MIAMI — The U.S. Spanish-language television network Univision announced Tuesday it will air a series later this year on the life of notorious Mexican drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, written by a former Colombian trafficker.
“The Chapo Guzmán story has been one of the most captivating stories this past year and we are thrilled to bring an inside look into his world to our audiences,” Alberto Ciurana, Univision’s programming chief said.
Guzmán, the leader of the Sinaloa cartel, was recaptured in a raid Friday nearly six months after breaking out of a maximum security prison in Mexico.
In a Hollywood twist, Oscar-winning actor Sean Penn and Mexican actress Kate del Castillo met clandestinely with Guzmán while he was on the run, an encounter Penn chronicled in Rolling Stone magazine and published last weekend.
The Univision series will begin airing in the fall of 2016 with a cast that has yet to be decided, the network said in a statement.
The script is by Andrés López López, a onetime member of Colombia’s Norte del Valle cartel who has found success writing about his former occupation after several years in prison in the United States.
“In addition to including the developments of his most recent escape and capture, this unauthorized look at his life will delve deep into the man beyond his drug empire,” it said.
The series is to be called “Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán: El varón de la droga,” which loosely translates as “The Drug Baron.”
