Forbes editor: El Chapo on Most Powerful List is an embarrassment to Mexico and the U.S.

Last week, Forbes’ annual “The World’s Most Powerful People“ was released and it included a string of Latin American individuals, such as Brazilian president Dilma Roussef and Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim. Yet, the name that caused the biggest stir was that of Mexican drug lord Joaquín Guzmán Loera, aka “El Chapo.” His inclusion on the list - for the third straight year - was the source of much displeasure for many individuals. Among those most concerned with the results were the officers at the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

“We’re not commenting on the Forbes list”, Rusty Payne, a DEA spokesperson, told Univision News. “He’s the biggest fish out there. He is one of the most brutal drug traffickers in the world’s history. We want him, Mexico wants him, and we’re doing everything we can to find him. He’s ruthless. He’s powerful. He’s still leading the Sinaloa Cartel.”

Univision News interviewed Forbes’ Michael Noer, Executive Editor for Special Projects, who co-leads the team that compiles the Most Powerful list with Nicole Perlroth. In their methodology page Noer states: “There are seven billion people on the planet. These are the 70 that matter.”  

By the end of June each year (since 2008 when this list started), Noer and Perlroth have already compiled a list of 200 people they’ve been keeping track of for possible inclusion in the list. They look for four specific indicators: 1) How many people a person has power over; 2) The financial resources controlled by each person, whether that is revenue (for a company), GDP (for a country), or net worth (for a billionaire); 3) How influential the person is; and 4) How actively the person wields his or her power. 

They then narrow the list to 104 and discuss it with ten other Forbes staff editors, ranging from editors of the “The World’s Billionaires” list, to those in the Beijing Bureau. Assisted by “an army of interns” and fact-checkers - none of whom vote on the list - the final product is, in Noer’s words, “the average opinion of ten pretty smart people here.”

Noer took some time to discuss El Chapo’s inclusion on the list with Univision News.

Are there any specific challenges when dealing with controversial figures such as “El Chapo” for the Forbes list?

I don’t think there are specifically different challenges when you’re talking about Guzmán or Osama Bin Laden – who was on the list obviously last year – or other figures. We’re not saying these people are good people, we’re saying they are powerful. And power is a tool, sure. I mean, obviously Guzmán is an evil man. And he does tremendous damage to both this country and to Mexico.

So how do you decide who makes it on the list?

By the way that we put together this list, he undoubtedly belongs on it. We look at four different things:

The financial resources relative to their peers - we believe Guzmán is a billionaire.

We look at the number of people they have power over. So here you’re not just talking about people here inside the cartel, you’re talking about both the Mexican and the U.S. governments, about all the drug users and geopolitics as he’s extending into Central America and Guatemala. 

We look at how actively he wields his power. When you look at the body count in Northern Mexico, the Zetas were very active.

And then we look at if he is powerful in multiple different areas.

And here again, we have somebody who is a criminal, who is involved in politics and so forth. You know, there are outer reasons to test his being on this list, but the fact is that, at the moment, he belongs.

But wealthy doesn’t mean influential. We hear stories about the Sultan of Brunei and his 2000 plus cars, but that doesn’t make him a reference for the rest of us.

A lot of people on this list, they aren’t rich.