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Chucho Castro turned against his former boss and became an informer for the authorities after the cocaine godmother killed his son, as the Netflix series Griselda shows.
The former hitman and bodyguard of Griselda Blanco seems to be a victim of the crime boss’s rising power and paranoia. While not everything is known about how they met or where Chucho is right now, his role in the downfall of the cocaine lord’s empire is undeniable.
For the uninitiated, Griselda is a miniseries on the cocaine drug lord of Miami and Colombia by the same name, streaming on Netflix. The story follows the rise of the godmother, “La Madrina”, as she was called and the eventual downfall of her billion-dollar empire.
While the series has strived to be true to most of the events in the drug boss’s life, some creative liberties are inevitable. In this article, we explore one such thread, the role of Chucho Castro in La Madrina’s life.
Disclaimer: This article contains spoilers and suggests the reader’s discretion.
Who was Chucho Castro in Netflix’s Griselda?
As presented in the Netflix series, Jesus “Chucho” Castro was crime lord Blanco’s bodyguard after she landed in Miami.
They met at a dinner in Miami, where he worked as a cook. The six-episode series shows Chucho, played by Freddy Yate, to be the first bodyguard hired by her, and he remained loyal for most of his service.
Although he was loyal, the show depicts Chucho as a man not cut out for ruthlessness. On at least three occasions, he was seen hesitatant to kill. However, he remained Blanco’s close confidante for a long time, as depicted in the first five episodes.
However, after a paranoic misunderstanding and egged on by her son, the drug lord wanted to have Chucho killed but ended up getting his baby son killed instead. Later, it's believed that Chucho Castro played a significant role in incriminating and bringing down Blanco’s empire.
What happened to Chucho Castro in Netflix’s Griselda?
When Chucho didn’t attend Dario’s birthday, the drug lord suspected him to be the mole in her circle.
Moreover, Blanco's son Dixon turned up at Chucho’s home asking to be shielded and hide the gun he had shot inside a nightclub. Not wanting to attract authorities to his family home, Chucho punched a persistent Dixon, who ran to his mother, asking her to teach Chucho a lesson.
She turned on him and asked another longtime hitman, Jorge “Rivi” Ayala to eliminate Chucho. Rivi followed Chucho’s car and started shooting. While Chucho ducked, avoiding getting hit, bullets accidentally hit his two-year-old son in the backseat and killed him.
Chucho left his son’s body adorned with flowers on the steps of a Catholic Church and left the area forever. While having authorities catching up with her, Blanco is shown regretting the death of an innocent child and the consequences of Griselda's hasty decisions. This conscientious behaviour may not be completely true, though.
Is Netflix’s Griselda completely true?
It's natural that the dramatization of the cocaine queen’s story has led to some creative liberties like presenting a ruthless criminal and drug trafficker as a mother’s fight for empowerment in a male-dominated world.
Going by many reports, Netflix’s Griselda presents a more human characterization of the protagonist, which may not be completely true. According to a 1982 New York Times article, the souring relationship between Blanco and Chucho had another angle as well.
While Blanco’s sons were partly responsible for fueling the animosity, besides her own cocaine-driven paranoia, it was whispered that Chucho refused to deliver a consignment, leading to the ruthless decision to kill him.
As per the same report, when the police put out a public statement asking for information about the body of the small child, Chucho called the police. He's believed to have talked to Miami homicide detective George Cadavid and explained the circumstances in which his son died.
It's commonly believed that Chucho had a hand in the 1988 conviction of Rivi for killing a two-year-old and the 1998 conviction of Blanco for a second-degree charge of conspiring to kill him.
However, there's no information about Jesus “Chucho” Castro, who seems to have gone off the grid completely, as is depicted in Netflix’s Griselda.
Watch Griselda, streaming all six episodes on Netflix.
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