Abhiroop Das
Directed by Chava Cartas, Netflix’s ‘Facing El Chapo,’ also known as ‘La Captura’ in the original Spanish, recreates the true story of how El Chapo and El Cholo were captured by two Federal officers on January 8, 2016, before being handed over to the authorities. In charting this story, the Mexican crime thriller movie largely retains a sense of realism, adapting key points from the real-life events as is. However, some parts of the tale have also been fictionalized to some extent. One such section that blends together fact and fiction is when the two officers, facing the threat of a cartel counter-attack, decide to head to a nearby motel for a temporary refuge. This soon turns the motel into the climactic backdrop of the movie, where officers Arturo Carmona and Hector Rosales have to hold the fort until help arrives.
Motel De Puerto is Based on the Doux Motel, Where El Chapo Was Held by Two Officers
Motel De Puerto is based on the real-life Doux motel, situated alongside the Los Mochis-San Miguel highway, at the three-kilometer point, which was briefly used as a shelter by the two Federal highway officers who had captured El Chapo and El Cholo. While the on-screen iteration of the motel has its own arc of sorts, with fictional characters populating the setting, in real life, the story went relatively simply. In the early hours of January 8, 2016, Joaquín Archivaldo Guzmán Loera, infamously known as El Chapo, and his lieutenant Jorge Iván Gastélum Ávila, or El Cholo, escaped an attack by the Mexican Marines by heading down an underground tunnel and into the city’s sewer system. After walking some distance, they re-emerged on the road and tried to flee with a stolen vehicle, only to be stopped by two highway officers.
Though the two officers didn’t know at that time that the car was stolen by El Chapo and El Cholo, they soon recognized the drug lord of Mexico and sent his photograph to their superiors. It is here that they learned from authorities that a number of assassins from the cartel were expected to reach the scene to free El Chapo. Around the same time, the two officers spotted a number of trucks blocking the road at a distance, increasing the threat. In his personal account of the event, published on the Federal Police blog, one of the officers recalled spotting a motel where he sometimes ate and decided it would be safer to take shelter there and wait it out. This is how the Doux motel ended up becoming instrumental to the capture of El Chapo and El Cholo.
Described as being decorated in pink and purple colors, the Doux motel served as a short-stay hotel. The officers booked a room 51 and brought El Chapo in, handcuffing him by a beige satin bedspread. Sometime later, Federal Police, along with the state police and a Navy convoy, joined them, and by 10 in the morning, El Chapo and El Cholo were being transported out of the motel and to the airport, from where they were sent to Mexico City. Since then, room 51 at the Doux motel has gained popularity among those who know of the event, with an unnamed receptionist telling The Guardian that many clients show a particular interest in the room. The movie ‘Facing El Chapo’ also retains the room number, but aside from that, several details have been fictionalized for a dramatic effect.
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