script, they took events from the news collection of Univision Research Department, "but we relied heavily on fiction to tell an interesting story, so some characters are fictitious and others are real".

Each episode is structured like this, mixing reality and some fiction. "Ultimately, its a television series and the main objective is to entertain the audience", said Posada.

The actor who recreates El Chapo comes from theatre. He participated in Cats in New York and Shakespeare plays in England, but his resemblance to the real drug trafficker, imprisoned on January 8th of 2016, and extradited to the United States on January the 19th, is very similar; he is now incarcerated at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York.

Marco de la O. has confessed that his character has received both positive and negative comments, and because of his resemblance to Guzman Loera, on September the 6th when he arrived at Los Angeles International Airport, California, a state of alert was raised by CBP personnel. " Immigration stopped me", he said.

With respect to the drug trafficker going to sue Netflix and Univision for the series with his name, apparently the producer Posada commented in the middle of this year that there was no such complaint. It was Jose Refugio Rodriguez, Attorney for El Chapo, who announced that they would take legal action against these two companies, because they caused " moral damage to their client".

Later, another set of Lawyers for the drug trafficker, Juan Pablo Badillo, told EFE news agency that the series is "quite good", although "susceptible to be overcome, if it is more trustworthy", and stated that rather than initiate a complaint against the two companies, they intended to enter into a beneficial negotiation on which everyone could agree. "It is preferable for all to sit around a table", he said.