The Most Famous
EXTREMISTS from Mexico
This page contains a list of the greatest Mexican Extremists. The pantheon dataset contains 283 Extremists, 2 of which were born in Mexico. This makes Mexico the birth place of the 27th most number of Extremists behind Belgium, and Norway.
Top 2
The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the most legendary Mexican Extremists of all time. This list of famous Mexican Extremists is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity.
1. Joaquin Murrieta (1829 - 1853)
With an HPI of 61.28, Joaquin Murrieta is the most famous Mexican Extremist. His biography has been translated into 15 different languages on wikipedia.
Joaquin Murrieta Carrillo (sometimes misspelled Murieta or Murietta) (c. 1829 – July 25, 1853), also called the Robin Hood of the West or the Robin Hood of El Dorado, was a Mexican figure of disputed historicity. The novel The Life and Adventures of Joaquín Murieta: The Celebrated California Bandit (1854) by John Rollin Ridge is ostensibly his story. Legends subsequently arose about a notorious outlaw in California during the California Gold Rush of the 1850s, but evidence for a historical Murrieta is scarce. Contemporary documents record testimony in 1852 concerning a minor horse thief of that name. Newspapers reported a bandido named Joaquin, who robbed and killed several people during the same time. A California Ranger named Harry Love was assigned to track down Murrieta and was said to have brought his head in for the bounty. The popular legend of Joaquin Murrieta was that he was a forty-niner, a gold miner and a vaquero (cowboy) from Sonora. Peace loving, he was driven to revenge after his brother and he were falsely accused of stealing a mule. His brother was hanged and Murrieta was horse-whipped. His young wife was raped, and in one version, she died in Murrieta's arms. Swearing revenge, he hunted down the men who had violated her. He embarked on a short but violent career to kill his Anglo tormentors. The state of California offered a reward up to $5,000 for Murrieta, "dead or alive."
2. Rafael Caro Quintero (b. 1952)
With an HPI of 61.28, Rafael Caro Quintero is the 2nd most famous Mexican Extremist. His biography has been translated into 17 different languages.
Rafael "Rafa" Caro Quintero (born October 24, 1952) is a Mexican drug lord who co-founded the now-disintegrated Guadalajara Cartel with Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo and other drug traffickers in the late 1970s. He is the brother of fellow drug trafficker Miguel Caro Quintero, founder and former leader of the defunct Sonora Cartel. Having formed the Guadalajara Cartel in the 1970s, Caro Quintero worked with Gallardo, Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo, and Pedro Avilés Pérez by shipping large quantities of marijuana to the United States from Mexico. He was responsible for the kidnapping of United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agent Enrique "Kiki" Camarena, Camarena's pilot Alfredo Zavala Avelar, the American writer John Clay Walker, and dentistry student Alberto Radelat in 1985. After the murders, Caro Quintero fled to Costa Rica but later that year was arrested and extradited to Mexico, where he was sentenced to 40 years in prison for murder. Following his arrest, the Guadalajara Cartel disintegrated, and its leaders were incorporated into the Tijuana Cartel, Sinaloa Cartel, and Juárez Cartel. After serving 28 years in prison, Caro Quintero was freed from jail in August 2013, after a state court concluded that he had been tried improperly. The day after his release, amid pressure from the United States government to re-arrest him, a Mexican federal court issued an arrest warrant against Caro Quintero. Caro Quintero was wanted for his involvement in drug trafficking as well as the 1985 murders. He was at large as a wanted fugitive in Mexico, the United States, and several other countries. The United States offered a 20-million-dollar reward for information leading to his capture, the highest value among fugitives currently listed on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list. Caro Quintero lost his final appeal to avoid extradition to the United States on March 27, 2021. Caro Quintero was arrested in Mexico on July 15, 2022, and is pending extradition to the United States.
People
Pantheon has 2 people classified as Mexican extremists born between 1829 and 1952. Of these 2, 1 (50.00%) of them are still alive today. The most famous living Mexican extremists include Rafael Caro Quintero. The most famous deceased Mexican extremists include Joaquin Murrieta. As of April 2024, 2 new Mexican extremists have been added to Pantheon including Joaquin Murrieta, and Rafael Caro Quintero.
