Six presidents, six kingpins, and one drug trafficker who decided to talk. That is the premise of Anabel Hernández’s *Narcocracia*—a book announced this Monday via the YouTube channel for her podcast, *Narcosistema*—which promises to upend the official narrative regarding how organized crime infiltrated Mexican institutions over the course of three decades.
The volume, published by Grijalbo, is built upon the testimony of Sergio Villarreal Barragán—known as “El Grande”—a former lieutenant of the Beltrán Leyva Cartel.
The book’s cover is already circulating on social media and leaves no room for ambiguity. “El Grande’s” face appears in the center. Surrounding him, the illustration depicts six kingpins: Amado Carrillo Fuentes (“El Señor de los Cielos”), Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes (“El Mencho”), Joaquín Guzmán Loera (“El Chapo”), Ismael Zambada García (“El Mayo”), Abigael González Valencia (“El Cuini”), and Fausto Isidro Meza Flores (“El Chapo Isidro”).
On the other side are the six presidents who have governed Mexico since 1994: Ernesto Zedillo, Vicente Fox, Felipe Calderón, Enrique Peña Nieto, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, and Claudia Sheinbaum. Omar García Harfuch, the federal government’s current Secretary of Security, also appears.
