What Really Happened to Rivi From 'Griselda'
NETFLIX'S LIMITED SERIES Griselda follows the rise of Griselda Blanco (Sofia Vergara) to the top of Miami's cocaine trade in the '70s and '80s, an ascent driven by ruthless ambition and aided by acts of brutal violence against anybody who stood in her way. In the show, these merciless deeds are frequently doled out by Blanco's right-hand man, Jorge "Rivi" Ayala, played by Martín Rodríguez—and just as his character's actions help put Blanco on the throne, so too do they help lead to her downfall.
Originally depicted as a hitman for a rival gang in Griselda, Rivi eventually joined Blanco's operation, becoming her most valued enforcer and the one she would expect to carry out her extreme orders—even trusting him to get the job done over her husband, assassin Darío Sepúlveda. These included, most notably, the killing of former enforcer Jesus "Chacho" Castro's two-year-old Johnny Castro, as well as later the drug-dealing couple Alfredo and Grizel Lorenzo.
"At first I had to trust in the character and defend him," Martín Rodríguez, who plays Rivi in Griselda, told Today. "He had a complex personality and was ambiguous in the way he acted."
What happened to Rivi?
Griselda depicts the end of Rivi's criminal career, including his arrest after robbing a bank, and his decision to cooperate with the police in their case against Blanco, in the hope that it will help his own chances of a more lenient sentence. However, a phone sex scandal only serves to further implicate Rivi and make his situation even worse.
In real life, events unfolded in a very similar manner: after Ayala's 1993 arrest in connection to a Chicago bank job, police were able to identify him as Blanco's enforcer, and persuaded him to help in their investigation. But, just like in the show, Ayala had phone sex with two secretaries who worked in the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office, and when that fact became known, he lost perceived credibility as a witness.
Jorge Ayala pled guilty to three counts of murder, and is currently 31 years into a life sentence in prison.
You Might Also Like
