Counterattack director Chava Cartas returns with Facing El Chapo, a thriller inspired by real events that tells the story of one of the most significant moments in Mexico’s recent history: the capture of Joaquín Guzmán, aka El Chapo. Written by Bernardo Esquinca (Ciudad de Muertos) and starring Alfonso Herrera and Noé Hernández, the movie follows two federal police officers who unexpectedly come face to face with the world’s most wanted criminal. From there, they’re saddled with an impossible dilemma: Should they turn in El Chapo and risk everything they have, or accept a multimillion-dollar offer and let him walk away?
“After producing Counterattack, we came across the true story of two police officers who risked their lives to capture the world’s most notorious drug lord, and we knew it was a story that needed to be told,” Cartas tells Netflix. “[It’s] a deeply realistic film that constantly poses the question: ‘What would I do?’”
Read on to find out more about the plot, cast, and true story behind Facing El Chapo — streaming on Netflix now.
Federal police officer Arturo Carmona (Herrera) patrols the highways of Sinaloa alongside his new partner, unpredictable veteran officer Héctor Rosales (Hernández). While working overtime, they stop a stolen car and unexpectedly encounter one of the most dangerous criminals in the world: Mexican drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán (Kotsifakis). Within a system riddled with corruption, the officers risk everything to do the right thing.
Yes, the film is inspired by the events of Operation Black Swan, the mission to capture Guzmán that took place on Jan. 8, 2016, in Los Mochis, Sinaloa, Mexico. Black Swan was a joint US-Mexico operation to recapture the drug lord and Sinaloa cartel leader after he made international headlines in July 2015 by escaping from prison via a tunnel underneath his cell’s bathtub.
During the mission, a group of Mexican Marines raided a home that Guzmán was using as a safe house. When a gunfight broke out between the Marines and armed guards within the home, Guzmán and his top lieutenant, Jorge Ivan Gastelum Avila, aka Cholo Ivan, fled via an escape hatch behind the refrigerator and crawled through a sewer drain before hijacking a vehicle. That car, a white Volkswagen Jetta, broke down after about a mile, at which point the pair stole a red Ford Focus.
Two federal officers — unaware of the manhunt — pulled over Guzmán and Gastelum Avila for speeding and driving a stolen car. After arresting the pair, the officers took them to a nearby motel in order to evade cartel forces they feared were on their way to rescue their leader. While there, Guzmán tried to bribe them into letting him go. Facing El Chapo dramatizes the events and how two officers, whose real names have not been made public, decided Guzmán’s fate after his arrest.
