Characters / Breaking Bad: Juarez Cartel

aka: Breaking Bad Hector Salamanca

Main Character Index | Better Call Saul
Walt's Family (Walter White), Heisenberg's Empire (Saul Goodman), DEA and Police, Juarez Cartel, Los Pollos Hermanos, Madrigal Electromotive, Aryan Brotherhood, Other Criminals, Other Civilians

A powerful Mexican drug cartel active in at least two states: in Michoacán and in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua Mexico, across the border from El Paso, Texas.

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Non-Salamanca Leadership

Don Eladio Vuente (SPOILERS)

Don Eladio Vuente

"There's no place for emotion in this. You of all people should understand. Business is business."

Portrayed By: Steven Bauer

Appearances: Breaking Bad | Better Call Saul

"You don't want to be looking over your shoulder? You're in the wrong business, my friend!"

The absolute head of the Juarez Cartel and Gustavo Fring's main competitor for control of the Southwest drug trade. Both Juan Bolsa and Hector Salamanca answer to him.

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• Arch-Enemy: To Gustavo Fring, given that he ordered the murder of his beloved partner, Max Arciniega because of his ego. He shares this position with Hector Salamanca who killed Max with visible relish on Eladio's orders.
• Arc Villain: In Breaking Bad, specifically Season 4. Up until then, Eladio had been an unseen Greater-Scope Villain who was represented by other members of the cartel, most notably the Salamancas and Juan Bolsa. This changes when he begins organizing moves against Gus' operation. Although he's dangerous enough to be one of the main antagonists of the season, his role in the story remains largely detached from the central conflict between Gus and Walt. As soon as he and the cartel have been dealt with for good, the focus shifts back to the main story.
• A Man of Wealth and Taste: As befits the head of a drug cartel, Eladio enjoys the finer things in life: an enormous home, ridiculously expensive tequila, cigars, and gorgeous women.
• Asshole Victim: He is poisoned by Gus along with all of his capos with tequila with his death being much slow and painful compared to the capos as he drowns in his own pool while trying to lunge at Gus. This was long overdue for Eladio's past crimes especially having killed Gus' partner Max and sadistically tortured Gus over it decades ago on top of being an overall unpleasant Bad Boss throughout his screentime in both Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul.
• Bad Boss: He seemed willing to push Hector aside in favor of Gustavo during Better Call Saul. A risky move regarding both people, considering he had Gustavo's partner murdered, by Hector no less. Other than that, his employees seem to be constantly on guard waiting for the moment he decides to kill them, to the point where nobody bats an eye over Eladio casually threatening a waiter with amputation during a party. Even his favorite enforcer Lalo theorizes Eladio is just enjoying the bad blood between the Salamanca muscles and Gustavo the earner since it keeps them divided and constantly trying to cater his favors by bringing more money. Eladio has so many people looking at him with hatred that Gustavo doesn't surprise him and thinks he can just cower him with force, but he is proven wrong later on that ended up costing him his life.
• Big Bad Ensemble: With Gus in season 4. After the departure of Tuco, the Cousins, and Juan Bolsa, it is his cartel that causes problems for Gus during the season, and his tensions with Gus solidify again.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: His manner of talking to his employees is full of Mood Whiplash and leaves his employees and the audience on edge regarding when he's gonna get truly murderously angry.
• But for Me, It Was Tuesday: It really just doesn't seem to dawn on him that his ordered murder of Max is more or less Gustavo Fring's sole motivating factor in their partnership together. It's implied by the final season of Better Call Saul, where Eladio outright tells Gus he can see the hatred in his eyes, that it's not an uncommon backstory for his underlings, but to him killing Max may be "business is business" but it wasn't business for Gus: it was personal.
• Casting Gag: Steven Bauer as the head of a cartel is hilarious considering Vince Gilligan has often referred to the show as taking Walter from being a teacher to becoming Scarface.
• Create Your Own Villain: Earned the mortal and forever hatred of Gus Fring by having Max murdered in front of Gus' eyes and then forcing Gus to look into Max's eyes. His blunder in making Gus a part of his organization despite this, allowed Gus to plot his revenge and eventually kill him.
• Didn't See That Coming: While in Better Call Saul, establishes that Eladio knew of Gustavo Fring's hatred of him, he clearly never suspected that hatred would really be strong and motivate the man to devise a plan to kill him and destroy the rest of the Juarez Cartel in revenge until it was too late in Breaking Bad.
• Disc-One Final Boss: Of Breaking Bad's fourth season. Don Eladio and his cartel are built up as a major threat (big enough to rival Gustavo Fring even), but they are taken out of the game before they have a chance to reap the spoils of their efforts, leaving Gustavo as the remaining villain.
• Divide and Conquer: Eladio runs the cartel like this, pitting subordinates against one another so no one can consolidate enough power to challenge him. Lalo lampshades this in a conversation with Gus, musing that Eladio would be displeased if they got along too well, before laughing it off and dismissing the idea.
• The Don: He's the absolute leader of the cartel.
• Dramatic Necklace Removal: Gustaavo has Mike rip off Eladio's necklace when he falls in the pool, so he can later taunt Hector with it.
• The Dreaded: Just about everyone is terrified of Eladio, and for good reason. Gustavo and Max are understandably intimidated, and even long after the former has become a feared kingpin in his own right, he still approaches Eladio with extreme caution. Bolsa frequently warns Hector Salamanca about disrespecting him and while Hector is the most likely to be insubordinate, he's never once seen being a dick to Eladio's face. Keep in mind that Bolsa doesn't even like Hector, which illustrates just how terrible Eladio must be by comparison. This would prove to be one of his biggest Fatal Flaw as Eladio becomes overly reliant on this and makes him so arrogant that he leaves a blind spot.
• Dropped a Bridge on Him: Eladio is established as a major player in the drug trade and one of Gustavo Fring's greatest adversaries, but Gustavo quickly establishes himself as the one on top after he poisons him midway through Breaking Bad. He does get more screen time and relevance in Better Call Saul to make up for this.
• Even Evil Has Standards: It says something that even Eladio is wary of Tuco, questioning if Nacho is all there in the head for associating with him. Considering how villainous Eladio himself is, it speaks volumes about the depths of Tuco's insanity.
• Evil Has a Bad Sense of Humor: Don Eladio has the sense of humor of a 14 year old. He doesn't just shit talk Hector about his lame money tributes and his later crippled condition but his lame joke about the "frunk" is another good example. Bolsa and even Gus aren't amused at all.
• Evil Versus Evil: His conflict with Gus can be summed up as this. When they first met, Gustavo was no innocent angel, since he was trying to get into the cartel and flood the country with drugs to enhance his wealth. Eladio, however, is much more brutal and unreasonable, although they're both equally unreasonable. On the whole, the much more pragmatic and cautious Gus is likely better to have as a drug kingpin than Eladio, but not by much though.
• Excellent Judge of Character: For all his Stupid Evil tendencies, Eladio is not as thick as he looks when it comes to seeing through people:
  • When conversing with Nacho in Better Call Saul, he subtly tells him to stop kissing his ass with the atypical yes-man attitude - and tell him what he truly wants behind his depressed façade.
  • He also knows exactly what kind of person Tuco is, and just barely tolerates him being in the Cartel because of his propensity for undirected violence. In general though, Don Eladio doesn't seem to want Tuco in his presence, to the point where he's the only Salamanca that is never invited or seen at his hacienda.
  • He understands the dynamics between Gustavo and the Salamancas and how to use them to his advantage. Also, despite brushing off the Salamanca's testimony, when Hector told Eladio to look into Gustavo's eyes and see him for who he really is, Eladio sees the immeasurable hate Gus has for him under his polite demeanor. That said, it's clear that he arrogantly believes that Gustavo's hate is second only to his fear of him and thinks he is all business, which in Breaking Bad would prove to be dead wrong for Eladio.
• Expy: While portrayed by the same actor who played the amoral but otherwise likable Manny Ribera in Scarface, Eladio is more similar to Alejandro Sosa, the Big Bad of the same film. Both are tyrannical drug lords who actively cultivate the image of being refined and charming businessmen despite having no qualms about committing barbaric atrocities to consolidate their power. Additionally, both characters introduce themselves under the pretext of showing polite interest in a business proposition from one of the story's major characters, only to leave him with a menacing ultimatum by having his associate killed before his eyes. They even both retain Mark Margolis as hitmen/enforcers.
• Faux Affably Evil: When he's first introduced in Breaking Bad, Eladio initially appears to be very gregarious and benevolent, almost like a guy you'd have a beer with (particularly when compared to his menacing and surly right-hand man, Hector Salamanca). However, this is ultimately revealed to be a mask for a personality full of Mood Whiplash, but is generally cold, calculating, and sadistic. In Better Call Saul, Lalo specifically warns Ignacio to be straightforward with Eladio when he meets him, but to do it in as few words as possible so he can't construe some offhand remark as an insult.
• Fat Bastard: As we see when he is swimming, he is very overweight, which is also given a nod through the Regalo Helado puppet made in his likeliness. When Gustavo declares his hatred against Eladio with what was intended to be his dying words by Lalo, he makes a slew of insults directed at his girth, calling him a "fat pig" and a "greasy, bloated pimp."
• Fatal Flaw:
  • Pride and Egotism. This is probably his biggest one as a lot of the problems that will later on happen in Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul all started because Eladio only saw Gus and Max's actions as "subverting his authority" rather then as the business proposition that it was, which would have expanded his criminal empire to great heights. While Eladio undoubtedly needed to show his authority, he did so in a way that actually robbed him of a prime business opportunity and set a VERY driven man in Gus on the path of revenge to destroy Eladio and the cartel later on, and frankly everyone probably knew it. But in Eladio's pride, he both thought he didn't need the help nor did he have to worry about Gus' revenge due to Eladio overestimating his own power, arrogantly thinking that he is untouchable.
  • Greed. This is more minor but he also should've known better then to accept a deal from the man (Gus) he wronged years ago, but given how large and organized the money that Gustavo brings in was all too good for Eladio to easily accept and take without ever seeing how he is playing into Gus's plan of revenge in the long term. Case in point in "Better Call Saul", even when Eladio knows that Gus hates him and killed Lalo, he still keeps him around because he doesn't want to lose his big source of income and because of the above Fatal Flaw example.
  • These two factors together mainly Pride would ultimately later on to be his downfall as a combination of Eladio's underestimation of the hatred Gustavo holds against him proves to be far greater then his fear of him and being easily suckered by his immense amount of money he brings in results in Eladio paying the ultimate price of being poisoned and dying alongside the destruction of his cartel as a result of his hubris and short-sightedness.
• Greater-Scope Villain: As the undisputed leader of the Juarez Cartel, he presides over a massive criminal empire that comprises most of the series' major antagonists, including Tuco, the Salamanca Twins, and Juan Bolsa. However, he never directly acts against Walt and the two don't even meet or talk; instead, it's Gustavo Fring and the other mentioned characters that cause trouble for the franchise's protagonists.
• Greed: Is more than a little eager to jump into bed with Gustavo Fring after he sees the kind of cheddar he is hauling in, despite the fact he murdered Gustavo's partner when they pitched him more or less that very same idea out of wounded pride.
• Hate Sink: He might as well be the worst person the cartel has to offer, and when even Hector is somehow less bad in comparison, that says something. Eladio is simply a smug, cocky, entitled, and abusive bully underneath his bluster as a cartel don, and all of his appearances are an emphasis to show that he is a feared figure just as much as he is a detestable one. So no one except Hector will feel sad that he gets killed by the man he wronged long ago.
• Hypocrite: Gus himself points out in his video insulting the Cartel that while Eladio may talk about honor, he himself isn't honorable. Which is true since throughout "Breaking Bad" and "Better Call Saul" showed that Eladio is more on business and profit over anything else.
• It Will Never Catch On: He shows a lot of skepticism towards not only Gus and Max's plan, but of meth as a profitable popular drug as a whole. Along with Hector, he also questions the idea of using fronts and the need to diversify outside of cocaine, both of which would become necessary after the price crash of the latter.
• Jerkass Has a Point:
  • He laughs at Nacho's desire of not having to look over his shoulder for danger as this is not something you'll ever get from being in the Cartel.
  • His call to toss Hector aside is indeed an Ungrateful Bastard move as the Salamancas are the cartel's strongest enforcers, but Gustavo Fring does bring in more money, and Hector has proven himself to be a liability due to his insistence of trying to assert dominance over Fring. However, this would later on turn out to be a fatally wrong choice as Eladio ended up getting poison in revenge and finally realizing too late that Hector was right about Gustavo.
  • Eladio shuts down Funetes' complaints about how Jesse Pinkman isn't anywhere close to being a professional chemist by pointing out that Fuentes himself is a college graduate, yet somehow is a less than competent meth cook than Jesse.
• Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: He seems bubbly, quirky, and fun, but he's really just a mean-spirited thuggish Bad Boss who likes to bully people for his own sadistic gratification and knowing he can get away with it.
• "Just Joking" Justification: Pulls this when shit-talking Hector, but it's transparent to all parties involved, including himself.
• Karmic Death: Eladio meets his end by being poisoned by the man whose lover he killed, drowning in his own pool in the process. Furthermore, said pool is where he murdered Max and forced Fring to look into his dead eyes to further traumatize him.
• Kick the Dog
  • He heckles Bolsa for being short on his tributes and being upstaged by Lalo Salamanca, not knowing Lalo screwed Bolsa and Gus over with his plan to rat out Gus' low level dealers to the DEA.
• Lack of Empathy: Shown in "Salud"
  • Gus Fring's murder of three of his most loyal subordinates hardly seems to faze him (Unaware that he is next), given that he immediately throws a party for Gus after being sufficiently convinced of his unconditional submission.
  • During the party, he offhandedly threatens a servant pouring him a shot of rare tequila with amputation if he spills "even one drop" (with a festive smile on his face, no less).
  • Later while speaking with Gus, he coldly "advises" him in a rather humiliating fashion to let go of any personal grudges he has (including the cartel's murder of his beloved partner/lover Max) and submit to his authority for the sake of "good business."
    Eladio: "Gustavo, cheer up, man. Gustavo, I'm not angry. I had to spank you. But what choice did I have? Look, once every twenty years you forget your place. There's no place for emotion in this. You of all people should understand. Business is business."
• Large and in Charge: He towers over nearly all of his subordinates at 6'2".
• Man Behind the Man: To Juan Bolsa, the Salamanca family, and Gaff given that all their actions are made pursuant to direct orders from the cartel's leadership.
• Mood-Swinger: Eladio often acts jolly and nice for a moment only to switch to angry, threatening or even murderous mode in an instant, which he uses as an intimidation factor toward his henchmen and others. His subordinates are constantly on edge when around him, as they never know when or why Eladio could become angry at them, only that it can happen anytime, and that it could very well be the last time.
• Narcissist: He has a really BIG ego as shown in "Saborosito" on Better Call Saul when he criticizes the bobblehead of the ice cream mascot inspired by him from Hector. In "Salud", he refers to Gus as 'tu' instead of 'usted', showing that he sees no equals and see only himself as the top boss.
• Pay Evil unto Evil:
  • He gives Benicio Fuentes, the wannabe chemist, a thorough put down in Breaking Bad, pointing out that Jesse Pinkman could cook way better meth than him despite his lack of college degrees.
  • In Better Call Saul, Eladio taunts and heckles Hector Salamanca by calling his money stash cute in contrast to Gustavo's significantly larger stash. In fairness, this is Hector we're talking about here.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: In most of his appearances, Eladio appears to be a Psychopathic Manchild with a horrible sense of humour, to the point it seems strange just how someone like him could be a don of an extremely powerful cartel. However, there are moments when Eladio drops his act, and shows just how cold and calculating he actually is, suggesting his Faux Affably Evil persona is a deliberate act.
  • Best example of this is when Eladio throws a party for Gus after seeming convinced that Gus accepts his role as a subordinate. He acts jovial and like a Stupid Evil boss would, but shows surprising Properly Paranoid tendencies when he checks whether Gus' gift is safe to open, and then halts his whole act for a tense couple of seconds when Gus seems to not want to down the drink first. The moment Gus does, all the laughs and smiles are back on, and Eladio acts like he trusted Gus the whole time. Of course, Eladio couldn't have predicted Gus would actually be insane enough to just poison himself to achieve his goals.
  • When dealing with Nacho, he keeps his act for a good while, acting as if they're good buddies just chatting, but when Nacho fails to produce satisfactory answers for too long, Eladio drops the act for a while, and suddenly starts asking direct questions and probes Nacho in a very uncharacteristic way up until he hears everything he wants. Once Nacho tells Eladio everything, the "laughing moron at the top" persona comes back in full swing. Clearly, Eladio is perfectly content with his subordinates thinking he's an idiot and underestimating him, since that gives him an advantage, but when it's necessary, he shows just how intelligent and calculating he actually is.
  • While incorporating it into his Psychopathic Manchild behaviour, Eladio is shown to be able to always say something that insults his subordinates where it hurts the most, but always in a manner that inspires rivalry between the various clans, but no animosity against himself. It seems to work pretty much perfectly as well, at least for the Gus-Salamanca feud, up until the Salamancas are destroyed in a large part by accident, leaving Gus free to concentrate on acting against Eladio.
• Opportunistic Bastard: As seen in Greed, he doesn't seem to plan ahead, but latches onto convenient money-grabbing opportunities.
• Orcus on His Throne: Eladio is the head of a powerful drug cartel and possibly the most powerful criminal in both shows, but all of his appearances are at his villa. Even when the Cartel is dealing with serious issues, Eladio never displaces himself and seems more than happy to let Bolsa, the Salamancas, or Gaff do the hard work in his stead.
• Politically Correct Villain: At least ethnic-wise. Eladio has no problem working with Gus, even though Gus is a Chilean who's strongly implied to be homosexual, as long as he's in charge and Gus brings in enough money. Working with a (presumably gay) South American would be unthinkable for a traditional Mexican gangster, yet Eladio never even brings Gus' heritage up.
• Politically Incorrect Villain: He mocks the now-disabled Hector by imitating him ringing his bell, which Bolsa's silently disgusted by.
• Pragmatic Villainy:
  • When told that Jesse is a recovering addict, Eladio refuses to let him have a drink. However, this could very well be because Eladio didn't want Pinkman (who was his presumptive new cook at the time) to develop any habits that might impede his cooking.
  • It's implied that Eladio knows Gustavo killed Lalo, but lets him live because of his high earning capability, but not before firmly reminding him to remember who's the boss.
• Pride: Eladio's arrogance, along with his avarice, sees him easily seduced by Gus with a grand and easy cash flow, when Eladio should really know better than to rub elbows with an utterly calculating man with a massive grudge against him but he arrogantly thinks he can cower Gus into submission. Which turns out this would lead to his death.
• Properly Paranoid:
  • Despite being in good business with him, Eladio does not really trust Gustavo and gets enraged when it's suggested that he's keeping any secrets. Given the fact that Eladio knows more about Gus than perhaps anyone seen in the setting, he's totally justified in being suspicious.
  • This is heavily demonstrated during the events of "Salud" in Breaking Bad. Before he even opens Gustavo's "gift", he looks at Gaff to make sure the case is safe to open. He then makes Gustavo take the first shot of the rare tequila, in case if it was poisoned. It was. Gustavo drank it anyway. (Earlier, he's seen taking some pills that likely slowed or dulled the poisons working, and when he uses Eladio's bathroom later, he induces himself to vomit, thus preventing the poison from running its course.) And finally, when Gustavo is going to leave his sight, he has his bodyguard go with Gus to keep an eye on him. Eladio really didn't trust Gustavo and was trying to be careful not to give Gus any opening to use against him not knowing that he already did before it was too late. He was right to be paranoid, he just wasn't quite paranoid enough.
• Psychopathic Manchild: He's basically an overgrown school yard bully who bends people to his whims. His humor also suggests he has the maturity of a 14 year old.
• Secret-Keeper: He does know Gustavo's past, and possibly his true identity if Gus changed his name, in Chile. He even tells Gus that it's the only reason why he kept him alive.
• Smug Snake: Despite being one of the most powerful villains in the series by far, his overestimation of his own power along with underestimation of Gustavo Fring proves to be his undoing.
• The Sociopath: He doesn't seem to understand why Gustavo might hold a lasting forever grudge against him for murdering his closest friend/lover right in front of him, since Eladio himself views people as tools who can be dismissed or forgotten about on a whim. He considers his own lack of emotion a benefit, as he tells Gustavo, "There's no place for emotion in this. You of all people should understand. Business is business."
• Soft-Spoken Sadist: He needles Hector with a smooth voice and disarming mannerisms.
• Stupid Evil: Had Eladio not murdered Max to sadistically torture Gustavo into being a very dangerous person, it's quite likely that he wouldn't have met his consequently karmic death at his hands out of revenge years later. In spite of his Excellent Judge of Character, Eladio kept doing a lot of unwise actions that eventually led to his death and destruction of his cartel.
• Tension-Cutting Laughter: The Mood Whiplash we're talking about; it's an effective intimidation tactic to keep his underbosses on edge.
• Taking You with Me: Subverted. After realizing that Gus has poisoned him, this is clearly the last thought that crosses his mind judging by his Death Glare and lunge in Gus' direction. However, he succumbs to the poison before he can bring this desire about and falls into his pool drowning.
• Too Clever by Half: Despite being an Excellent Judge of Character, Eladio's greed and overconfidence in his own authority gives him a big blind spot when it comes to Gus in Better Call Saul. He knows that Gus hates him for murdering Max, and it is heavily implied that he's aware that Gus had killed Lalo, but he chooses not to act on it because he doesn't want to lose Gus as an earner and arrogantly believes he can be intimidated in to falling back in line. This attitude repeats in Breaking Bad, and it ends with his death and the total dismantling of the Juarez Cartel.
• Ungrateful Bastard: Accused of this by Hector. He easily discarded the Salamancas, who helped build his criminal empire and gave him their best enforcers, for a Chilean in Gus who brings more money and does chicken, but one who has a serious grudge against Eladio and Hector for the murder of his lover. Turns out Hector is right and it would later on prove to be one of Eladio’s greatest mistakes.
• Villains Out Shopping: Eladio is often seen lounging around on-screen, namely enjoying swimming as a hobby.
• You Don't Look Like You: Steven Bauer, who was pushing his 60s at the time of shooting, looks unbelievably older in Better Call Saul than his character did in Breaking Bad in the present day.
• "You!" Exclamation: When he realizes he was poisoned by Gus, he can only scream "Tu?!?!" (Spanish for "you") before trying to lunge at him.

Juan Bolsa

Juan Bolsa

"I don't tell you how to fry your chickens, Gustavo. You should really leave matters of my organization's politics to me."

Portrayed By: Javier Grajeda

Appearances: Breaking Bad | Better Call Saul

"Today, you are going to die...but there are good deaths and there are bad deaths."

A high-level member and one of the three founders of the Juárez drug cartel alongside Hector and Eladio. He is also the cartel's liaison with Gustavo Fring.

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• Affably Evil: In Better Call Saul at least. In the prequel, Bolsa is a professional, calm criminal even when liaising with Gustavo Fring, who hates the Cartel's guts, and we never get to see his Faux side like we do in Breaking Bad (barring during the interrogation of Nacho), so he qualifies as this trope. He doesn't even like Hector but, nevertheless, tries to non-confrontationally discourage him from insulting Don Eladio.
• A Lighter Shade of Black: While he is a villain, Bolsa was initially this to the Salamancas, contrasting them in every way from his attitude and the way he practically encourages his workers, his preference for diplomacy, and disdain for extreme cruelty. It seems that Bolsa's professionalism degraded over the years however, as he becomes just as brutal as the Salamancas in Breaking Bad, killing Tortuga in a ridiculously cruel manner and then desecrating his corpse to stage a further attack on the DEA.
• Ascended Extra: In Breaking Bad, he was primarily a Satellite Character to the Cousins. While his role in Better Call Saul is still a comparatively smaller one next to Gus, Hector, and even Lalo, his role in the Cartel is nonetheless much more clearly depicted this time around.
• Asshole Victim: His assassination is orchestrated by Gustavo Fring. Given how much of a ruthless Smug Snake he was, he had it coming. This is even more emphasized in retrospect, as he was a part of the deaths of Ignacio Varga, and Gustavo's partner Max.
• Ax-Crazy: A very subtle example. Despite the fact that he's calm and collected, Bolsa has the Cousins decapitate a DEA informant, strews his body parts around the desert as a warning, and mounts his decapitated head on a turtle. Then he sends the turtle at Mexican Federal Police with a bomb strapped to it. Averted in Better Call Saul however, where Bolsa's ironically one of the calmer members of the Cartel.
• Bald of Evil: He's bald and a ruthless member of the cartel.
• Became Their Own Antithesis: Retroactively. In Better Call Saul, Bolsa is established to have been a genuinely polite Consummate Professional cartel founder who respects everyone around him (even traitors), and looks down upon the Salamanca family for indulging in brutal, sadistic cruelty to their enemies. By the time of Breaking Bad however, Bolsa has become just as bad, if not worse than Hector and his family ever were at their peak, with him slaughtering a DEA informant and sending his decapitated head to the DEA full of explosives to gain retribution. This is likely because the last time Bolsa had to deal with a traitor within the Cartel, said traitor stabbed him in the leg and nearly shot him while using Bolsa as a Human Shield, so one can understand why he would resort to previously uncharacteristic brutality towards another informant.
• Boring, but Practical: Bolsa is much less emotional than Hector and goes about things in a calm, professional manner. Nor is Bolsa the blatantly threatening killer that Hector is. Hector enjoys wielding his power, runs roughshod over everyone, and has a voice like Satan himself. Bolsa looks more like a harmless middle manager. This quietly competent style of management works wonders for him; his partnership with Gus helps him gain favor with Don Eladio.
• Characterization Marches On: In Breaking Bad, Bolsa was very much a Faux Affably Evil cartel member, having little patience for Gustavo Fring's antics, and indulging in barbaric cruelty such as overseeing the decapitation of one of his traitorous minions and mounting his head on a tortoise boobytrapped with explosives. By contrast, Better Call Saul depicts Bolsa as being genuinely Affably Evil, bordering on a Noble Demon that disapproves the brutality of the Salamancas and their long-standing feud with Gustavo. It's implied this changed after the butchered interrogation of Nacho which almost led to his death, as well as the tension that awoke when Gustavo was suspected of killed Lalo.
• Co-Dragons: Was this with Hector to Don Eladio on the business side. With Hector falling out of favor with Eladio, he becomes a more traditional dragon.
• Cop Killer: By proxy, willing to blow up several DEA members using Tortuga's severed head on a turtle for a touch of Black Comedy. Of course, killing a DEA agent and being connected to an assassination attempt on another makes the U.S. government extremely mad and makes the Mexican government mark him as particularly dangerous. He and his bodyguards end up getting tracked down by the Mexican Federal Police (with some help from Gus) and gunned down with submachine guns without being given a chance to surrender (to be fair to the cops, the cartel guys all had guns, including Bolsa).
• Et Tu, Brute?: Bolsa, barring his role in Max's murder, was nothing but an ally to Gustavo. He secretly backs Gustavo during the latter's power struggle against the Salamancas, even going as far as sending his men to make sure Lalo stays in prison. In exchange for all this, Gustavo betrays and kills him anyway, but probably because Gustavo still holds the death of his partner Max against him and didn't want his help in taking care of the Salamancas.
• Even Evil Has Standards:
  • Lalo's act of murdering a store clerk for inconveniencing him does not go unnoticed, and Bolsa chides him for it, albeit for potentially rousing suspicion.
  • On a more significant note, Gustavo notes that Bolsa does not (initially) have much patience for the extreme brutality the Salamancas thrive in. True to form, when overseeing Nacho's execution, he promises him a dignified death if he cooperates, in contrast to the Salamancas at the scene itching to torture him. Subverted, however, when he tries to hand him over to them regardless once he insults them after he "confesses".
  • In "Fun and Games", even though he disguises it with a smile when Eladio looks at him, Bolsa has an unimpressed and disgusted look on his face when Eladio mocks Hector by imitating his ringing bell.
• Expy: He's basically the Mexican equivalent of Johnny Sack from The Sopranos, right down to "Juan Bolsa" being the Spanish version of his name. Like Johnny, Bolsa acts as an intermediary between two major criminal empires, although in this case it's between the Mexican Cartel and Gustavo Fring's empire instead of two Italian mob families.
• Extreme Doormat: He uses Eladio's name more than his and follows whoever earns the most cash, even if he has to ignore the blatant bad blood the person has with the Cartel. He also chides the Salamancas, but never goes further than repeating what Eladio wants from them, as he is scared of them.
• Faux Affably Evil: In Better Call Saul, Bolsa appears to be the most reasonable member of the cartel. He's polite, genial, understanding, and calmly professional, even as he's preparing Ignacio Varga to die at the Carterl's hands for betraying them. Most of the time, he comes across as a pretty nice guy, until he tries handing Varga over to the Salamancas despite promising him he wouldn't before Varga escapes and takes him hostage. By the time of Breaking Bad though, snitching on the cartel is enough for Bolsa to have your head hacked off, stuffed with explosives and traveling on the back of a turtle. Then again Tortuga was a cowardly, opportunistic rat.
• Foreshadowing: He angrily chides Lalo for his senseless murder of Fred, a totally innocent and hapless clerk. While it seems strange a hardened drug lord would care about this, he points out the situation surrounding it is "messy" and not something to be brushed off. This murder ultimately becomes a major plot point when Lalo is caught for it.
• Greater-Scope Villain: In season 3. He doesn't actively participate in the revenge against Walt and Hank and doesn't even care, but being Don Eladio's lieutenant and a high-ranking member of the Juárez Cartel, his influence is much more prominent, with the Cousins being just enforcers working for the cartel. In contrast to the Cousins, Juan's recourses are so superior that he even mentions that his brother is a police chief, suggesting vast influence.
• Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow: He's balding in both shows, but shown with hair in flashbacks in Breaking Bad.
• Horrible Judge of Character: He seems to believe that Gustavo Fring is genuinely all about business even when Lalo reminds him of several incidents saying otherwise. Setting his sights only on the massive amounts of cash, he knows about the death of Gustavo's partner Max since he was apart of it and doesn't suspect that he'd ever be working against their interests. He isn't completely without doubts, but nevertheless hopes that he is in the right about Fring. It's not until the Mexican federales are at his door in Breaking Bad that Bolsa finally realizes what Fring was really up to all this time, but it was already too late for Bolsa to do anything about it.
• Hidden Depths: In his mansion, Bolsa is quite the avid virtual golfer.
• I Need a Freaking Drink: Makes a B-line for a decanter the moment Eladio leaves after the meeting regarding Hector's accusation is resolved. He doesn't even say a word to Gus.
• Karmic Death: He's killed through the machinations of Gustavo Fring, who he wronged many years before along with Hector Salamanca and Don Eladio.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: While Bolsa may hate the DEA as much as the rest of the Cartel and will happily make an example to them by hacking off an informant's head and delivering it to them on an exploding turtle, he tells Marco and Leonel Salamanca that directly killing one of their agents is off-limits, due to the amount of heat it would bring on them. Unfortunately, thanks to the machinations of Gustavo Fring, the Cousins promptly ignore that order, resulting in Bolsa's death.
• The Man Behind the Man: He anonymously masterminds a plot to sabotage Lalo's bail from prison in Gustavo's interests, not knowing that Gus wants Lalo to get the money.
• Man of Wealth and Taste: Wealthy enough to afford virtual golf in 2005 anyway.
• Mirror Character: To Mike Ehrmantraut. They both act as The Consigliere to their respective leaders, but while Mike is Gus' Hyper-Competent Sidekick who is genuinely always on top of everything, Juan is a clueless idiot who never has any idea what is really going on and leaves his minions to work out their issues amongst themselves while telling Eladio what he wants to hear.
• Mouth of Sauron: He generally acts as a representative of the Cartel's leadership, and doesn't act independently of Eladio much throughout both shows.
• Not-So-Harmless Villain: He reminds the audience that he is of much higher standing than the Salamancas when he has no problem with orchestrating a scheme to sabotage them if they go against the cartel's interests.
• Nothing Personal: Tries to go for this angle with Hector, but Hector will have none of that.
• Only Sane Man: Of the Juarez Cartel's upper management, he is shown to be the most level-headed and practical in terms of goals. While Bolsa doubtlessly has a ruthless side, he is not unhinged like Eladio, Gus, or Hector and his family. Even though Breaking Bad unfortunately shows that the "unhinged" part didn't remain hidden for long, he's still the one of the more reasonable cartel members.
• Pay Evil unto Evil: Tortuga and the El Paso cops weren't exactly the nicest people Hank worked with, so their death/injuries aren't Bolsa's biggest sin.
• Pet the Dog: Despite grumbling that Hector has always been nothing but trouble, Bolsa ensures that Hector's territory remains his even after he and Tuco are put out of commission, rather than seizing it for himself.
• Pragmatic Villainy: It's all about the money for Bolsa. Killing For the Evulz is something he does not take well, if only because it's bad for business, and he only does so when the person has betrayed the Cartel in some way. He is also growing increasingly tired of the feud between the Salamancas and Gustavo and warns them that Eladio is getting angry.
• The Rival: Seems to be one with Hector, although Bolsa doesn't seem to purposefully engage all that much. He even sincerely cautions Hector about insulting Eladio and otherwise seems rather modest. Justified as while Bolsa wants to look better toward Eladio, he is scared of Hector in some aspects, as he wouldn't even rat on Hector when he pissed in Eladio's pool in Breaking Bad.
• Sanity Slippage: Better Call Saul and flashbacks in Breaking Bad show that Bolsa, while not without a ruthless side, is considerably more pragmatic and reasonable compared to other members of the Cartel, one who doesn't give in to random acts of sadism for the sake of it. By the present day in Breaking Bad, that sensibility is gone as he indulges in brutality even when the situation doesn't require violence.
• Satellite Character: In Breaking Bad. All of his interactions (aside from a couple of scenes with Tortuga) are with either Gustavo Fring or the Cousins, and he's never seen interacting with any other character. He never even meets Walter White, though he's aware of who he is and what he's been up to with Tuco and Gustavo. He gets more focus in Better Call Saul.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: He claims this when the Federal Police come knocking on his door, boasting that his brother is a police chief so he'll be out of jail soon. The cops simply gun him down instead.
• Shout-Out: His name translates to "John Bag/Sack", a reference to John "Johnny Sack" Sacrimoni from The Sopranos.
• Smug Snake: It's played subtly but he is entirely confident that he's smarter than Gus. Simply put, he isn't, and is proven wrong in a spectacularly badass fashion.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: After all the shit he had to deal with, including being taken hostage by Varga after the latter confessed to treason, Bolsa became a much worse person to work under. Notably, his professionalism and tolerance for bullshit degrades heavily, and he is much more spiteful and angry towards betrayal in any form.
• Switch to English: When he talks with Gustavo over the phone, he speaks English (which they're both fluent in).
• Villainous Breakdown: After the Salamanca twins are killed due to Fring's machinations, Bolsa shows a great deal more anger and drops his facade. He correctly accuses Gustavo outright of being behind the Cartel's recent troubles. His breakdown doesn't last very long, as he's swiftly gunned down by the Mexican government.
• Villains Out Shopping: In his various phone calls to Gustavo, he can be seen vacationing on a ranch or playing virtual golf in his mansion.
• Yes-Man: He's this to Don Eladio compared to the defiant Hector.

The Dons

The Cartel Dons (Paco, Cesar, Renaldo, Artuno, Cisco, Luis, Escalada)

The capos of the Juarez Cartel, all subordinate to Don Eladio. They all partake in the celebrations at Eladio's party, and all of them end up dying by way of Gustavo Fring's poisoned tequila as revenge against the cartel.

---

• Affably Evil: Two of the capos share a jovial laugh when they see Jesse start to relax at Eladio's party.
• Alas, Poor Villain: Hector is visibly upset at their deaths, despite none of them being relatives of his. This is part of the reason why Gus targets them all.
• Asshole Victim: Gus certainly believes they deserved their fates, even though they weren't present for Max's murder. Notably, only one of their subordinates tries to avenge their deaths, and he was a Salamanca.
• Bald of Evil: Two of them are bald, and they're all gangsters.
• Beard of Evil: Several of them have one.
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: An interesting example. In Breaking Bad, all the Dons were shown to be very powerful and involved with the Cartel, even if they all answer to Eladio. However, not a single other Don appears or is mentioned beforehand in Better Call Saul, even as Eladio plays a big role in the prequel's plot.
• Dirty Old Man: During Eladio's party, many of them flirt with girls half their age.
• Dropped a Bridge on Him: Despite being powerful cartel members, they're wiped out all at once by Gus' poison.
• Fat Bastard: Some of them are overweight, and every last one of them are powerful drug lords, so while the specifics are unknown, they're likely not saints.
• Man of Wealth and Taste: Like Don Eladio.
• Minor Major Character: While they're clearly the most powerful members of the cartel along with Eladio and all but two of them are given names, they appear onscreen for 10 minutes at most before dying. None of them even show up in the prequel Better Call Saul, despite Eladio playing a much bigger role in the prequel.
• Unknown Rival: Unlike Eladio, Hector, and Bolsa, they weren't present for his partner Max's murder, so they never had any reason to suspect Gus of working against them.
• Villain Respect: While they aren't present for the cooking, they are all visibly impressed by Jesse being able to cook better methamphetamine than any of their master cooks, with some of them smiling approvingly at him during the party.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: Unlike Eladio and Bolsa, they don't appear in any flashbacks or prequels and they all die within minutes of being introduced.

The Salamanca Family

In General

The Salamanca Family

Appearances: Breaking Bad | Better Call Saul

"Me and my family: we built this whole business!"

— Hector Salamanca, "Lantern"

A brutal and psychotic crime family influential in the Juarez Cartel. For various reasons, they butt heads with Walter White many times, but their greatest enmity lies with his employer: Gustavo Fring.

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• Abusive Parents: Or at least Hector was. He was shown to have physically abused Leonel and Marco back in The '80s, specifically by nearly drowning the former to teach the latter about the importance of family after Leonel says he wished his brother were dead. Hector was also more than willing to leave Tuco in jail for at least six months for having brutally assaulted Mike Ehrmantraut, although he does get upset when Tuco extends his own sentence.
• Appeal to Force: The Salamancas are the muscle of the Juarez Cartel, and their attitude is generally that rules don't apply to them because, well, they have the muscle.
• Big, Screwed-Up Family: The Salamancas are notorious for being one of the largest and most unstable crime families in the entire show. It's telling that those in the family tend to be stone-cold killers at best, while the worst members have Psychopathic Manchild-like traits.
• The Dreaded: Those in the game know that a Salamanca getting involved in any kind of situation is bad news bears. Nacho Varga does everything he can to get out from under Hector's thumb when he thinks things are going out of hand in Better Call Saul, and Jesse is incredibly wary of doing business with Tuco during the first season of Breaking Bad.
• Evil Uncle: The Salamanca family is run by Hector, whose several nephews tend to be the main muscle within the drug trade. Hector was also abusive to his family ever since they were children so that they would become the powerful drug enforcers and hitmen seen in the present day.
• The Family That Slays Together: The one redeeming quality about the Salamanca family is that they are all extremely loyal to each other, no matter what happens.
• Family Theme Naming: At least three members of the family have their first names end with the letter "O" (Tuco, Marco and Lalo).
• How the Mighty Have Fallen: The Salamancas used to be one of the pillars of the Cartel, providing most of its muscle, before they started taking major hits during the events of Better Call Saul. By the time of Breaking Bad, while they're still powerful, they're a shadow of what they once were.
• Hypocrite: For a family that lives by the motto that "family is all", they sure don't seem to respect the families of other people throughout the franchise. In Better Call Saul, Hector bullies Nacho Varga into using his father's business as a front for his illegal activities, despite the man never being staunchly against crime in all forms. Tuco also ignores Walt's concern for his family in Breaking Bad, telling him that he should just get another one when they go into Mexico together.
• Macho Latino: They are fixated with putting up a manly and intimidating Latin image, given their recurring obsession with huevos, respecting their rivals through a show of strength, aggressiveness in the cartel business and disdain towards homosexuality, especially regarding Gus Fring's suspected relationship with Max Arciniega.
• Thicker Than Water: Even when at their absolute worst, the Salamancas are always there for each other. When Hector has his stroke and becomes disabled in Better Call Saul, Lalo immediately drops everything to help take over the family business. Later down the line, Leonel and Marco immediately seek retribution towards Walter White and later Hank Schrader for their involvement in their cousin Tuco's death.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Gonzo is said to be Tuco's brother-in-law, so Tuco definitely has an unnamed sister who is married to Gonzo. Other than that, nothing is known about this character and whether she's spared from Gus' vendetta or not is unclear.

Dons

Hector

Hector Salamanca

Portrayed By: Mark Margolis

Appearances: Breaking Bad | Better Call Saul

"La familia es todo." ^note "Family is all."

^{As he appeared in 1989} "<My advice? Stick to chicken.>"

^{As he appears in Better Call Saul} "How about the payment is you get to live?"

"I am the cartel, and from now on you are my mule. You are going to bring my product north."

The Salamanca family's elderly uncle, an aggressive cartel member who once worked for Don Eladio. In the present day, Hector is confined to a wheelchair thanks to a stroke, and can only communicate with a bell.

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• Abusive Parents: His actual children are unseen, but he was a parental figure to the Cousins – and presumably, Tuco and Lalo as well. In "One Minute", he beats the "family is all" mantra into his nephews, Marco and Leonel by drowning the former and forcing the latter to save him. It's also worth noting that the (normally) sane Lalo attributes his rage and sadism to Hector's upbringing after Bolsa chides him for killing Fred Whalen and burning down the TravelWire.
• Alas, Poor Villain: Hector's a massive asshole and sadist on top of his chosen profession. Still, it still isn't hard to feel slightly bad for him over the course of both shows. Gustavo dodges blame for Lalo's death by successfully convincing the cartel that Hector is crazy. Hector likely knows exactly what Gustavo has in mind but is unable to convince anyone he's right, not even the Cousins. Eladio even mocks him for his disability afterward, and he spends the rest of his life in a nursing home only able to watch as his family and life's work burns before his eyes while Gus happily rubs salt into his wounds. At that point, the absolute sadness and anger his face expresses right before he commits Murder-Suicide on Gustavo kind of makes you feel sorry for him.
• Appeal to Force: Deconstructed; he follows the old gangsta modus operandi of being a blatant Jerkass as long as everybody around you fears you. Though in the end, it's implied to be the reason he's got such a lack of cash haul compared to Gus and Bolsa, since Hector doesn't have it in him to show any sense of cordiality or compromise.
• All for Nothing:
  • In Better Call Saul, the deal Hector made with Mike and then Gus in order to get Tuco out of prison quickly turns out to be rendered moot by Tuco starting a fight in prison and getting put into solitary confinement.
  • Similarly, his attempts to prevent Tuco from being poisoned by Walt and Jesse also are in vain, as the two of them are able to overpower and shoot Tuco when their backs are against the wall, with Hank Schrader finishing the job after he stumbles across what's going on after Walt and Jesse fleet the scene.
• An Offer You Can't Refuse: What he propositions Mike with, then Gus, with thousand-dollar deals so as to get Tuco out of prison.
• Angry Eyebrows: A result of his stroke. Due to his inability to communicate post-paralysis, anger is one of the few emotions that he can communicate. And when he shows these eyebrows, you know he is pissed. Three examples stand out:
  • When Nacho angrilly confesses that he swapped out Hector's heart medication, Hector flashes one of these so intense that he could have killed Nacho with his Death Glare alone.
  • When Don Eladio dismisses Hector's accusations against Gus due to a lack of evidence, Hector combines this with his bell-ringing contorted in protest.
  • He spends the whole run of Breaking Bad refusing to look Gus in the eye, but when he finally does, he really makes it count.
• Arch-Enemy:
  • Hector's fierce rivalry with Gustavo Fring began after he shot Gus's partner Max in cold blood, and then forced Gustavo to look into the eyes of the corpse, all while telling him that Max's death was his fault and no one else's. Furthermore, Hector had never wanted Gustavo in the Cartel because of his racism towards South Americans, and has wanted to push him out ever since. In turn, Gustavo has wanted nothing but to extract his vengeance against Hector and his family, which he does over the course of many years through meticulous planning and currying good favor with Don Eladio. This only fuels Hector's hatred for Gustavo as he continues to steal his business and later cause the death of his entire family, all while he's unable to do anything about it thanks to his paralysis. It's no wonder that Hector is willing to form an Enemy Mine with Heisenberg to finally destroy the man once and for all.
  • To Mike Ehrmantraut in Better Call Saul. After Hector threatens his family due to a business deal gone wrong, Mike spends his time in the early seasons trying to get revenge on Hector, eventually coming into the employ of Gustavo Fring due to their mutual goals. That said, this is entirely one-sided as Hector never considered Mike to be that much of a threat, with Nacho even telling Mike that he forgot about him after he paid the man 50 thousand dollars. Mike himself eventually drops his vendetta against Hector over time, as he starts to become the ruthless Consummate Professional for Los Pollos Hermanos.
  • To Nacho Varga. Having been forced into committing terrible deeds while under his family's thumb, Nacho wants nothing more than to subdue Hector and escape from the Salamancas whenever possible. He goes to the point of directly causing Hector's stroke and subsequent paralysis by swapping his medication, something he's particularly proud of when he's at the end of his life. Of course, learning that Nacho had betrayed his family and caused his permanent disablement enrages Hector, with his hatred practically boiling over as Nacho recounts what he did. It's clear that Hector would've sadistically tortured the man to death had Nacho not killed himself instead, leaving him only able to spitefully shoot his corpse multiple times his only option for retribution.
• Ascended Extra: While he wasn't exactly a minor character in Breaking Bad, Hector nonetheless only appears sparingly throughout the show before he blows himself and Gustavo Fring to high heaven in the Season 4 finale. By contrast, he plays a much bigger role in Better Call Saul, being a formidable opponent for Mike Ehrmantraut and Ignacio Varga.
• Asshole Victim: A non-lethal variant in Better Call Saul. While his stroke and subsequent fate is quite horrible, it still is hard to pity him given what a petty, cruel, and ruthless asshole he was.
• Ax-Crazy: In flashbacks, he is revealed to have been a particularly sadistic member of the Juarez Cartel who possessed a pronounced lack of empathy towards those outside the organization and was horribly abusive towards his own family (even while professing to value them above all things). In this manner, he served as the role model for his Ax-Crazy nephews, Tuco and the Twins.
• Bad Boss: He shouts at his underlings a lot and treats them with blatant contempt, as well as chastising Ximenez Lecerda for the crime of daring to say hello to Don Eladio.
• Bait the Dog: Moments before his death, Gustavo again tries and fails to get Hector to look at him. He goes to inject Hector with poison, and Hector suddenly gives him a (weirdly) compassionate look, which stuns Gustavo. The glance turns into an expression of pure wrath, and Hector kills everyone in the room, including himself.
• Bald of Evil: Is mostly bald and one of the evilest characters featured on the show.
• Battle Trophy: The service bell is a gory reminder of the time that he and Lalo burned down a hotel and tortured the manager. Most likely the hotel manager refused to pay them protection money.
• Beard of Evil: Has one while housing with Tuco, but is afterward cleanshaven for the rest of his screen time.
• Be as Unhelpful as Possible:
  • When brought into the station as a witness against Jesse following Tuco's death, he refuses to respond to any questions except those regarding the current location and date, and that was just to prove that he wasn't senile. He finishes his interrogation by shitting on the station floor. As Gomez points out, an "OG Latino gangbanger" would never help the feds.
  • Later, as part of his Enemy Mine deal with Heisenberg, Hector contacts the DEA out of the blue to seemingly snitch on Gustavo Fring's whereabouts...only to instead ding out expletive language at them before promptly going back home. Hank's at least happy that he didn't shit on the floor again:
  Hank: Guess that's progress.
• Best Served Cold: Gustavo waits until Hector reawakens to cancel his physical therapy. Effectively trapping his conscious mind in a dumb, motionless body with only one working index finger. One finger ends up being all Hector needs to kill Gus.
• Better to Die than Be Killed. Hector's wheelchair self-destructs and takes out his would-be executioners.
• Big Bad Ensemble: Along with Chuck during Seasons 2 and 3 of Better Call Saul. He is the Big Bad for the storylines of Mike, Nacho, and Gustavo. What keeps him from being an Arc Villain like Chuck is that he's the head of the Salamanca cartel with vast criminal connections and sets up many plot points for what's to come in Breaking Bad, namely Mike and Gustavo meeting and eventually working together. What keeps him from being the sole Big Bad of those seasons, however, is that Chuck is still the main obstacle to Jimmy the protagonist who inadvertently molds him into Saul Goodman.
• Big Bad Wannabe: A defining trait. Hector deludes himself into thinking he's a well-respected and widely-feared crime lord who deserves the utmost praise, even stating that he is the Cartel. Although he was pretty fearsome in his prime, in the present story, his fellow dons and superiors barely tolerate him, Gustavo and Mike constantly undermine and disrespect him, and even Nacho, despite being a street-level gangster, nearly kills him and dies bragging about it.
• Bring My Brown Pants: One of the most epic examples in TV history is when he decides to spite Hank and Gomez instead of ratting Jesse out. It is loud to say the least, and some of it makes it to the floor.
• Bullying a Dragon: His efforts to intimidate Mike by threatening his family, who he seems to think is relatively harmless for an ex-cop. This is especially true once Mike begins going well out of his way to try to see Hector either arrested or dead. He doesn't fare better with Gustavo, who already took Hector's spot as Eladio's favorite.
• Butt-Monkey: He doesn't have luck during Better Call Saul's third season. His nephew picks a fight with a guard in jail and promptly extends his jail sentence; his boss starts casting him aside in favor of Gustavo; and finally his second Villainous Breakdown leads to his heart attack in the finale.
• Cassandra Truth: His attempts at convincing Don Eladio that Gustavo plans to cut him out has the same energy as Chuck McGill's "Chicanery" situation. Knowing his state in Breaking Bad, this means he knew Gustavo was working against the Salamancas for years, and was unable to convince them or do anything about it. It goes a long way to explaining his depressed, unkempt appearance at the start of Breaking Bad.
• Chekhov's Boomerang: In Breaking Bad. Hector seems to be a relatively unimportant character until he's brought back in Season 3, then plays an even bigger role in Season 4.
• Chekhov's Gunman: Who would have thought that Tuco's crippled uncle would ultimately be the one to take out Gus Fring?
• The Consigliere: To Don Eladio before being usurped by Gus.
• Cool Car: He has this in common with Tuco, driving around in a 1960 Chevrolet Impala.
• Create Your Own Villain: Hector never trusted Gustavo, and advised against letting him into the cartel. He also underestimated Gus, believing he was all hat and no cattle. Gustavo might have been a loyal soldier, but Eladio and Hector wanted to make sure he knew his place. So they executed his partner and recruited Gus by fiat. This would have dire consequences for the cartel.
• Cruel Mercy: After wiping out the Juarez Cartel and all of Hector's remaining relatives, by all indications, Gus fully intended to let Hector live out the remainder of his life crippled and forced to stew in the knowledge that everything he'd built in his youth was now destroyed, and it wasn't until he believed that Hector was going to rat him out to the DEA that Gus finally moves to end his life once and for all.
• Dark Lord on Life Support: Hector used to be a cruel murderer for the Cartel and, thanks to Nacho's medicine tampering, is now confined to a wheelchair and needs a nasal cannula.
• Death Glare: Gives an epic one to Gus before he activates the bomb that takes both of them out.
• Defiant to the End: Spends his final moments glaring at Gustavo Fring with all the hatred he can muster as he furiously dings his wired bell to blow himself and his mortal enemy up together.
• Desecrating the Dead: He furiously shoots at Nacho's corpse after he's dead from suicide, out of impotent rage for causing the stroke that put him in a wheelchair in the first place.
• The Determinator: In an impressive display of will and determination, he protects his nephew, Tuco, by shoving a ricin-laden burrito intended for him off the dinner table despite being physically handicapped by a stroke. Similarly, he lifts himself up out of his wheelchair to void his bowels just for the sake of crudely insulting his DEA captors.
• Dirty Coward: Whenever he's with the other Cartel bosses or his underlings, Hector has no problem shit-talking Don Eladio, pissing in his pool and letting his resentment of the man known. When he's actually in the man's presence though, Hector is quiet and submissive, clearly scared of disobeying him at any point.
• Dirty Old Man: Implied, when Tuco assumes that Hector's anger at Walt and Jesse stems from their changing the channel from his "Mamitas". It's actually a major plot point in Better Call Saul. Once he's in early recovery from the stroke, it's not obvious to anyone whether or not Hector is mentally sound. It's not until Gustavo catches him perving on a nurse half his age that he realizes that his mind is crystal clear, so Gus has Hector's treatment canceled so that he'll never be able to physically recover.
• Disabled Snarker: In "Face Off" when he goes to the DEA and attempts to have his nurse spell out SUCK MY DICK and FUCK YOU to Hank.
• The Dragon: Was once this for Don Eladio, that is, until Eladio cut him off in favor of Gustavo's distribution system and Nacho induced a stroke in Hector.
• The Dreaded:
  • During his tenure as a veteran enforcer for the Juarez Cartel. This is evidenced when he brazenly urinates in Don Eladio's pool in full view of Juan Bolsa and swiftly silences the latter's protest by daring him to snitch. Similarly, the impact he left on fearsome gangsters such as Tuco and the Salamanca Twins is so strong and pervasive that he can command their complete attention even in his infirmity with a simple "ding" of his bell.
  • In general, Hector and his family have quite a bad reputation according to people's reaction when his name gets brought up. Even the Los Pollos Hermanos employees who have never heard of him can tell rather quickly that he is bad news.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: Insists on getting respect because the Cartel was, in his eyes, propped up by the Salamanca family and their money. Pushing this trait far enough will make him lose his shit.
• Dying Moment of Awesome. In "Face Off." Hector dies staring down the man who wiped out his entire family and triggering an explosive device that takes both of them and Tyrus out.
• End of an Age: Hector derisively referred to Gus as "Chicken Man" because he didn't understand the logic in laundering drugs through a front business. Hector's other weakness is that he resorted to bullying whenever he didn't get his way. Gus and Lalo, meanwhile, understood the value of not fully showing your hand.
• Enemy Mine: While Hector very much hates Walt and Jesse for their involvement in his nephew's death, he utterly loathes the DEA and Gustavo Fring even more. He refuses to rat Jesse out to the DEA in Season 2 due to his hatred of the DEA, simply to spite the organization, and he begrudgingly teams up with Heisenberg to kill Gustavo in the finale of Season 4.
• Establishing Character Moment:
  • Breaking Bad: In his first appearance, he's perceived as a catatonic invalid, and he does nothing to challenge this perception until it benefits him and he can protect his nephew in the process. It perfectly establishes that while his body may be crippled, his mind is as sharp as ever, and he'll do anything he can to protect his family, even if it means overpowering his own disability.
  • Better Call Saul: He's introduced by meeting Mike in the latter's favorite diner, and playing nice as a means of letting Mike's guard down. Hector then quickly reveals his relation to Tuco and makes an indirect threat towards Mike and his family unless Mike cooperates. Already we see that any amicability this man has is a farce and that he's willing to hurt people close to you to get what he wants.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones:
  • There is a framed picture of him, a child, and two baby twins seen in the nursing home he is kept in during the finale of Breaking Bad's fourth season. The kids are Tuco and the Salamanca twins. A flashback reveals that the Salamancas believe "family is all," which is why they're all so Ax-Crazy about avenging each other. He even keeps Eladio's necklace on the photo frame. In fact, the first sign that Walt and Jesse get that he has mental faculties intact is when he knocks Tuco's burrito to the floor to stop them from poisoning him.
  • This is further proven in Better Call Saul, where Hector tries to get Tuco out of jail, willing to send $50,000 to Mike to do so. He is also close to his other nephew Lalo, enjoying his presence and Lalo's gift, his trademark ringing bell. He is also clearly devastated after hearing about Lalo's death and overjoyed when Lalo calls him to tell him that he's alive.
• Even Evil Has Standards:
  • He'll never help the feds. Ever. Not even if he was in jail for over a decade, or if it was to help avenge the death of his beloved nephew. Even for the guy who killed everybody he ever knew, he would rather blow himself up than turn him over to the DEA.
  • In Better Call Saul, Hector appears sincerely angered that Tuco attacked Mike, citing it as showing disrespect to a seemingly harmless old man, even forcing his nephew to spend time in jail as punishment for his actions. Given that Hector is even older than Mike, this makes sense.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Hector tells Nacho that he wants to use Manuel's upholstery shop as his new front. Nacho protests that his father is "not in the business". Hector's reply is that Nacho's father will make more money than he ever did selling car upholstery. He has no understanding at all that Manuel will not want to touch blood money for moral reasons.
• Evil Cripple: His stroke hasn't made him any less of an evil Jerkass.
• Evil Is Petty:
  • Old school gangster Hector refuses to ever talk to the authorities under any circumstances, even if it's for a chance to avenge his murdered nephew. So what does he do when Hank and Gomez call him in to talk about Jesse? He lets out the loudest, wettest shit in television history right in the middle of the interrogation.
  • Similarly, as part of the plan to lure Gus to him, Hector calls in Merkert and Hank to pretend he'll talk. Instead, he has the orderlies spell out "Suck my dick" and "fuck you", at which point the two of them take their leave.
  • His manner of intimidating the customers and Los Pollos Hermanos employees ranges from blatantly lighting a cigar when it's against Los Pollos Hermanos' rules, helping himself to a drink for free, as well as scraping dog shit off the bottom of his shoe in Gustavo's office.
• Evil Mentor: To Tuco, Lalo, and the Salamanca Twins, Leonel and Marco, who are trained by him to be drug traffickers and professional assassins respectively.
• Evil Old Folks: Even before his stroke, he was a bad-tempered old man who resorted to violence if you tested his patience.
• Evil Sounds Raspy: When he speaks English, Hector has a particularly raspy, snarling voice.
• Evil Uncle: He is the uncle of Tuco, Lalo, and The Cousins, and has a history of treating them very abusively (emphasis on the cousins) and is implied to be the reason why they have become the maniacs they are today.
• Face Death with Dignity: Instead of letting Gus kill him, he chooses to stare his Arch-Enemy in the eyes and blows himself up, dying on his own terms while taking Gus with him.
• Fake Defector: In Breaking Bad's Season 4 finale, it looks like Hector is going to the DEA to give away information about Gus, drawing the latter's attention to him. But an old-school gangster-like Hector would never become an informant and was actually manipulating Fring, but the latter was too blinded by his vendetta to realize that.
• False Flag Operation: On Walt's suggestion, he pretends that he's going to snitch to the DEA to cause Gus to finally kill him, drawing him into the range of Hector's wheelchair bomb to kill him for good.
• Fate Worse than Death: Subjected to one of these by Gustavo, whose partner he killed. After helping to make sure that he will never walk or talk again after his stroke, Gustavo shows up years later to see the crippled and decrepit Hector and describes in vivid detail the deaths of Cartel members he orchestrated or carried out, and taunts him about whether or not today will be the day that he finally kills him. Made even worse once Gus has killed every last one of his living family members.
• Faux Affably Evil: He's way more fastidious in Better Call Saul than we're used to in Breaking Bad. He comes at Mike politely and tries bribing him into accepting the gun charge. Given how he's portrayed in Breaking Bad flashbacks, this is a surprise. He discards the mask after Mike turns his offer down, and as things continue getting progressively worse for him, his temper (which wasn't great to begin with) degrades. He later puts on a charming image with Nacho when he wants to use his father's store as a front, though Nacho's savvy enough about it. When meeting Manuel in person he tries invoking a grandfatherly, amiable demeanor, but Manuel, who's aware of his notoriety, clearly sees it only is skin deep, and treats him with contempt.
• Fatal Flaw: His Entitled Bastard tendencies and inability to get with the times hold him back from being as skilled a crime lord as Gus Fring or Lalo Salamanca.
• Foregone Conclusion: He'll get a stroke in Better Call Saul in order to be paralyzed for Breaking Bad. In the Season 3 finale, he suffers a heart attack that results in his paralysis. "Something Stupid" reveals that he was initially on the road to recovery, but Gus persuaded the doctors to cancel therapy on him and keep him immobile.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: The scenes where he's with Eladio and Bolsa convey that the latter two don't really enjoy Hector's arrogant and belligerent personality. Bolsa finds himself in the stressful position of having to mediate for Hector and Gustavo which just compounds Hector's bad image. By "Fall", the feeling is very much mutual.
• Good Smoking, Evil Smoking: When coming to Los Pollos Hermanos to meet with Gus, he lights up a cigar inside the serving area in full contempt of the strict no-smoking policy, just to prove a point about the power he holds over Gus.
• Go Out with a Smile: As he kills himself and Gus, he musters the most spiteful and manic grin known to man.
• Greater-Scope Villain: He is implied to be the man chiefly responsible for transforming the Salamanca family into one of the leading forces within the Juarez Cartel. He also bears the most responsibility for molding Leonel, Marco, and Tuco into murderous, sadistic maniacs, as well as transforming Gus into the man he would become due to killing Max.
• Green-Eyed Monster: He's quietly (but not subtly) furious when Bolsa and Gustavo gain Eladio's favor with their superior cash haul.
• Handicapped Badass: Even with his debilitating stroke, Hector manages to be badass in his own way, such as the time he shat himself during Hank's interrogation of Jesse and two seasons later, snarking at them using the Nurse's laborious communication system. He ultimately blows himself up to kill both Gus and Tyrus with his bell, ending the cycle of revenge between Gus Fring and the Salamancas/Juárez Cartel.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: Not as bad as with Tuco, but he can explode at the slightest reason.
• Hate Sink: Ruthless cartel boss aside, Hector is a pretty unlikable asshole who spends most of his screen time jerking around on others, throwing petty tantrums, and lording himself over others unless he's under the presence of a higher power. His being paralyzed does little, if anything, to deter his general nastiness.
• Humiliation Conga: This is his story arc over the time span of Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, as his position in the Cartel’s hierarchy progressively changes for the worst over time. His first appearances in chronological order are in the Breaking Bad episodes "One Minute" and "Hermanos", where he is shown pissing into Don Eladio's pool (even daring Bolsa to tell it to the boss) and discussing over the phone the opportunity of conducting business with Gus Fring. So he is clearly unafraid of, and even defiant to, the ‘'jefe’’. He is also one of the heads of the Cartel, consulted about any important business decisions. By his next appearance in the flashback of the Better Call Saul episode "Sabrosito", his relationship with Eladio and Bolsa has subtly changed: he is unusually subdued and humble and the boss has no qualms about belittling and mocking him in front of one of his subordinates, while Bolsa has clearly become Eladio's right-hand man. Come the beginning of Better Call Saul, and while his family still controls a sizable part of the cross-border drug trafficking and he is still feared, he is seen as a relic of a bygone era and Don Eladio does not even bother anymore to deal with him in person, sending his orders through Bolsa instead. At the end of the series he is a mute cripple confined to a wheelchair, Don Eladio treats him with the fleeting respect one would reserve to a once brilliant but now senile relative, and his family’s territory is unceremoniously reduced to the benefit of the man he hates most, Gustavo Fring.
• Honor Before Reason:
  • Has the opportunity to have Jesse dead to rights when it came to implicating him to the DEA. The only problem is Hector refuses to be a rat, even for someone partially responsible for the death of his nephew. Justified since he has the Cousins for settling this type of problem.
  • This also extends to Gus and continues even in the fourth season, when his entire family is dead and the cartel is destroyed. Completely severed from the high-level crime he was deeply entrenched in, he is in a unique position to turn the DEA on his hated enemy, but even then he keeps his mouth shut.
• How the Mighty Have Fallen: Though once a powerful enforcer of a drug cartel out in Mexico, he now is little more than a wheelchair-bound old man incapable of speaking.
• Hypocrite:
  • Pushes the family values side of things but has no problem not so subtly trying to charm Nacho into getting his father involved in the drug business. Either that or he genuinely thinks that it's in Nacho's interest.
  • In a flashback to his younger days, Hector takes a call from Eladio and expresses his lack of regard for Gustavo Fring, dismissing him and all "South Americans" as "filthy" and immoral. As soon as he hangs up, he waterboards one of his nephews with an ice chest.
  • When meeting Mike Ehrmantraut for the first time, Hector notes that Tuco's disrespectful attitude is worthy of letting him sit in jail for at least six months. This is coming from a man who refuses to treat anyone who isn't part of his family with respect, even shit-talking his own boss behind his back when things aren't going his way.
• I Am the Noun: Hector shows the depths of his arrogance when he declares to be the Cartel, showing no consideration for how Eladio and Bolsa might feel... and react.
• Ironic Hell: Of sorts: the reason Gustavo keeps demanding that Hector looks at him is in retaliation for Hector shooting Gustavo's partner Max and forcing him to stare into his dead lover's eyes.
• It's All About Me: Eladio already has Gustavo as a distributor in New Mexico and Hector brings way less money than him, but Hector wants to do his own racket there and even fashioned himself as the Cartel. He even wants to take over Nacho's dad's store only because he doesn't have full control over Los Pollos Hermanos and wants his front to himself. His Villainous Breakdown in "Lantern" stems primarily from the fact that Hector feels that he's the most important part of he Cartel, and is pissed that he isn't getting what he thinks he's owed.
• It's Personal with the Dragon: From the perspective for the Cartel as a whole, he's merely one of Eladio's Co-Dragons and primarily oversees the muscle and distribution of their drugs, but to Nacho, Mike and Gus, he's the main antagonist of their storylines and the one whose presence eventually forces their paths to intersect. This dynamic continues even after his stroke at the end of Season 3 and subsequent disability thereafter, as Lalo Salamanca steps in to replace his position, with his deep bond with Hector, and competence compared to the rest of his family, making it clear that he's basically Hector's Dragon in turn. Lalo actually turns out to be an even greater headache for the trio to deal with than Hector ever was.
• Jerkass: Hector isn't just a murderous gangster, he's also a truly colossal prick. He is, after all, a petty, Politically Incorrect Villain. Even without his abusive parenting and stone-cold personality, the dude pisses in his boss' pool For the Evulz and threatens Mike's granddaughter.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: While he still resents him for his favoritism toward Bolsa and Gustavo, even Hector fears Don Eladio and knows better than of angering or disrespecting him to his face, becoming unusually quiet and submissive and never acting openly dickish in Eladio's presence. That said, Hector is more than willing to insult Eladio when the guy isn't actually around, as he makes clear to Bolsa:
  Hector: The boss...can suck me!
• Lack of Empathy: He sips his coffee and reads his newspaper while Domingo gets the shit beaten out of him by Nacho like it's a regular morning.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Everything bad that happens in Hector's life throughout the series is because of his own doing.
  • His Bad Boss tendencies and desire to force Nacho's father into becoming an accomplice of his drug operations or die if he refuses to backfire hard on him, with Nacho switching his heart medicine with sugar pills in order to kill him and save his father, leading to his near-death experience and leaving him stuck in a wheelchair for the rest of his life.
  • Earlier in Gustavo's life, Hector shot his partner Max in the back of the head, and forces the devastated young man to look into his cold, dead eyes as he bleeds into Don Eladio's pool. Gustavo gets back at him years later by destroying the cartel he worked so hard to build, and causes the deaths of what remains of his family, all while he's trapped in his wheelchair and unable to do anything about it.
• Last of His Kind: After Gus' murder of Don Eladio and company, he is the last surviving member of the Salamanca family and the Juarez Cartel.
• Leave No Witnesses: After Mike attacks one of his trucks, Hector executes both a witness who stumbled upon it and the driver of the truck.
• Ludicrous Gibs: Although it's kept mostly off-screen, his body presumably explodes into bloody pieces when he blows himself up to kill Gus and Tyrus. All that's left of Hector after the fact are the remains of his wheelchair and a dismembered leg on the ground.
• Meaningful Name: "Hector" means "to restrain" in Greek. He is restrained in a wheelchair with an oxygen tank. He also does a good job of restraining Walt and Jesse when they are held captive by Tuco.
• Mutual Kill: He ultimately takes out Gustavo Fring in a suicide bombing with the help of Heisenberg.
• My God, What Have I Done?: When Gus tells him that Jesse, the junkie he refused to rat out to the DEA to protect his code, later went on to serve him and kill his grandson, Hector has this expression on his face followed by a silent Villainous Breakdown.
• Not Enough to Bury: In the aftermath of his Murder-Suicide by pipe bomb, all that's left of Hector is the blasted remains of his wheelchair (and a severed leg which might belong to him or Tyrus).
• Obfuscating Disability: Played with. When Walt and Jesse see that he's paralyzed, they assume he's not mentally cognizant and quietly discusses their scheme right in front of him. Hector does nothing to challenge their perception until he knocks Tuco's ricin-laced burrito off the table, whereupon they realize he's much craftier than he appears.
• Once for Yes, Twice for No: He can only communicate with a bell. Once for yes, nothing for no.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
  • The first sign that Walt and Jesse get that he isn't completely senile is when he forces himself to knock Tuco's burrito to the floor, showing that he realized they had poisoned him. This moment also makes Tuco realize that they had tried to do something to him.
  • After Gustavo Fring decides to pay his respects to Hector for what appears to be the loss of his nephew Lalo, Hector decides to look at Gustavo straight in the eyes and smugly smile at him, something Gustavo knows he would never do under normal circumstances. This tips him off that Lalo is in fact still alive and plotting to kill him. It's worth noting that after Lalo dies for real, Hector blatantly refuses to make eye contact with Gustavo again until the moment comes where he's able to kill him.
  • While he resents and often insults Don Eladio behind his back, Hector becomes quiet and submissive when Eladio is present, never acting dickish or disrespectful to Eladio's face and not even defending himself when humiliated by his boss, showing how even he is terrified by the cartel leader. Also when Lalo decides to go directly after Gus, after the assassination attempt on his life, Hector, who's very reckless and Stupid Evil, does rein him in, advising him to find proof of Gus' betrayal beforehand to not risk Don Eladio's wrath for eliminating a huge source of money.
• Outliving One's Offspring: Given that Gus mentions that Hector's grandson Joaquin was his last living relative and with him dead, the Salamanca name will die with Hector, this suggests that Hector outlived his own children.
• Out of Focus: After being a major physical presence in the earlier seasons of Better Call Saul, Hector barely appears after his stroke. His influence is still felt throughout the show but Lalo overtakes his role as the Big Bad.
• Parental Favoritism: Well, Uncle Favoritism but he clearly acts as a paternal figure to all his nephews and out of them, he seems to have the most affection for Lalo. This likely stems from the fact Lalo is the most competent and dangerous of the four.
• Pet the Dog: While he's primarily doing it to try to manipulate the man into doing what he wants, Hector is genuinely apologetic to Mike about Tuco's beatdown towards him, noting that he intends to keep Tuco in jail for at least six months for not showing respect to his elders.
• Politically Incorrect Villain: In a flashback in "One Minute", he derides Gus as a "dirty South American". Then, in a flashback in "Hermanos", he manages to direct several disrespectful barbs at Gus and Max in the space of several minutes — namely targeting their races and sexualities. He also makes jibes against Gustavo's presumed relationship with Max by calling Los Pollos Hermanos "Los Culos Hermanos".
• Pragmatic Villainy: Hector tends to veer into Stupid Evil but he does have moments of restraint:
  • Hector forces Tuco to serve a least at little bit of jail time for attacking Mike, because attacking an elder in broad daylight over a minor slight was a very stupid thing for Tuco to do, and certainly isn't acceptable behavior for someone involved in drug smuggling.
  • After Lalo reveals his survival to him, and that Gus is the one behind the assassination attempt on his life, and expresses his wish to go directly after Gus, Hector does tell him to wait. He then communicates to Lalo that he should get proofs of Gus' involvement and betrayal of the cartel, knowing the risks of Lalo facing Don Eladio's wrath, should he kill Gus without a good enough justification.
• Professional Killer: He was this back in his Cartel days, personally shooting Gus Fring's lover Max.
• Properly Paranoid: Hector is correct when he discusses that Gustavo is not to be trusted due to their first interaction (where Hector killed Max) and is waiting for a golden opportunity to get revenge, but Eladio and Bolsa are deaf to Hector's warnings due to the sheer amount of money Gustavo brings. Lalo is the only one who believes him but he gets killed by Gustavo before he managed to expose him, and the Cartel only realizes this once it's literally too late for them.
• Psychopathic Manchild: Despite being elderly and attempting to pass himself off as a suave gentlemen when not actively killing people or dealing with drug lords, Hector Salamanca isn't nearly as composed as he'd like others to believe. With his lording over others, pettiness, disrespectful attitude, smug demeanor and having tantrums over things not going his way, Hector instead comes across a petulant child most of the time. Even his insistence of having controlling his own front by taking over Nacho's father's store, despite being under orders to use Gus's distribution network is similar to a spoiled child not wanting to share his toys.
• Retired Monster: By circumstance rather than choice.
• "Rise and Fall" Gangster Arc: An interesting example in that we see more of the "fall" than the "rise". Back in the late 80s, Hector Salamanca was a ruthless killer and one of the most powerful members of the Juarez Cartel, being respected by both Eladio and Bolsa, and had a powerful family that was willing to do anything for him and their business. By the time of the Turn of the Millennium however, Hector's prestige and performance had taken a big hit, with Eladio preferring Gustavo Fring's new more practical method of shipping drugs across the country with Hector still stuck in his old ways. In his desperation to gain back his feared reputation, Hector ends up becoming permanently disabled, all but losing his position within the Cartel, and being unable to do anything as his hated rival destroys his business and his family as he spends the rest of his days in a nursing home.
• Saved by Canon: Hector will survive Better Call Saul only to die years later in a suicide bombing as revenge for the deaths of his family.
• Sharp-Dressed Man: He looks very dapper when entering Los Pollos Hermanos.
• Smarter Than You Look: Though his pride and sadism frequently sabotage him, there's a reason Hector was a high ranking member in the cartel for decades, surviving in the criminal underworld and being a capable earner for Eladio even if he was far inferior to Gus's machine like ability to make money. Hector advised Lalo to get proof of Gus's betrayal before revealing his survival and after his stroke, occasionally played up his handicap to be underestimated, sabotaging Walt and Jesse's attempt to poison Tuco. Hector is a skilled crime lord, but is just overshadowed by the genius of Gus and his nephew Lalo.
• Smug Snake: It's true that Hector is not a man to be crossed, but he vainly boasts that he "is the cartel" when in truth he's (admittedly influential enough) upper middle management at best.
• Stupid Evil:
  • He's not stupid all the time but his direct approach to dealing with Gustavo, Bolsa, and Eladio is unsubtle, crass, and suicidally disrespectful.
  • After being told that he must keep Lalo's survival a secret, he instantly blows the lid by making peace with Gustavo Fring. It's an act so stupidly out of character that Gustavo knows immediately Lalo has to be alive. In fact, his smug smile and direct look at Gustavo in the eyes, indirectly tipping him off about Lalo's survival, is implied to be the reason behind his later refusal to ever look Gustavo in the eyes again during Breaking Bad, as Gus's paranoia and preparations for Lalo's inevitable attempt on his life is ultimately what allowed him to triumph (for at least 5 years), and Hector is acutely aware he blew the best chance his family had of dealing with Gustavo out of his petty need to gloat against his enemy.
• Suddenly Speaking: Sorta. In all present-day scenes in Breaking Bad, Hector's stroke had rendered him mute. Better Call Saul takes place before Breaking Bad and before Hector's stroke. So this is the first time we've seen Hector speak outside of flashbacks in either show and also the first time we've seen him speak in English (the two Breaking Bad flashbacks were in Spanish).
• The Speechless: He's unable to speak due to his stroke. We only hear him speak in two flashbacks here, as well as in Better Call Saul.
• Suicide Attack: In the Season 4 finale, with the help of Walter, he lures Gus into a bombing in which both are killed.
• Taking You with Me: He blows himself up so he can take Gus down with him.
• Tears of Remorse: While he doesn't actually cry, Hector gives Gustavo a brief look of regret and despair right as he's about to inject him, implying that he genuinely does regret what he did to Gustavo all those years ago. That said, his remorse is nothing compared to the utter fury in him for what he's done to his family and life's work, as his second look demonstrates.
• Tough Love: Hector's way of educating his nephews may be brutal, but he genuinely loves them. Losing family members seems to be his biggest fear and is what Gus uses to torment him.
• Trespassing to Talk: Hector intimidates the customers of Los Pollos Hermanos into leaving before basically taking over the place just so he can speak to Gus. He even sits in Gus's office chair and uses Gus's pen to scrape dog shit off his shoe...onto Gus's papers.
• Villainous Breakdown:
  • After hearing that Tuco has landed himself in solitary with a greatly extended sentence for punching a guard and knifing someone, he has a violent fit that leaves him scrabbling for his pills, played as a tease for the stroke that will leave him paralyzed. After Juan Bolsa shows up to firmly remind Hector that he's under orders to use Gus's distribution network, Hector completely loses it and goes on an indignant, furious and near-suicidally disrespectful rant as to how their empire was "built with Salamanca blood," leading to his suffering a heart attack. He's practically on the verge of tears by the time the heart attack swoops in.
    Bolsa: It's what the boss wants.
    Hector: The boss can suck me!
    Bolsa: I'd watch what I say if I were you.
    Hector: Who you think you are? You should be kissing my ass right now! Me and my family? We built this whole business!
    Bolsa: We all did. Together.
    Hector: No, no! Salamanca did! Salamanca money! Salamanca blood!
    Bolsa: You have to calm down.
    Hector: That hacienda, I paid for it! And you treat us like dogs!
    Bolsa: Hector, this isn't personal—
    Hector: It is! It is personal-!
  • He has a silent one, due to his condition, when Nacho finally tells him that he's the one who's responsible for his condition, by switching his heart medicine with sugar pills and telling him what kind of man Hector truly is. Hector cannot say anything but his face and breath make it clear that he's full of murderous fury, and he uses one of the twins' guns to shoot Nacho's lifeless body after he killed himself.
  • During his accusation of Gustavo Fring at the Cartel Meeting, he was smug and assured that Gus would be killed for secretly undermining the Cartel. Unfortunately for Hector, Lalo's actual death at the hands of Gus, the fact that he covered his tracks too well, and Fring's composure lead Don Eladio and Bolsa to respectfully dismiss Hector's accusations, to which he delves into a nonverbal You Have to Believe Me! rant by furiously ringing his bell.
• Villainous Valor: Hector may be an asshole who's Bullying a Dragon, but he stands on equal footing with Mike when the two of them have their showdown, displaying no fear and remaining completely stoic regarding their encounter possibly turning fatal. He also won't hide his resentment and will be honest about it, unlike Bolsa and Gus, suicidal as it is. Downplayed in that he's a Dirty Coward when in comes to not saying anything bad to Eladio's face.
• Villains Never Lie: He never lies, according to Tuco. Notably, in his interviews with the DEA, he never really lies to them; he only remains silent, insults them, and shits himself. This is what separates him from Gus in his eyes, as he's honest about his resentment and doesn't hide it like the latter does.
• Villain Respect: His second negotiation with Mike in order for him to take ownership of the gun to help Tuco's situation. When Hector says Mike's payment is his life, and the fact that with one word, he can have the twins kill his family, Mike is still holding his ground about needing the $50,000. In the end, Hector can't help but admire such guts Mike displayed and agreed to the $50,000.
• Worthy Opponent: He agrees to pay Mike ten times what he originally offered. Anybody else probably would have been shot in the head, but Hector appreciates a man with the giant balls to face him without fear. The fact that Mike completely schooled the enforcers he sent probably had something to do with it too. (He might, however, still have underestimated the headache Mike could well give him despite the respect.)
• Would Hurt a Child: He drowns Marco almost to death in a childhood flashback, and Better Call Saul shows him using the Cousins to threaten to kill Mike's granddaughter.
• You Have Failed Me: He tends to do this with his employees. Eladio even warns poor Ximenez that Hector doesn't do second chances. Sure enough, he has Ximenez killed by The Cousins after Mike holds him up.

Lalo

See here.

Others

Tuco

Tuco Salamanca

"Nobody moves crystal in the South Valley but me, bitch!"

Portrayed By: Raymond Cruz

Appearances: Breaking Bad | Better Call Saul

"I like doing business with a family man. There's always a lot of collateral."

A drug distributor in Albuquerque's South Valley who initially acts as Walt and Jesse's first "boss". Freshly released from prison after doing a stint for assaulting Mike Ehrmantraut in a road rage incident, Tuco is an unstable, paranoid man who snorts meth all day. At first Walter (and reluctantly Jesse) want to be Tuco's main supplier, but they change their minds when they witness Tuco beating one of his subordinates to death over a minor misunderstanding. And by "minor misunderstanding," we mean being supportive.

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• Arc Villain: For the first two seasons of both shows.
  • Tuco serves as the preeminent threat to Walt and Jesse in Breaking Bad, from his introduction towards the end of the first season until his death at the beginning of Season 2. Subsequently, his organization ceases to pose a direct threat to the series' protagonists until more than a season later (by which time Gustavo Fring has all but eclipsed them as the story's foremost antagonist).
  • In Better Call Saul, Tuco serves as Jimmy McGill's first encounter with the Juarez Cartel after a scam gone wrong, with him having to negotiate with the man to prevent him and the people he's working with from being killed at his hands. Later in Season 2, Nacho and Mike come up with a plan to get Tuco incarcerated in prison due to his unstable behavior, taking him out of the game for the rest of the show.
• Asshole Victim: It's outright cathartic when Jesse and Walt get payback on Tuco, and even more when Hank kills him, considering how much of a psychotic prick he was.
• Ax-Crazy: It's impossible to overstate just how murderously insane Tuco is. He snorts meth off a Bowie knife right out of the bag, he's almost always screaming, and is no problem with beating someone to death just for talking out of turn. He also has all kinds of gruesome fates planned for the skateboarders who insulted his Abuelita, and even gets threatening towards No-Doze for making a little comment against Jimmy. After he dies, being "another Tuco" is shorthand between Walt and Jesse for someone possibly being Ax-Crazy.
• Bad Boss: His underlings are terrified of him and for good reason. Tuco's mental instability and rampant drug use mean he can and will kill you for the most spurious of reasons, most of which exist only within the twisted logic of his own head. He kills No-Doze for saying something supportive.
  Jesse: Did you not see him beat a dude to death for, like, nothing?
• Bad People Abuse Animals: He's shown spending his free time waiting for his cousins to arrive firing out the window at cows with his assault rifle. Walt and Jesse are even more horrified of him than they already were.
• Berserk Button: People helping him without being asked to, because it makes him feel like they think he's too stupid to do things without their help. During his first appearance, he snaps at Skinny Pete for the heinous crime of vouching for him in front of Jesse without being asked to. Later, He kills No-Doze for simply speaking out in his support for much of the same reason.
  Tuco: You're just speaking for me, like I ain't got the goddam sense to speak for myself! Is that it?
• Big Bad: Of season 1. Although Krazy-8 was the first antagonist in the series, in the end, he was just a small-time thug. Contrasting, Tuco is the first big shot to introduce the Cartels and represents a far more dangerous threat to Walt.
• Blood Knight: Getting put into checkmate via a police audience? No reason to stop punching with an appreciative smile. Hector even notes that Tuco aspires to be a boxer, hence his hot-headedness.
• Boom, Headshot!: Hank finally takes him out with a well-aimed shot to the forehead.
• The Brute: Of the Salamanca family. He's an important enforcer, but that's the limit of his talents. He's not as skilled a Professional Killer as his twin cousins, and certainly not as clever as Lalo or Hector.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Despite being a hollering, red-faced lunatic, he is nonetheless one of the Cartel's most reliable and trusted enforcers according to Juan Bolsa. It seems likely his terrifying reputation kept everyone in line and eager to please.
• Chronic Villainy: He can't even behave when in jail on a fairly short sentence that only requires good behavior.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Tuco doesn't think at all. He still manages to engage in a gunfight with Hank after being hit in the head with a rock, shot at close range, and kicked into a ditch.
• Cloudcuckoolander: He has shades of this, notably when he brutally pummels one of his thugs for his own sadistic gratification and then is irrationally furious when the man dies as a result. The same goes for the time he beat up Mike over a (staged) fender bender.
• Cool Car: Drives a 1970 Pontiac Tempest GT-37.
• Comically Missing the Point: Jimmy's entire negotiation with him to spare the skateboarders in Better Call Saul is a long, LONG string of Tuco taking small tidbits in the other man's words and twisting them into something they...really aren't.
  Jimmy: Ever heard of the Code of Hammurabi? Eye for an eye?
  Tuco: Eye for an eye...you want me to blind them!
  ...
  Jimmy: See, I'm suggesting you make the punishment fit the crime.
  Tuco: "Punishment fit the crime." Colombian neckties! I cut their throats, and pull their lying tongues out through the slits. Biznatch!
• Deadpan Snarker: Usually overshadowed by his Ax-Crazy Large Ham tendencies but he snarks at Walt's choice of meeting him in an abandoned car park asking if they closed the mall.
• The Determinator: After being critically wounded by a gunshot from Jesse, he engages in a pitched gunfight with Hank, and holds his own for a couple of volleys before being killed.
• Disc-One Final Boss: Tuco was planned to last longer, but at the actor's request, he ends up dead early in Season 2, a victim of his own impulsive decisions.
• Don't You Dare Pity Me!: Deconstructed and Played for Horror. Tuco really hates the idea that he isn't capable or needs support from others (besides his family and certain close ones), and that can involve his own allies if they were to act "too" supportive. At his best, Tuco would give a calm but stern warning to cut it out, as seen with No-Doze in Better Call Saul, and at his worst (when he's hopped up on meth), he'll beat them to near-death like with No-Doze in the first Season Finale of Breaking Bad.
• The Dreaded: While not as powerful as Gustavo Fring or as industrious as his cousin Lalo, Tuco's violent and unstable personality still leaves him a force to be reckoned with. It certainly says something that even Don Eladio is wary of him.
• Disproportionate Retribution:
  • Early in Better Call Saul, Tuco plans on brutally executing the Lindholm twins for insulting his grandmother. Jimmy has to talk him down so that he only breaks one of each of their legs.
  • He also attacks Mike for "accidentally" sideswiping his car (a gambit set up by Mike and Nacho to get Tuco out of the way without killing him). Although Mike did grab him and knock his gun away before he started seriously beating on Mike that's like beating someone for defending himself from a mugger.
• Dramatic Irony: He's the most incompetent of the Salamancas, even when taking into Hector's paralysis into account, and seems to be the only one who doesn't have any animosity towards Gus Fring. Yet, his death ends up playing a big role in Gus' eventual death.
• Drugs Are Bad: Though he's frighteningly erratic at the best of times, after some meth, he typically becomes sadistically violent. He once killed a man named Dog Paulsen by shooting him point-blank with a shotgun, while hopping up on a peanut butter crank.
• Enfant Terrible: In his childhood, if the family photograph in "Face Off" is anything to go by. The picture depicts him standing casually, but glowering at the camera.
• Et Tu, Brute?: He's on the verge of tears upon realizing that his brother-in-law Gonzo might have betrayed him.
• Extremely Protective Child: He tries to torture Jimmy and the two skaters for trying to scam his grandmother, and it takes both of Jimmy and Nacho's combined efforts to talk him out of it (although the skaters still get a broken leg each for insulting her earlier).
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones:
  • Despite being an awful person, he still gladly takes care of his elderly uncle, who apparently beat the "family is all" mantra into all the young Salamancas. He also notably becomes extremely distressed when he thinks that Walt or Jesse interfered with Hector in some way.
  • His love for his grandmother in Better Call Saul is even more genuine (especially when compared to his fear of Hector at the time), and he tries to hide his criminal activities from her. Insulting her in any way will either get you a painful death or some broken legs.
  • In his own words, Tuco loves Gonzo like his blood brother. Most notably, Tuco never mistreats Gonzo as he does No-Doze. The possibility that Gonzo might have turned rat hurts him deeply.
  • According to Nacho, Tuco really liked Dog Paulsen and regretted killing him after becoming sober from taking a whiff of the peanut butter crank.
• Even Evil Has Standards: While Tuco obviously doesn't tolerate disrespect towards him and his family, he won't take kindly to people kissing his ass or helping him too much, as he thinks it makes him look weak and stupid.
• Evil Is Hammy: He is so horrifyingly Ax-Crazy and proudly shows it off in every single scene he is in.
• Evil Is Petty: He literally beats his subordinate to death for simply reminding Walter to remember to only work for Tuco, because he found this disrespectful... or he just wanted an excuse to become violent.
• Fatal Flaw:
  • Wrath. He has a very, very short fuse, and would quickly resort to a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown towards anyone he feels has disrespected him or his family. On one hand, this makes him rather predictable, but at the same, all the more terrifying by the unpredictability of what will set him off. His unpredictable anger and violence issues are what drove Walt and Jesse to poison him after witnessing him beat No-Doze to death for over "nothing", and when they were making the ricin, Gonzo's accidental death from trying to give a proper burial for No-Doze causes the cops to find the location of Tuco's operation and nearly arrested him again.
  • His drug addiction serves as another flaw. It makes his bad temper and mood swings worse and guarantees a fatal consequence on anyone, besides his own family, or a one-way trip to the hospital at best. In Better Call Saul, Nacho mentioned to Mike that Tuco shot and killed his supplier Dog under the pretense of treachery while all hopping up on a "peanut butter crank" (i.e. meth), and in Breaking Bad he brutally beats No-Doze to the point that the latter died soon after taking a whiff of Walt's Blue Sky meth. On the flip side, Walt and Jesse can take advantage of Tuco's drug addiction by lacing the Blue Sky meth with ricin and giving a half-ass sales pitch to Tuco that it gets the user insanely high than ever. If wasn't for outside interference, such as Jesse overselling it by mentioning "Chili Powder" as the secret ingredient (which Tuco hates) and Hector pushing the ricin-laced burrito off the table, Tuco's addiction would have done him in rather than getting killed by Hank.
• First-Episode Twist: Sure, he shows up very early in the show and it is a prequel, but the revelation that Tuco was the grandson of the skateboarders' scam victim was a large surprise for those who've seen Breaking Bad and didn't expect his actor to reprise the role. His appearance also marks where the show begins to shift towards the dramatic.
• Freudian Excuse: Possibly. Bolsa mentions that Hector instructed him in the drug cartel business and treated him like a son. Judging by the glimpse of Hector's shockingly brutal parenting methods in "Sunset" coupled with Tuco's glaringly apparent signs of mental illness, it is heavily implied that the time Tuco spent with his uncle left him extremely traumatized.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: While Hector and his family do love him, the same cannot be said for his enforcers and dealers, who clearly fear him more than they respect him. His best friend at the time Nacho quickly turns on him after he starts losing it, and even Eladio considers him too insane to be around.
• Getting High on Their Own Supply: Part of what makes him so dangerous is that he is constantly snorting the very meth that he's supposed to sell or peddle, making his already pretty bad temper even worse.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: Tuco is constantly one broken shoelace away from attacking whoever's at hand. He dishes out No Holds Barred Beatdowns like candy to his victims including Mike, Jesse, and No-Doze. Nacho even puts a hit on him partly because he is sick of his boss's kill-happy attitude. Hell, "continue punching the insulter even though the police have boxed me in"? One hell of a temper, dude.
• Hand Cannon: In Better Call Saul he usually carries a snubnose revolver chambered to .454 Casull.
• Hidden Depths: Tuco is frequently shown cooking (food, that is) whenever he happens to have some downtime, and he is clearly quite passionate about it; it is pretty much the only time where he genuinely seems to just relax, let his guard down, and enjoy himself. Seeing how it is a task that takes some concentration and planning ahead and is something associated with people with a nurturing personality, this hobby seems quite a bit at odds with the impulsive, violent, and mentally unstable drug lord persona he projects to the outside world.
• His Own Worst Enemy: Tuco's insanity, hot temper, ultraviolence, and drug addiction are his worst enemies in the line of Cartel work, more than it's considered an advantage by keeping his underlings in line. He cannot think and plan for any consequences that would arise from his actions, and any potential allies he has will quickly see him as a workplace hazard and would plan his downfall. If left to his own devices, Tuco would find himself either in jail swiftly with an extended sentence by picking fights, losing his base of operations and his gang to the DEA, or potentially getting poisoned by Walt and Jesse before finally kicking the bucket at the hands of Hank.
• Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy: He unloads an entire M4 magazine at Hank Schrader and doesn't hit him once. Meanwhile, Hank manages to shoot him in the head with a pistol while he was reloading. Justified because Tuco had a severe gunshot wound to the abdomen, and was probably high on drugs as well. He was also blazing away on fully automatic from the hip while jerking around, while Hank actually crouched and used his gun's sights. No surprise that he hit nothing but air.
• Insane Troll Logic:
  • He somehow concludes that Gonzo was a DEA informant with no other evidence beyond the fact Gonzo has been acting "pouty" over the death of No-Doze and hasn't been able to get in contact with him for two days.
  • Earlier on when No-Doze tells Walt and Jesse "Don't forget who you work for." — a statement that would sound like mere emphasis or supportiveness to any saner mind — Tuco gets unusually stern, asking No-Doze why he felt the need to say that, saying that he was implying the two were stupid. When No-Doze denies this as tactfully as he can, Tuco concludes that No-Doze is implying that Tuco is stupid, and reacts accordingly. Jesse even lampshades this to Walt to emphasize how insane Tuco is to beat someone to death for over "nothing"^note Technically speaking, Tuco did have a reason...just the most convoluted and pettiest one could make with a twisted mind like his.
  • In Better Call Saul, Tuco somehow concludes that the term "eye for an eye" means "blind someone". Jimmy is not impressed.
• Irony: Despite being the most outwardly vicious and Ax-Crazy of the Salamancas, we only ever see him kill one person on-screen, fewer than even the mostly wheelchair-bound Hector.
• Jerkass: He's aggressive, violent, and extremely confrontational (especially if he's on meth). There are times when there's absolutely nothing you can say to save yourself.
• Knight of Cerebus:
  • The first couple of episodes had Black Comedy and the Jesse/Walt Odd Couple, but the Tuco arc was very dark and dramatic in comparison. Things became more humorous after his death but were still darker than in Season 1.
  • It's even more prevalent on Better Call Saul, as the show was pretty light-hearted in the beginning until he shows up and nearly kills Jimmy and two skateboarders who had attempted to scam his grandmother.
• Large Ham:
  • In direct contrast to the other, more understated villains in Breaking Bad, Tuco screams, postures, boasts, and goes off the rails. He even lets out a dramatically sinister-sounding laugh when he finds a condom in Jesse's wallet in "Grilled."
  • Double-subverted in Better Call Saul. Though he's actually very calm when his Abuelita is around, as soon as he takes Jimmy out into the desert he turns back into the screaming, Ax-Crazy madman that we are familiar with.
• Living Lie Detector: Nacho tells Mike that Tuco will stare at a dealer for five minutes, calling it his lie detector. Though it's more for intimidation than it shows actual intelligence, as he had failed to see Jimmy's Cassandra Truth earlier, despite being actually sober for once.
• Meaningful Name: His name is Spanish slang for "rat" or "little terrorist".
• The Millstone: Although his fearsome management style and reputation is good at making underlings fear him according to Juan Bolsa, his temper is really bad for business to the point his partner was ready to kill him for it and despite Hector's intervention he keeps stretching his prison sentence by picking a fight while he's in there, with a guard no less.
• Mood-Swinger: When we first meet him, he's actually fairly quiet which makes him seem like a character who's all business. Then he gets a whiff of Walter's meth, and we see how he really is. His moods always run to the extreme, and he can go from being happy at a successful business arrangement to beating someone to death in an instant.
• My God, What Have I Done?: According to Nacho, Tuco felt bad for killing Doug after he became sober from the effects of meth.
• The Napoleon: He goes eye to eye with Jesse (Raymond Cruz is 5'7", which is just a little shorter than Aaron Paul's height), yet is probably one of the most unstable and terrifying villains on the show.
  • In Better Call Saul, Tuco gives up a clear foot in height to the Lindholm brothers and Jimmy Mc Gill in the desert, but is able to terrorize them thoroughly with violence and threats of violence. It helps that the latter three are NOT fighters and Tuco is a brutal cartel capo with a penchant for beating people within an inch of their lives or even to death.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: It's extremely easy to get him to administer one to you. Just say something, anything, that's remotely insulting towards him (even if you didn't mean it that way) and you'll quickly find yourself beaten within an inch of your life and sent to the hospital if you aren't killed outright.
• No Indoor Voice: When he's not speaking quietly, he's shouting at the top of his lungs.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: During his stint in jail, Tuco managed to stab a prisoner and slug a guard hard enough in the jaw to break it. Unfortunately, it backfires on him and his family significantly as he gets locked up in solitary confinement over the issue.
• Out of Focus: Of all the members of the Salamanca family (discounting Joaquin, who was already a very minor character in Breaking Bad and doesn't feature at all in the prequel show), Tuco is easily the least relevant on Better Call Saul. Compared to his cousins and uncle, Tuco only terrorizes Jimmy briefly in Season 1 and is tricked into getting arrested after attacking Mike in Season 2. From then on, Tuco spends the entirety of the show in jail, only getting released so that the events of Breaking Bad will occur.
• Pet the Dog:
  • He was willing to let Jimmy take the skateboarder when he genuinely apologized and swore they wouldn't bother his abuelita anymore. Then they say Jimmy was on the scam and Tuco goes ballistic.
  • After beating the snot out of Jesse during their first encounter, he briefly looks at Skinny Pete like he's about to do the same to him, then just walks away and allows him to bring Jesse to a hospital offscreen. That's downright merciful by his standard.
• Psychopathic Manchild: He shows various signs of this. In addition to being prone to violent tantrums, Tuco possesses a highly impulsive personality which often leads him to make rash judgments with little forethought of the consequences. This is evidenced by the shock and distress he displays when one of his thugs dies after he gives him a fatal beating. He also appears to have considerable difficulty comprehending (let alone genuinely empathizing with) others' needs and feelings aside from his uncle, Hector, whom he both fears and idolizes. This is made apparent by his response to Walt's protest over his plan to take him to Mexico because he has a family: "So what? You'll get another one."
• Put on a Prison Bus: Sent to prison for at least five years during the events of Better Call Saul. His uncle arranged to make it six months but his behavior makes it harder. Enforced due to Raymond Cruz not wanting to play the role too often, as he finds it exhausting to be that Ax-Crazy even for pretend.
• Rasputinian Death: Gets hit on the head with a rock, shot at point-blank range on the abdomen, kicked and beat, shoved into a ditch (all of which is the work of Jesse), then finally shot in the head by Hank.
• Real Life Writes the Plot: Tuco was supposed to be on the show a bit longer, but actor Raymond Cruz didn't enjoy playing such a disturbed character for so long and asked to be written out. As he was originally planned to be one of the Big Bads later on, Tuco's early death caused the creation of Gus. Cruz did return to play the part again for Better Call Saul.
• Real Men Cook: Seems to be a pretty decent one. He makes burritos for himself, Walt, Jesse, and his uncle, and Better Call Saul sees him cooking lunch in an apron.
• Real Men Wear Pink: Wears a salmon pink shirt in his first appearance. Since hotter colors on the show mean he's further up on the crime scale, this was suitable.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The Red to Nacho's Blue in Better Call Saul.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: He probably wouldn't last as long in the cartel if it weren't for his Uncle. Said uncle is how he manages to get his prison sentence reduced, though he doesn't exactly help in keeping it that way.
• Shout-Out: His first name may be a reference to Eli Wallach's character in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.
  • His death at the hands of Hank mirrors Ramón Rojo's in A Fistful of Dollars (also from the Dollars Trilogy), where the villain ultimately lost because his weapon took longer to reload than the hero's.
• Small Role, Big Impact:
  • He's only in four episodes of Breaking Bad, but his death has profound consequences for a lot of characters, namely Hank for doing it and Walt and Jesse for largely being responsible for it. His death is what sends the Cousins after all of them, causing long-term effects for the rest of the series.
  • He only gets one scene in Better Call Saul's second season, but that one scene marks a big shift in Mike's life as it brings him into conflict with the other Salamancas and that's a major step in his path towards working with Gustavo Fring. His appearances in Season 1 also introduce Jimmy McGill to the criminal underground, paving the road that Jimmy will eventually go down to become Saul Goodman.
• Soft-Spoken Sadist: When his Abuelita is around he speaks in a very low and frightening whisper, as he obviously doesn't want to disturb her in any way. When she's not around, however...
• Starter Villain: In both series, he appears as an antagonist early in the show before being written off to make way for other Big Bads.
• Stimulant Speedtalk: From his first episode onwards, Tuco frequently gets high on the meth he's supposed to be distributing, and not only features a very volatile, talkative personality, but he's also prone to ranting at high speed after every snort and shouting things that make sense only to him. Screaming "Tight! Tight! Tight!" is probably the least bewildering thing that he says under the influence.
• Stock "Yuck!": Walter's ricin-infused meth gets turned down when Jessie oversells it as his recipe by claiming it contains his secret ingredient: chili powder.
  "I hate chili powder."
• Stupid Evil: While not an outright idiot, Tuco is so incredibly hot-tempered and short-sighted that he effectively shoots himself in the foot, not caring if he beats one of his subordinates to death and buries his body in almost plain sight, thus making him a high priority for DEA to snoop around. He also extends his own prison sentence in Better Call Saul, simply because he had to pick a fight with a prison guard.
• Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome: He dies two episodes into Season 2 of Breaking Bad.
• Tension-Cutting Laughter: Shortly before beating an underling to death anyway.
• Tranquil Fury: Very calmly tells his Too Dumb to Live sidekick No-Doze, "Stop Helping". Fast forward to, Breaking Bad, and it's not so tranquil.
• Too Dumb to Live: "Hey, my uncle got me a really sweet deal only getting 6 months in prison, better stab this other inmate and assault a guard!" Really it's a miracle that he was actually out of prison by 2008.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: While he's still awful and Hot-Blooded in Better Call Saul, Tuco isn't nearly as bad as he would become in his first appearance. It seems it's much easier to actually negotiate with him since he isn't on meth all the time.
  • Though he shot and killed his supplier Dog due to believing he was supplying his competitor, he felt bad afterward according to Nacho. Cut to ten years later, he brutally beats his associate No-Doze to death for speaking out of turn, and later goes out of his way to defend his actions, even after sobering up.
  • He beats Mike half to death in 2004, but it's only after the latter went out of his way to provoke him, even having to resort to grabbing his collar for Tuco to land a punch. In Breaking Bad he beats people around for fun and clearly takes sadistic pleasure in making those he doesn't respect bleed.
• The Unfavorite: Implied to be this amongst Hector's nephews. Compared to how much Hector relies on Lalo and the Cousins to serve as the muscle for the Salamanca drug empire, Tuco is always regulated to running smaller organizations for them. Furthermore, Hector has no problem forcing Tuco to remain in jail after he beats Mike half to death for grabbing his collar, clearly seeing his nephew's temper as a liability. With that said, Hector still loves Tuco in his own way, as he's genuinely upset when Tuco extends his own prison sentence, attempts to warn him of Walter and Jesse poisoning him, and later calls out for a hit on the former when Tuco's shot at Hank's hands.
• Villain of Another Story: He only appears in three episodes of Better Call Saul. Justified as his appearance was only meant to be an Easter egg for Breaking Bad fans.
• Villains Out Shopping: He is seen calmly doing housework when not on business in a way that almost makes him seem half normal.
• Villain Respect:
  • When Tuco realizes that Mike Ehrmantraut had just set him up to be arrested by the dozens of cops surrounding him, he simply chuckles with amusement and punches him out.
  • When Walter shows up to demand his payment, and then blows up his headquarters as a show of courage, Tuco smirks before handing him what he's owed. In general, it seems like Tuco likes those who stand up to him, and despises suck-ups and cowards. It says a lot that Walter later talks him out of killing Jesse while he's high and holding a gun to his face.
• With Friends Like These...: He apparently regarded his supplier Dog Paulson as a friend. After getting high, he shot him in the head for allegedly selling out to his rivals. This caused Nacho, another friend of his, to turn on him.

The Cousins

"The Cousins" Leonel & Marco Salamanca

"..."

Portrayed By: Daniel and Luis Moncada

Appearances: Breaking Bad | Better Call Saul

"Hemos esperado suficiente. No vamos a esperar más." ^note "We have waited long enough. We will not wait any longer."

Tuco's cousins, ruthless hitmen and enforcers for the Juarez Cartel and their uncle Hector. Best described as two human Terminators, they go after Walter White to avenge Tuco's murder.

---

• Absurdly Sharp Blade: Their axe can apparently cut right into asphalt.
• Always Someone Better; Downplayed: Marco seems to be the more dominant of the two, often having to save Leonel whenever he is spotted by a cop or pinned down in a shootout; he's also the one taking charge during most of their assignments or in business meetings, giving the impression that he's The Leader of the two. Not to mention, Marco used to bully Leonel when they were kids. Nevertheless, this hardly matters given Leonel is still very dangerous, neither cousin appears to care about one-upping the other, and are both highly effective as a team.^note This dynamic probably reflects the fact that Luis Moncada (Marco's actor) is older than Daniel (Leonel's actor), therefore indicating that Marco is the eldest twin. Luis' greater experience as an actor may also explain why Marco has a bit more dialogue and a slightly more active role.
• Arc Villain: The villains of the first half of Breaking Bad's third season, hunting Walt and later Hank to avenge Tuco's death.
• An Arm and a Leg: After Hank crushes him between two cars, Leonel needs both of his legs amputated. This doesn't stop him from trying to crawl up to Walt and murder him.
• Armor Is Useless; Averted: They purchase a pair of bulletproof vests before heading off to kill Hank, ones that prove to be very effective with Marco taking 5 close-range pistol shots to the chest.
• Asshole Victim: Both In-Universe and out, no one, except Hector, feel bad about their deaths, with Gomez firmly believing that they totally deserve it.
• Avenging the Villain: Their objective is to avenge Tuco's death.
• Ax-Crazy: They kill almost everyone they come across. They also have a literal ax as their favored weapon.
• Bad Boss: They're willing to shoot one of their own men for shooting in Nacho's direction when they need him alive.
• Badass in a Nice Suit: And boots. Even the production crew wanted to have a look at the skull-tipped shoes.
• Bald of Evil: Both are completely bald and very, very evil.
• Beware the Quiet Ones: They barely speak in the entire series (save for their flashback as children), and on the rare occasion they do speak, it's in a low, menacing whisper.
• Big Bad Ensemble: With Gus in season 3. It is they who attempt to assassinate Walt or Hank during the first half of the season, as well as the catalysts behind the conflict between Gus and The Juarez Cartel.
• Big Brother Bully: Downplayed. Marco used to bully Leonel as a kid, but this clearly stopped by the time they became adults (probably due to Hector's unorthodox parenting methods).
• Big Brother Instinct: Marco immediately checks on Leonel after Hank injures him, with clear signs of worry all over his face in a rare moment of emotion.
• Bond Villain Stupidity: When Marco has Hank cornered, he decides not to execute him with his pistol and leaves to go get his ax. This gives Hank time to reload his pistol and kill Marco with a headshot.
• Boom, Headshot!: Marco's fate at the hands of Hank, ironically with the very hollow point bullet Marco himself got as a freebie from the arms dealer.
• Car Fu: How Leonel gets disabled by Hank.
• Chekhov's Gun: The hollow-point bullet given to Marco for free by an arms dealer early in "One Minute" is dropped, unnoticed, by Marco when he's reloading during his attack on Hank. Hank puts it to good use.
• Chekhov's Gunman: They are mentioned by Tuco in the Season 2 premiere before finally appearing in the flesh in "No Más".
• Co-Dragons: Serve as this for Hector Salamanca and Juan Bolsa within the Cartel, as they're some of the most capable and deadly killers in the Salamanca family. Though Hector is helpless in a wheelchair, having the twins at his beck and call is part of the reason he's still so feared.
• The Comically Serious:
  • They both sit patiently in Walt's bedroom while they wait for the latter to finish his showering. Once Walt is done showering, they plan on assassinating him...until they get a page from Los Pollos Hermanos. At that point, all the brothers can do is stare at each other in confusion before hightailing it out of the house before Walt sees them.
  • Their quiet and intimidating stature also makes them somewhat goofy when they're doing something as mundane as watching Hector recover in the hospital. The enthusiastic and unfazed Dr. Marueen Buckner from Johns Hopkins really drives the point home as they answer her questions bluntly. And after the doctor recommends talking to the comatose Hector, they stand there in awkward silence for a moment and then tell others in the room to speak instead.
• Commuting on a Bus: They leave Hector's side by Season 3 of Better Call Saul, later only mentioning in passing that they are keeping an eye on Tuco's time in jail among other things. It's entirely possible they were only brought along in order to intimidate Mike, and once he agreed to Hector's deal they simply returned to their own business. By Season 4 onwards, they take more active roles following their uncle's stroke and begin appearing much more frequently.
• Cop Killer: They kill a tribal police officer who stumbles upon them while investigating the death of a woman whose house they took over, and they later attempt to kill Hank.
• Creepy Twins: They do everything together and hold the following creed to heart, "Family is all."
• Cruel and Unusual Death: The way they murder their victims is extremely savage and brutal.
• Death Glare: Poster boys to say the least.
• Disc-One Final Boss: After serving as the main threat for the first half of Season 3, they're both axed off at the season's midpoint.
• Disproportionate Retribution: They full-on slaughter the whole group of illegal immigrants in the van just because one chatty lad spotted their boots.
• The Dividual: They look similar, dress similarly, and act together in almost perfect synchrony.
• The Determinator: Leonel was just crushed by a car and had both legs amputated. When he sees Walt, he unhooks himself from his IVs, rolls out of his hospital bed, and drags himself toward Walt by his bloody stumps, death-staring him the whole time. While Walt is surrounded by half a dozen cops. Until Gomez and the others can stop him.
• The Dreaded: Mike is a mixture of angered and shocked by them just appearing overlooking the pool while he's supervising Kaylee, especially when Marco makes a gun gesture toward Kaylee.
• Establishing Character Moment: Killing everyone in the truck they used to get into the United States, and torching the truck for good measure.
  • Even before that, their enigmatic actions, always in perfect synchronization with each other, throughout the Season 3 premiere establish them as single-minded in multiple ways, in the sense that they are both dividuals and determinators.
• Et Tu, Brute?: They clearly don't realize just how much Nacho hates them in Better Call Saul, and take his attempt on Lalo's life very personally. Unlike Hector's fury at Nacho, the Cousins look more emotionally hurt by his final words and condemnation of them.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones:
  • The whole reason they go after Walt (then later Hank) is that they hold him responsible for Tuco's death. During the parking lot shootout, after Leonel is incapacitated, Marco abandons his pursuit of Hank to check on him and only abandons him when Leonel tells him to.
  • They also care deeply for their cousin Lalo, with them visiting the site of his (supposed) death with a solemn attitude. Leonel even looks genuinely shocked at how the body appears to have been burned so horrifically, and covers it up with a jacket to pay his respects.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Leonel shares Hector's contempt for the DEA. After seeing Walt in the midst of DEA agents rather than tell anyone about Walt's true identity he merely attempts to crawl towards him violently.
• Facial Dialogue: Regularly communicate with each other this way.
• Fiery Cover-Up: A trait shared by all Salamancas. They burn the car with Arturo's corpse in it after it was supposedly attacked by a rival gang.
• Finger Gun: Marco gives Mike's granddaughter an Implied Death Threat using this gesture.
• Flanderization: They talk even less and are even more deadly in Better Call Saul than they were in Breaking Bad.
• For the Evulz: Some of the murders they carry out are pretty unnecessary and have nothing to do with The Cartel's business, suggesting that there is some pure enjoyment to it.
• The Heavy: Of season 3. With Juan Bolsa being the Greater-Scope Villain, it is they who have the greatest prominence in the USA and who trigger the greatest conflicts during the first half of the season. Plus, it's they who trigger the biggest conflict between Walter White, Hank, and Gus, after all.
• Horrible Judge of Character: Either they are really submissive to the Cartel's hierarchy or have completely missed the tension between Gus and their uncle. When the enemy of their family allows them to kill Hank and take the heat from the police and Bolsa on him, they accept readily.
• I Will Only Slow You Down: Marco pauses from pursuing Hank when he sees Leonel severely wounded, but his twin insists that he finish off Hank.
• Implacable Man: No obstacle seems to deter them from their objective. That is, until they go up against Hank.
• Karmic Death: Leonel is given a lethal injection in the hospital by Mike, the grandfather of the little girl he threatened to assassinate back in 2002.
• Language Barrier: Unlike the rest of the Salamanca family, Marco and Leonel primarily converse in Spanish due to not knowing much English (in Breaking Bad, they utter a grand total of three non-Spanish words between the two of them). That said, the fact that they barely speak period doesn't make this much of an issue for people.
• Leave No Witnesses: During his shootout with Hank, Marco shoots one bystander dead, and another only survives because he'd run out of ammo shooting at Hank and the other pedestrian. As the attack was an ambush, they were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.
• Leeroy Jenkins: While Nacho is laying out the plan to attack the Espinosa compound, the Cousins decide to walk out during his explanation and attack right then and there in broad daylight.
• Living MacGuffin: The first half of season 3 frames their revenge quest as a major plotline, but it turns out to be a red herring from what the season is really about.
• Locked Out of the Loop: They are remarkably unaware of how much their uncle and Gustavo Fring hate each other, and Lalo doesn't update them on it either. This backfires on the whole family since they can't confirm what their paralyzed uncle is saying but also years later they trust Gustavo enough to take on his offer which leads to their deaths.
• Made of Iron:
  • While wearing a bullet-proof vest, Hank shoots Marco several times in the chest at close range, which does nothing to make him take a few steps backward. For comparison, the arms dealer they shot earlier was launched off of his feet by one bullet, evidently breaking his rib.
  • During the Espinosa shootout, a bullet wound can be seen on Marco's shoulder, but he doesn't seem to notice it.
• Make an Example of Them: Their method of killing, which is what the real Cartels do. They die because of their insistence on abiding by this rule, which allows Hank to defend himself.
• Misplaced Retribution: Downplayed. While Walter White was indirectly responsible for the death of their cousin Tuco, Gustavo Fring notes that the Cousins' real vendetta should be with Hank Schrader, who was the man who actually pulled the trigger on him. The Cousins attempt to justify this by noting that their uncle insisted on never targeting anyone associated with the DEA under any circumstances, though Fring is easily able to sway them into ignoring this rule by pointing out that said rule only applied while in Mexico, and that there's no such restrictions when on Gustavo's territory in America.
• Nightmare Fuel Station Attendant: You know it's time to run when they come for you. Almost everything about them is disturbing in nature.
• No Challenge Equals No Satisfaction: Deconstructed - in "One Minute", Marco gets close to killing Hank, but rather than finish him off right away, Marco declares the battle to be too easy. Marco returns to his car to grab an axe, so that Hank is killed off dramatically, but it ends up giving Hank the time to reach for a bullet and shoot his head.
• Nonverbal Miscommunication; Averted: They rarely say anything to each other, and yet they work like they can read each other's minds.
• Not Quite Dead: After the confrontation with Hank, Leonel survives and loses his legs, but is determined to kill Walter. That is until Mike gives him a lethal injection.
• Not So Stoic: While the Cousins are generally pretty reserved and serious, they occasionally let the mask slip when external conflict challenges them to do so.
  • Marco is visibly concerned with Leonel's injuries at the hands of Hank, but shows little else beyond a look of fear. Later, Leonel, while in a hospital bed, shows silent but clear signs of anger upon seeing Walter. While this isn't much emotion, it's more than they generally show.
  • When meeting Jimmy McGill for the first time out of the desert, Leonel and Marco are nothing short of baffled that he's the one man Lalo trusts so much, exchanging a confused look with one another before dropping off their bag and taking off.
  • In season 6, both Leonel and Marco are visibly upset when they find and cover up Lalo's "corpse". They also offer an angry Bring It gesture in their standoff against Nacho, yet are also hurt and shocked by his final speech and suicide.
• Off with His Head!: They killed Tortuga in this manner.
• Ominous Walk: They're masters of it, especially when there's an explosion just behind them.
• One-Man Army: The two of them cleared out the lair of a rival gang with little effort.
• One-Steve Limit: Marco Salamanca shares his first name with Marco Pasternak in Better Call Saul. Aside from them both having connections to Jimmy McGill though, they aren't related in any way.
• Pet the Dog:
  • The closest thing they have to a slightly civilized moment is when they refuse to hurt a peasant family in Mexico after stealing their clothes.
  • After shooting their armor dealer to test its effectiveness, they also spare his life and leave the money behind.
  • Even if it leans toward pragmatism, they go through great strides to ensure Nacho's survival following a (staged) shootout, even offering a blood transfer. A more genuine petting moment comes when Nacho helps rescue Leonel from being pinned down by rival gangbangers, after which Marco gives him a slight nod of respect.
• Pragmatic Villainy: Surprisingly subvert the Ballistic Discount and let the man who sold them their bulletproof vests live by only shooting him once.
• Professional Killer: Their role within The Cartel, but their vendetta against Walt is personal. Notably, in a series where gunfights often devolve into hiding and firing randomly, they more often than not hit their intended target.
• Psycho for Hire: Behind the obvious personal reasons with Walt and Hank, they seem to take too much pleasure in slowly and painfully murdering their victims when they set their minds to it.
• The Quiet Ones: The pair speaks almost exclusively with cold stares. Even when they talk, they tend to keep things short.
• Quizzical Tilt: While waiting to kill Walter in his bedroom, Leonel briefly inspects the plastic eyeball in Walt's suitcase, giving this look.
• Real Men Love Jesus: Their first on-screen appearance in the series shows them crawling to a shrine dedicated to Santa Muerte in order to gain her blessing for their quest to kill Heisenberg. They do it again later (though without the crawling) when they switch their target to Hank.
• Revenge Before Reason: They kill literally everyone who so much as slightly inconveniences them. Even when crippled, outmatched, and unarmed, they do not hesitate to try to kill their enemies.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: They go on one seeking revenge on Walt for his involvement in Tuco's death. Then they are redirected to Hank by Gus.
• Rule of Cool: They seem to live by it. They wear awesome clothes (shiny sharkskin suits and cowboy boots with silver skulls on the toes!), they're incredibly calm and collected, they walk unflinchingly away from exploding vehicles and towards those with targets in them, and they decide to kill Hank with an ax for the showmanship of it, rather than just shooting him down. The last part two bits are their undoing.
• Run for the Border: After inflicting a Mob War against the Espinozas in Better Call Saul, they are sent back to Mexico to wait for the heat to die down.
• Sharp-Dressed Man: They're introduced wearing expensive suits which they ditch soon after to facilitate an inconspicuous border crossing, but once that's done, they're quickly dressed to kill again.
• Sickbed Slaying: The fate of Leonel: poisoned by Mike Ehrmantraut in the hospital.
• Signature Move: Decapitation via ax seems to be their preferred method of killing.
• Silent Antagonist: For the most part.
• Single-Minded Twins: Both are more or less obsessed with killing "Heisenberg."
• The Sociopaths: Probably the best portraits of true psychopaths shown in the series. They are undeniably brutal and ruthless, they like to murder their victims in extremely brutal ways, and they have zero remorse for their actions.
• The Stoics: Both are some of the coldest killers shown in the series.
• There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Deconstructed. Marco prepares to shoot Hank while the latter is laying down on the ground, but chooses not to do it, due to the battle being to easy. Marco instead grabs an axe to chop Hank to death , but it ends up providing Hank the time to reload a bullet Marco had dropped and then shooting it at him.
• Trigger-Happy: Are more often shooting at someone else than not. Without even hesitating, Leonel even shoots their arms dealer in the chest to test out his vests, simply because he was already wearing one.
• Undying Loyalty: To their uncle, Hector Salamanca. Due to their uncanny ability to precisely discern his exact thoughts and feelings without the need for speech, they literally function as living extensions of his will.
• Unflinching Walk: All the time, no matter what's happening. After an explosion a couple of yards away, one of them continues to smoke his cigarette.
• Unwitting Pawn: A rare example of villains who end up unknowing pawns of another villain. Marco and Leonel are only interested in avenging Tuco's death and don't see much beyond that, but Gus is happy to manipulate their myopic quest for revenge so that the two of them die trying to kill Hank. Thus, the Cousins end up attempting to kill a DEA agent (normally, cops are off-limits as assassination targets because of the intense heat that such hits generally bring) and the manner of their deaths helps shut down the border to the Cartel, leaving Gus with uncontested domination of the meth market in the southwest.
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid: When they were children in The '80s, Marco and Leonel were ordinary Mexican kids who loved to play and talk together, even if Marco was initially more of a Big Brother Bully at the time. Their upbringing under Hector twisted them into the silent, stoic hitmen they would become in their adult years.
• Villain Ball: Marco's decision to finish Hank off with an ax rather than just shooting him when he's down and helpless backfires spectacularly.
• Villain Cred: After seeing Nacho fight through his wounds to join the shootout with them, Marco looks him in the eyes and gives him a subtle nod.
• Villainous Fashion Sense: Just as in Breaking, wherever they go, both are always dressed in sharp suits, and with close-up shots of their distinctive boots.
• Villain Respect: Interestingly, despite being mortal enemies by this point, the Cousins seem to indeed have a degree of lasting respect for Nacho. When confronting him face-to-face, they withdraw their weapons and allow him to make the first move with a Bring It gesture, only attacking when he reloads and strikes. This is retroactively in complete contrast to their near-identical encounter with Hank Schrader, where they attack him from behind the moment they see him. They also appear more hurt than angered when Nacho tells off the Salamancas, and are genuinely shocked by Nacho's suicide.
• The Voiceless: More often than not.
• Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: Marco decides that shooting Hank to death isn't enough and decides to go grab his ax instead. Hank doesn't have that same compulsion and blows his head off when he comes back.
• Would Hit a Girl: They kill a woman on a tribal reservation and take over her house, and it's heavily implied they killed an elderly woman to steal her wheelchair-accessible van for Hector. Later, when Marco is attacking Hank, he shoots and kills a passing man who happens to surprise him, and a female passerby narrowly escapes the same fate thanks to Marco running out of bullets at that moment.
• Would Hurt a Child: Hector is willing to send them after Mike's granddaughter if he doesn't comply.
• Your Head Asplode: Marco's head after receiving a Boom, Headshot! from Hank causes the former's head to be blown open like a cabbage.

Joaquin

Joaquin Salamanca

Portrayed By: Gabriel Nunez

Appearances: Breaking Bad

An enforcer for Don Eladio, and Hector's grandson.

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• Alas, Poor Villain: His grandfather Hector is left completely broken after his death. Even his killer Jesse is clearly uncomfortable with how sadistically Gus taunts Hector about the event.
• Beard of Evil: Is a bearded enforcer.
• Bullying a Dragon: Goes after Gus, Jesse, and Mike even though Gus warned the Cartel they'd die. Subverted in that he wounds Mike, one of the most dangerous members of Gus' crew.
• Last of His Kind: He and Hector were the sole remaining members of the Salamanca family and considering Hector is a decrepit old man, his death effectively wipes out the family.
• Leeroy Jenkins: Even after witnessing Gus poisoning Joaquin's bosses, and when Gus was given the opportunity for any surviving cartel members to leave, Joaquin still chooses to attempt to kill Gus, Jesse, and Mike. Subverted in that he actually manages to surprise Mike and wound him and would have killed both him and Gus were it not for Jesse.
• Not-So-Harmless Villain: Despite being a Salamanca, Gus and Mike don't seem to see him as an important loose end in their plan (even though Gus clearly knows who he is), and were perfectly happy to leave without chasing him down after the mass poisoning of Eladio and The Dons was complete. This almost gets them both killed when he comes back to avenge his bosses.
• One-Shot Character: Dies in one episode, "Salud". Jesse guns him down at the end when he tries to kill him and Mike.
• Posthumous Character: Of a sort. We don't find out his name or his significance until after he's been killed and Gus is boasting about it to Hector. Heck, it wasn't even indicated that Hector had any other living relatives before then.
• The Quiet One: He clearly takes after his uncles Leonel and Marco.
• Red Shirt: He only appears in one episode and has no characterization beyond being Hector's grandson.
• Revenge: Being a Salamanca, when he finds out Eladio and the other dons are dead, he rushes to kill the men responsible. This gets him killed by Jesse.
• Small Role, Big Impact: Joaquin doesn't even have any dialogue, but if it weren't for his last-ditch effort to kill Gus, Mike would have never been wounded and would have been present for Gus' showdown. In addition, since he's killed by Jesse and not Mike, Gus has to bring Jesse along with him to Hector, thus allowing him to learn about the one place where Gus is vulnerable. This knowledge would later prove decisive in his assassination.
• Undying Loyalty: The only Cartel soldier that tries avenging Eladio even though there is no one left to reward him for it.
• Would You Like to Hear How They Died?: Gus relates his demise to Hector to taunt him, putting the final nail in the elderly gangster's coffin.

"Abuelita"

Click here.

Lieutenants

Krazy- 8

Domingo Gallardo Molina AKA "Krazy-8"

"Walter, I don't know what you think you're doing here, but trust me, this line of work doesn't suit you."

Portrayed By: Max Arciniega

Appearances: Breaking Bad | Better Call Saul

"I got my share man. I swear."

A former street-level dealer of Tuco Salamanca's, and now a meth distributor associated with his cousin Emilio and Jesse Pinkman. Unbeknownst to Walt and Jesse, Krazy-8 is a DEA informant, who acquired the customers of the dealers he ratted out.

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• Ain't Too Proud to Beg:
  • When dragged off for a beatdown on Hector's behest, Krazy-8 desperately begs Nacho for mercy. This visibly shakes Nacho later that day.
  • When Saul confronts him at the prison as his lawyer, he's initially confused and standoffish. Upon hearing Saul clarify that Lalo sent him, he assumes the worst and anxiously promises he stayed quiet. Saul stops him since they, fortunately, have something else planned for him.
• Ascended Extra: He died rather early in Breaking Bad, but becomes a recurring character in Better Call Saul.
• Asshole Victim: He might've once been a good person before and still remains a charming son-of-a-bitch later, but the fact that Domingo was still a stone-cold killer and opportunist might sour people's feelings about his death in Breaking Bad.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: He's a Smug Snake up until he faints, and Walt and Jesse lock him up in Jesse’s basement. There he puts on a friendly facade only to persuade Walt to release him.
• Blatant Lies: Tells Walter that he's willing to "live and let live" if Walter will just let him go. He sells it so well that even the audience almost believes it, and of course, Walter wants it to be true.
• Butt-Monkey: All throughout Better Call Saul. First, he is intimidated by Tuco. Then Hector has him brutally beaten for being short on payments. Then Lalo humiliates him with a nickname that he will be stuck with for years. And then he gets arrested in an incredibly embarrassing manner - all while we know that he's doomed to die in a basement, choked by a bike lock by a chemistry teacher in way over his head.
• Character Development: His arc in Better Call Saul consists of showing how this nervy little guy ended up as a merciless killer with nerves of steel; he steadily rises through the ranks of the cartel, slowly gaining confidence and losing his gentler side altogether.
• Childhood Friends: With Nacho, or at least their parents were/are friends.
• Death by Irony: With the context of Better Call Saul, his fate in Breaking Bad is especially ironic. If Krazy-8 were still the naive, nervous newcomer he was there when he was bike locked to a pole, he very realistically could have convinced Walt into sparing him, but the pragmatic stone-cold killer that he became ended up getting choked to death.
• Dick Dastardly Stops to Cheat: A more justified example than most, since you can't really blame the guy for seizing a chance to arm himself when his captor was still in two minds about murdering him, but he's still undone by a lapse into this. His one act of deception, undermining his and Walt's entire conversation and understanding, is what spurs Walt to kill him; he'd have walked out alive had he not pocketed that piece of broken plate.
• The Dragon: He's technically Nacho's Number Two after Nacho's promotion in light of Hector's stroke.
• Dramatic Irony: When Krazy-8 was first introduced on-screen in Breaking Bad, he was a ruthless, deadly opponent capable of keeping his cool under dire circumstances. Domingo, as seen in Better Call Saul, is a nervous and easily-cowed young man who's far from the killer that Walter White will eventually deal with.
• Embarrassing Nickname: His nickname "Krazy-8" seemed pretty apt and badass in Breaking Bad, since he was introduced training his dog to rip people apart. As it turns out, it comes from Lalo teasing him for folding to a poorly played hand of Texas Hold 'Em.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Is disgusted by Walt keeping him locked in a basement, saying he wouldn't do something so degrading to his worst enemy. Though it's more likely that it's just a guilt trip ruse.
• Hidden Badass: He deserves some credit: he survives Walt's initial attack that killed Emilio, frees himself even in a dazed state, and remains calm when faced with death. Even while trapped and being choked to death, he manages to stab Walt with a shard of the broken plate.
• Hidden Depths: He attempts to invoke this to get Walt to release him, but it was merely a ruse so he could stab Walt as soon as he got out. The fact that he's able to manipulate Walter so successfully rather than rage and bluster or plead and beg like a common crook would do is in itself a straight example.
• The Informant: Played with. Krazy-8 originally became an informant for the DEA under Lalo's orders, so that he could feed information about Gustavo Fring's drug empire to him and Hector. With that said, he still remains an informant long after Lalo dies, if only so he can benefit himself at this point.
• Manipulative Bastard: Domingo is surprisingly clever for a Starter Villain. He nearly convinces Walt to spare him; he would have succeeded had Walt not noticed the broken plate in the garbage. Additionally, the audience learns after his death that he was a snitch for the DEA, and his business model revolved around selling out his competition (including his own cousin) and absorbing their customer base.
• Meaningful Background Event: Sold Walt the crib they used for Walt Jr. years before the show. Becomes a Brick Joke when Walt sets the crib up again for Holly.
• The Mole: Subverted. He weasels his way into becoming a protected DEA informant, but it's all part of a plan to install him as Lalo's informant in the DEA so he can send them after Gustavo Fring's operation.
• No Body Left Behind: His body is dissolved in hydrofluoric acid by Walt.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: He gets this from a highly reluctant Nacho through Hector for being short on his payments.
• No, Mr. Bond, I Expect You to Dine: Played with; Walter makes sandwiches for him while he's imprisoned in Jesse's basement.
• Not Quite Dead: After the explosion in the pilot.
• Pay Evil unto Evil: On the receiving end. Walt's murder of him is a big step but is arguably justified due to Krazy-8's ruthless cunning and plan to kill Walt.
• Politically Incorrect Villain: When telling Walt what he knows about his life, Krazy-8 notes that he has a handicapped son, referring to him as retarded.
• Real Life Writes the Plot: Krazy-8 was supposed to die in the pilot of Breaking Bad. The actors and crew enjoyed working with Max Arciniega, so the character was kept alive for two more episodes.
• Renegade Splinter Faction: He worked for the Salamancas during the prequel, but that seems to no longer be the case during Breaking Bad given that the DEA considers Krazy-8 and Tuco to be rivals.
• Sacrificial Lamb: Walt being forced to murder him is a major part of the second and third episodes of Breaking Bad.
• Slowly Slipping Into Evil: His first appearances in Better Call Saul happen when he's still new to the drug trade, and very naive about how vicious and brutal it is. As he continues selling drugs (and after getting a beating from Nacho for coming up short on cash) he gets a much better understanding of the cruel realities of organized crime and starts becoming hardened.
• Small Role, Big Impact: His role as a DEA informant in Breaking Bad is flipped on its head when it's revealed the truth isn't what it seemed.
• Starter Villain: Of Breaking Bad. He is the first enemy Walt makes, but is a mere small time criminal. While he spends most of his screentime as Walt and Jesse's prisoner, Walt choosing whether or not to kill him is the first big test of Walt's (lack) of morals.
• The Stool Pigeon: Becomes a snitch to the DEA for Lalo to rat out Gustavo's dealers.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: Domingo's naivety and nervousness gradually disappear as he becomes more accustomed to life as a Cartel dealer and informant. Compare his meek behavior when in front of Lalo Salamanca while playing cards with his manipulative, vengeful behavior when locked up in Walter White's basement.

Emilio Koyama

Emilio Koyama

"I say we cap 'em both."

Portrayed By: John Koyama

Appearances: Breaking Bad | Better Call Saul

"I don't do no paperwork."

Jesse's partner as well as Krazy-8's cousin. He's arrested by the DEA after being sold out by Krazy-8, and later becomes Walt's first victim when he and Krazy-8 confront Walt. Jesse later dissolves his body in his bathtub, and it falls through the ceiling in a hilariously bloody fashion.

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• Asshole Victim: The first of many in Breaking Bad. Jesse seems more annoyed at having to dispose of his body than saddened by his death.
• Beard of Evil: A thin goatee.
• The Bus Came Back: Holds the out-of-universe record for longest gap between on-screen appearances, with fourteen years between Breaking Bad`s first episode and Better Call Saul`s second-to-last episode.
• Call-Forward: He shows up as one of Saul's clients in Better Call Saul, several years before his death in Breaking Bad.
• Dumb Muscle: He's quite an imposing figure, but he's clearly not too bright.
• Evil Former Friend: According to Jesse, they met in elementary school.
• Evil Is Petty:
  • Blows smoke in Walt's face when Walt tells him to put his cigarette out.
  • He kicks an already unconscious Jesse in the gut after tying him up.
• Fall Guy: Sold out by his own cousin so that Krazy-8 could get Jesse and Emilio's customers.
• False Friend: He's pretty quick to suggest capping his childhood friend Jesse, believing him to be a snitch.
• Good Smoking, Evil Smoking: Not only on the evil side of the scale but also on the stupid side, smoking a cigarette in a meth lab filled with volatile chemicals. Walt calls him out on this, prompting Emilio to carelessly dispose of his cigarette outside the window, causing a brush fire.
• Hand Cannon: Carries a large .357 revolver.
• Jerkass: Unlike Krazy-8, he comes off as unlikable and petty from the start.
• The Klutz: His laughable attempt at escaping the DEA after being caught makes Jesse look competent and athletic in comparison.
• Ludicrous Gibs: Thankfully he wasn't alive by that point, but Jessie ignoring Walt's instructions on which chemicals to use to dissolve his body in a ceramic bathtub results in the acid eating through the tub's bottom, the floor and the ceiling below it and depositing his gory remains everywhere.
• Minor Major Character: His sole appearance in Breaking Bad was to act as the catalyst for Jesse and Walt's partnership, and from there the gradual escalation of events as their criminal activities sparked greater and greater conflict within the Albuquerque criminal underworld. In Better Call Saul, it's revealed that his tendency to get caught by the law brought him into contact with Saul for legal aid, which in turn showed Jesse who to turn to when he and Walt were in need of somebody with an intricate understanding of the legal system to get Badger out of trouble, and through Saul, getting the duo deeply involved with Gus' Los Pollos Hermanos drug operations, eventually resulting in Heisenberg creating his own meth empire.
• Never Filled Out Official Paperwork: Loudly announces to Francesca that he "doesn't do paperwork." Saul doesn't care.
• No Body Left Behind: After getting his deceased body dissolved in hydrofluoric acid.
• Sacrificial Lamb: He's Jesse's first partner and the first person Walt kills.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: His acts of petty crime lead to him seeking out Saul's aid, which leads to his partner Jesse having an informed viewpoint about whom to look for when he and Walt later need the expertise of a Criminal Lawyer, and through Saul, wind up deeper involved in Gus' operations.
• Unwitting Pawn: To Krazy-8, who gets him arrested by the DEA and then manipulates him into thinking Jesse was the snitch.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: He shows up in the first episode and is noteworthy mostly as being the reason for Walt and Jessie's initial partnership and then the escalation of tensions by the episode's end when his release leads to Krazy-8 using him as an excuse to muscle in on Jesse's new meth operation, and becoming Walt's first kill, albeit in an indirect manner. He technically shows up more as a corpse (including having to deal with his liquified remains splattered around Jesse's hallway) than he does alive.

No-Doze & Gonzo

No-Doze & Gonzo

That's No-Doze on the left and Gonzo on the right.

Portrayed By: Cesar Garcia (No-Doze) & Jesus Payan, Jr. (Gonzo)

Appearances: Breaking Bad | Better Call Saul

Two of Tuco's closest henchmen.

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• An Arm and a Leg: Gonzo's arm gets torn off while moving No-Doze's body which, as Hank gleefully point outs, led to him bleeding out and dying.
• Asshole Victim: Somewhat with No-Doze, who's more aggressive, short-tempered, and obnoxious when compared to Gonzo. That said, no one at the scene of his death except Tuco felt he deserved his fate.
• Bald of Evil: Both of them have shaved heads and they are loyal henchmen of the psychotic Tuco.
• Beard of Evil: They're both bearded thugs that follow Tuco.
• Big Guy, Little Guy: Gonzo is the big guy to No-Doze's little guy.
• Blood from the Mouth: No-Doze, after his beating at the hands of Tuco.
• Co-Dragons: Serve as Tuco's closest enforcers.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: No-Doze's beatdown wasn't pretty, and getting your arm ripped off by a falling car and bleeding out definitely qualifies as this for Gonzo.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Tuco beats No-Doze to death when No-Doze merely tells Walt and Jesse to remember who they work for.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Gonzo is clearly upset when Tuco accidentally kills No-Doze and tries to recover the body so he can give him a decent burial.
• Fall Guy: Gonzo becomes this for Tuco when he thinks that since Gonzo hadn't been answering his calls for the last few days (on account of being dead and all), Tuco assumes that he's a police informant.
• Fat Bastard: A downplayed case with Gonzo. While he is a thug in league with Tuco Salamanca, he is depicted as empathetic and is basically the only half-decent one in Tuco's inner circle.
• Hand Cannon: No-Doze carries one.
• Laser-Guided Karma: No-Doze smirks at the sight of Tuco brutally beating the shit out of Jesse. He meets his death the same way not long afterward.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Gonzo attempts to remove No-Doze's body from the scrapyard to give him a proper, respectful burial. But he disturbs a precarious stack of cars in the process, and they fall on and crush him to death. Then the DEA find their corpses and laugh at his pathetic demise.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: No-Doze, after laughing at Jesse receiving one, gets one at the hands of Tuco that leaves him dead.
• Pay Evil unto Evil: Even if Tuco's beating of No-Doze is over the top, it's undeniable that No-Doze was still a petty thug.
• Religious Bruiser: Gonzo wears a large cross medallion and didn't want to leave No-Doze's body without a proper burial on the basis that it wasn't, "very Christian".
• Sacrificial Lamb: No-Doze's death underlines just how brutal and dangerous Tuco is.
• Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome: No-Doze succumbs to his brutal beatdown in the Season 2 premiere and Gonzo follows shortly afterward.
• Tattooed Crook: They're both pretty heavily tattooed.
• Token Good Teammate: Gonzo is much more empathic than Tuco and No-Doze: he prevents Walt from getting in the way of Tuco's beating of No-Doze seemingly in part to stop Walt from becoming another victim, and of course, he's disturbed by leaving No-Doze's body unburied and tries to remedy that later, although that proves to be a mistake on his part.
• Too Dumb to Live:
  • Gonzo, who by his own fault, is killed when a car crushes his arm while he tries to move No-Doze's body. Hank immediately wants to call Leno when he finds out the real cause.
  • No-Doze isn't too smart either, considering he was warned by Tuco about speaking for him — and we later find out in Better Call Saul that this was far from the first time Tuco had done so — but still kept running his mouth.

Gaff

Gaff

"You're staying. You belong to the cartel now."

Portrayed By: Maurice Compte

The chief buttonman and deliverer of important messages in the Juárez Cartel's New Mexico territory. By the time of his appearance, he was recently promoted by the Dons of the cartel, replacing Tuco Salamanca's role of informing the cartel about the activity across the border after the latter's death.

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• Asshole Victim: Given how often he kills Gus’ employees and strong arms Gus and his men, chances are you’ll cheer when Mike chokes the life out of him.
• Brutal Honesty: Tells Gus bluntly, "This is not a negotiation".
• Beard of Evil: Has a beard and is evil.
• Cold Sniper: He's a skilled but ruthless sniper, willing to suffocate a whole crew of men in Gus' refrigeration trucks to make a point.
• The Dragon: He serves as this to Don Eladio, being his chief assassin.
• Elite Mook: After Tuco's death, Gaff was promoted to his position.
• Evil Counterpart: He's the Cartel's answer to Mike Ehrmantraut; both are intelligent, loyal, dangerous and can be relied upon for their ruthless efficiency. At the end of the day, though, Gaff just can't measure up to Mike.
• Jerkass: He doesn't show Gus much respect during cartel meetings, and obviously resents not being able to just outright kill him. He's also arrogant enough to be surprised by the many guns due to Mike's planning.
• Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: Praises Jesse's skills (unlike the petulant Fuentes) only to remind him that the Cartel owns him.
• Mouth of Sauron: Speaks on behalf of Eladio during his conflict with Gus in Season 4.
• Professional Killer: Part of his job working for the Cartel.
• Razor Floss: Mike strangles him to death with a wire while he's distracted by the Cartel bosses dying from Gus' poison.
• Ruthless Foreign Gangsters: Romanian-American in ethnicity and uses more ruthless tactics than German-American Mike Ehrmantraut such as the use of the exhaust fumes to wipe out one of Gus' truck crews or picking apart Gus' goons to get Gus' response.
• The Stoic: He largely comes across as bored, not showing much in the way of reaction even when dying.
• You Are in Command Now: Gaff replaces Tuco as the cartel's eyes and ears across the border.

Benicio Fuentes

Benicio Fuentes

"This is ridiculous! I'm not letting some infant who can't even synthesize phenylacetic acid teach me my business!"

Portrayed By: Carlo Rota

The lead meth chemist for the cartel.

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• All There in the Script: His full name isn't stated in the episode.
• Asshole Victim: He dies alongside his cartel colleagues as a result of Gus' poison. Considering what an arrogant asshole he was (on top of his profession as a meth manufacturer), nobody stops to mourn him.
• Bald of Evil: Fuentes is bald and an immense asshole, on top of being a cook for the cartel.
• Dropped a Bridge on Him: Despite having more screentime than any of the Dons, his death happens offscreen, and his body is only shown in a wide shot of the pool once Gus re-enters the scene.
• Beard of Evil: He has a little goatee.
• Evil Brit: He speaks with a posh English accent and is an amoral, arrogant chemist.
• Evil Counterpart: He's the cartel's answer to Walter; both are bald, bearded, abrasive and arrogant chemists who look down on Jesse for being Book Dumb. The main difference between the two is that Walter has extreme standards on how to run his lab, and is much smarter and observant to boot (on top of being actually able to create pure meth), while Fuentes is a Know-Nothing Know-It-All whom even Jesse makes a fool of.
• Evil Genius: He ought to be this since he's the cartel's lead meth chemist, but as a chemist, he doesn't match up to Jesse.
  Fuentes: ...he's no chemist, I'll tell you that.
  Don Eladio: I don't care if he's a pig farmer. He cooks better meth than you do, with all your fancy college degrees.
• Hypocrite: Fuentes is quick to complain about Jesse's unpreparedness for cooking meth because he didn't synthesize and bring his own phenylacetic acid. He has the gall to say this when his entire lab looks absolutely filthy and disorganized, which Jesse rightfully calls him out for.
• Insufferable Genius: Emphasis on the insufferable over the 'genius'. He's grievously offended when Jesse arrives on the scene, even though Jesse's scathing criticisms about his lab's lack of sanitation is entirely correct.
  Jesse: Don't you have standards? I mean, this place is disgusting. All right, we're gonna scour every vat, every tank, every cook surface. We clean up every possible source of contamination. And then we cook.
  Fuentes: Who do you think you are?
  Jesse: I'm the guy your boss brought here to show you how it's done. And if this is how you run your lab, no wonder. You're lucky he hasn't fired your ass. Now, if you don't want that to happen I suggest you stop whining like a little bitch, and do what I say.
• Jerkass: Fuentes is abrasive and arrogant from the get-go.
• Not Even Bothering with the Accent: Fuentes is clearly Spanish, but when speaking English, he talks in Rota's native English (as in, born in England) accent. Note that this can be a case of Truth in Television, since some people do learn to speak English without their native accent. Other times, people may assume the accent of the person who is teaching them a non-native language.
• Oh, Crap!: When the Capo he’s talking to suddenly collapses as a result of Gustavo's poison, he has a look of concern on his face.
• Shut Up, Hannibal!: He gets two of these. One from Jesse when Fuentes insults both his poor understanding of Spanish (and he subtly insults Gustavo when asking if Jesse as a chemist was a joke) and his lack of basic chemistry knowledge. He gets a second one from his own boss later on, who says that even with Fuentes's college degrees, Jesse still cooks better meth.
  Jesse: Tell this asshole if he wants to make my product, he's got to do it my way. The right way.
  Fuentes: I speak English.
  Jesse: So you understand what asshole means. Now go get me my phenylacetic acid, asshole.
• Small Name, Big Ego: He's so arrogant that you get the feeling he still would've behaved the same way if Walt or Gale were there instead of Jesse (though Walt or Gale would at least have been able to make phenylacetic acid).
• Smug Snake: He thinks he's a lot better of a chemist than he actually is.

Tortuga

Tortuga

"Tortuga means turtle, and that's me. I take my time but I always win."

Portrayed By: Danny Trejo

The DEA's informant on the Mexican Cartel. He is beheaded, his head is put on a tortoise, and the head is rigged with bombs, blowing up all of the DEA members who are sent to meet him except for Hank.

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• Asshole Victim: What Bolsa does to him is pretty horrific, but considering what an arrogant jerk he was, it's hard not to say his deeds didn't catch up with him.
• Cigar Chomper: He enjoys puffing on a cigar in his appearances.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: After boldly boasting to Hank that his name Tortuga means "turtle", he is then beheaded with his head placed on the back of a tortoise for the delight of the DEA. Hank's reaction to this is what saves his life, or at least his limbs.
• Decapitation Presentation: After the Cousins hack off his head, they stuff it with explosives and place it on a tortoise, and then send it to the DEA's meeting place with a message: HOLA DEA.
• Death by Cameo: Trejo's not exactly Harrison Ford or anything, but he's a beloved and recognizable cult actor. He was also a bigger name than most of the lead actors at the time and was listed as a special guest star. His run on the show lasts all of two scenes and one Early-Bird Cameo in the "Negro y Azul" video, not including time spent as a severed head.
• Death by Irony:
  • Deliberately invoked by Juan Bolsa and the Cousins. They place his severed head on a tortoise (which was given as a "gift" to Tortuga in the first place); and to add (additional) insult-to-injury, Juan writes "Hola DEA" on the tortoise, and uses it as a weapon against the same organization that Tortuga had tattled to.
  • On a meta-note, it's probably not coincidental that a character played by Danny Trejo was killed with a machete.
• Died on Their Birthday: Tortuga is decapitated by Marco and Leonel Salamanca after he is distracted by an apparent birthday gift.
• The Informant: He's a high-ranking member of the Juarez Cartel (high enough to report directly to Bolsa at least) and has turned informant for the DEA.
• Jerkass: He lounges around in his motel room, ordering crass personal items listed on SkyMall via DEA agents who have to toady to him. He's not even Nice to the Waiter, treating his bartender disdainfully.
• Meaningful Name: Tortuga likes to remind people of his name's meaning and what he takes from it. His name means "tortoise" in Spanish, which he claims is reflective of his way of getting things done — slow, but successful. Appropriately, he also takes far too long to realize he's about to be killed by the Cousins on Bolsa's orders, and after it happens, his head is delivered to the DEA on the back of a tortoise.
• Off with His Head!: On Bolsa's orders, the Cousins cut his head off with a machete.
• Oh, Crap!: The second he sees what Bolsa has written on the tortoise, his expression drops and he goes for his gun. By that point, he's way too late to save himself.
• The Rat: Within the Cartel, informing the DEA.
• Smug Snake: Tortuga is suicidally confident of his own abilities. He thinks he can outwit the Cartel while keeping the DEA virtually begging him for scraps of information, all while living the high life and bragging about himself. His arrogance gets him violently beheaded.
• Too Dumb to Live: After blabbing to the DEA as a paid informant, Tortuga decides to go drink at a shady Bad Guy Bar in the middle of Mexico, and treats Bolsa dropping in unannounced (while saying "I knew I'd find you here") as a pleasant surprise; even when Juan repeatedly complements him for how "quick" he is with words, the guy never puts it together. He's naturally a little wary when Bolsa says he's got a belated birthday gift for him in the back of the bar, but is easily lured into a false sense of security again when he receives a pet turtle. By the time he finally learns that his boss wants to execute him for his treachery and he tries to pull his gun, it's too late, and Tuco's twin Cousins are hacking off his head.
• Visual Pun: Played for Horror as his gruesome fate shows that he couldn't get ahead of the situation.

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