Amazon documentary series The Last Narc links the CIA to the 1985 death of DEA agent Kiki Camarena. Directed by Tiller Russell, The Last Narc is a four-part series that centers on the investigation led by DEA special agent Hector Berrellez, and features on-camera testimonies from various Mexican cartel associates who claim they were present when Camarena was questioned and tortured.
Camerena's death is the premise for Netflix's Narcos: Mexico season 1. Six years after joining the DEA, Camarena moved to the Guadalajara office in Mexico, and later helped identify the location of a marijuana plantation run by Rafael Caro Quintero, who co-founded the Guadalajara Cartel with Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo. In February 1985, Camarena was abducted and endured 30 hours of questioning/torture before his eventual death. The Last Narc includes interviews from Mexican law enforcement officials who worked as security for the Guadalajara Cartel, and detail the gruesome specifics of what actually happened to Camarena. The documentary also features the subject's widow, Mika Camarena. The first three episodes of The Last Narc on Amazon Prime focus heavily on the sociopolitical climate in Mexico during the mid-'80s, and how government figures and narcos often worked together.
The Report True Story: What Amazon's CIA Torture Movie Leaves Out
The Last Narc's final episode alleges that a CIA agent was present when Mexican narcos tortured Camarena. Interviewees recall a Cuban named "Max Gomez," who questioned the DEA agent about his knowledge of the Iran-Contra conflict, a scandal that involved the United States secretly selling weapons to the Islamic Republic of Iran in order to fund a Nicaraguan rebel group known as the Contras. In The Last Narc, the focal DEA investigator, Berrellez, reveals how he learned that "Max Gomez" was actually CIA agent Félix Rodríguez, who led a CIA squad that located the infamous Cuban rebel Che Guevara nearly two decades prior. The reveal in the Amazon documentary is significant because of Rodriguez's career resume. Aside from the Guevara capture, Rodriguez previously participated in the failed Bay of Pigs invasion under John F. Kennedy's administration, and later flew approximately 300 helicopter mission during the Vietnam War. In pop culture, however, the CIA agent is often linked to Guevara.
The Last Narc doesn't fully dive into Rodriguez's backstory, but implies that he presumably represented the CIA during Camarena's questioning. Given the agent's background in mission training, it seems that he was curious about what the DEA agent had discovered about U.S.-trained Nicaraguan rebels. Overall, The Last Narc on Amazon Prime doesn't suggest that Rodriguez was directly responsible for killing Camerena, but does imply that he was at least partially response for the DEA agent's death. Camarena's corpse was found on March 5, 1985.
In a 1986 AP report, which cites The Los Angeles Times, Rodriguez is actually identified as "Max Gomez" and described as a "patriot" by then-Vice President George Bush. Interestingly, the same 1986 report about a Nicaraguan plane crash includes a quote from José Basulto, who - five years later - would form the organization Brothers to the Rescue, which is prominently featured in the 2020 Netflix movie Wasp Network.