Rafael Aguilar Guajardo

{{Short description|Mexican drug lord (1950-1993)}}

{{family name hatnote|Aguilar|Guajardo|lang=Spanish}}

{{Infobox criminal

|name = Rafael Aguilar Guajardo

|image =

|caption =

|birth_name = Rafael Aguilar Guajardo

|birth_date = 1950

|birth_place = Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, Mexico

|death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|1993|04|12|1950||}}

|death_place = Cancún, Quintana Roo, Mexico

|death_cause = Gun shot

|occupation = Drug lord

|title = Leader of the Juárez Cartel

|predecessor = Pablo Acosta Villarreal

|term=1987 – 12 April 1993

|partners= Pablo Acosta Villarreal, Amado Carrillo Fuentes

|successor = Amado Carrillo Fuentes

}}

Rafael Aguilar Guajardo (1950 – 12 April 1993){{cite news|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-04-15-mn-23097-story.html|title=Suspected Drug Lord Shot to Death at Mexican Resort: Narcotics: He was vacationing with his family. A Colorado woman also is killed in the Cancun attack.|author=Marjorie Miller|newspaper=Los Angeles Times|date=April 15, 1993|access-date=October 16, 2014|url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130223044107/http://articles.latimes.com/1993-04-15/news/mn-23097_1_cancun-attack|archive-date=February 23, 2013}} was a Mexican drug lord, federal police commander of the Dirección Federal de Seguridad (DFS) in Mexico,{{cite news|access-date=October 4, 2012|last=Getty|first=Mark|title=Mexico's Forgotten Disappeared: The Victims of the Border Narco Bloodbath|url=http://frontera.nmsu.edu/jan-feb04/feat1.html|newspaper=Frontera NorteSur|date=January 2004|agency=New Mexico State University|archive-url=https://archive.today/20121214195521/http://www.nmsu.edu/~frontera/jan-feb04/feat1.html|archive-date=December 14, 2012|url-status=dead}} and one of the Juárez Cartel co-founders.

He was the right-hand man to Pablo Acosta Villarreal who was killed in April 1987, during a cross-border raid by Mexican Federal Police helicopters in the Rio Grande village of Santa Elena, Chihuahua.{{cite web|year=2009|url=http://www.druglord.com/comandante_guillermo_gonzalez_calderoni.html|title=Comandante Guillermo Gonzalez Calderoni|access-date=August 18, 2009|first=Terrence|last=Poppa|archive-date=October 12, 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091012052908/http://www.druglord.com/comandante_guillermo_gonzalez_calderoni.html|url-status=dead}} Having taken over from Acosta, Rafael Aguilar Guajardo made Amado Carrillo Fuentes his second-in-command.

Mexican police reported that Carlos Maya Castillo, an official also working at the National Security and Investigation Center, assisted Aguilar with information and reservations, provided him with cell phones, and recruited corrupt police agents for Aguilar's criminal organization.{{cite news|last=González|first=Héctor A.|title=Los prófugos del salinato|url=http://www.red-ami.com/cgi-bin/ed_seccion.cgi?dt=21/02/2007&ref=20070221/090/20070220-132332.txt|access-date=October 4, 2012|newspaper=El Diario|date=February 21, 2007|agency=Agencia Mexicana de Información|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20120313032234/http://www.red-ami.com/cgi-bin/ed_seccion.cgi?dt=21/02/2007&ref=20070221/090/20070220-132332.txt|archive-date=March 13, 2012|url-status=live|location=Mexico City|language=es}}

Aguilar was shot to death while vacationing with his family in the Caribbean resort of Cancun. He was shot outside of Gypsys Restaurant on the city’s tourist strip as he returned from a submarine tour with family members.

An innocent bystander, American tourist Georgina Knafel, 32, of Nederland, Colorado was gunned down as well. Aguilar’s wife, Maria Teresa Delgado Varela, 35, and son, 11, were wounded in the attack.

Two days after threatening to reveal his high-level Mexican government contacts, Amado Carrillo Fuentes took over the reins of power in the Juárez cartel after assassinating Aguilar, setting off the city's worst ongoing bout of criminal violence. Aguilar's assets, seized by the Attorney General of Mexico (PGR), were valued at $100 million, and they included nightclubs, houses, and a 7000 m² property in Acapulco.

In the streaming television series Narcos: Mexico (2018-2021), he was portrayed by Noé Hernández.