What if there was a world with clones? There would be a way to live for up to 100 years effortlessly, have easy transplants, and maintain a precise memory. But, the recipient would be taking organs from someone else. "So what", he or she may justify, "they're Clones, they are inferior. They don't matter because they are stupid." But what if someone had the power to allow them to be of normal intelligence? He or she might think that he or she is doing the clone a favor, but when the clone is killed for spare parts it's an even worse situation than with a retarded clone. Not for this "bandido" (Farmer 37). El Patron is a cruel, selfish, heartless man who clawed his way to power in his youth and rules people with fear, though he is powerful, he is always nagged by the fact that he may lose everything. There is no way on earth he would let that happen.
El Patron believes he is doing the clones a favor by allowing them to be smart, but in the end he uses them just like all the other clones in the world - for his own personal use. Esperanza, a fierce No Drug activist, once wrote that ?a more evil, vicious, and self-serving man (than El Patron) could hardly be imagined? (Farmer 170). Though the practice of murdering clones is widely accepted in the book, it is morally wrong, and most people would at least have second thoughts about killing someone. Even with his dragon hoard, which he just lets sit there untouched and deeply protected, El Patron becomes outraged with even the slightest of a suggestion towards giving anything away. He is so self-centered, in fact, that at his death greed took over and all of the people inhabiting his part of Opium were silenced and added to his hoard.
Power is what El Patron has worked for and what he fears of losing. Unthinkingly describing the drug lord word for word, Tam Lin once said that ?Power is a drug, and people like me crave it? (Farmer 243). Though his business is illegal to the rest of the world, he never seems to show any concern about what everyone else?s laws are and he proceeds with what he had planned. Matt and all of the other clones he had created are mere examples of this. Clones were not allowed to be intelligent, but he decided to break the rules for himself. Though El Patron is powerful, there is usually resistance to a supreme ruler of a country and he needs to be extra careful to not give anyone a chance to find a weakness.
El Patron is somewhat insecure about people betraying him and does not want to give anyone the chance to even think of doing so without proper punishment. He won?t even consider giving things to the poor and needy, and when it is suggested, he exclaims ?Give things away? Was that why I built an Empire greater than El Dorado?s?? (Farmer 184). Though he is immensely powerful, he still takes several precautions to be sure that there is no chance for him to lose his ?hard-earned? authority. An example of this insecurity is El Patron never letting people go. Celia once stated that, ?From that moment on, I belonged to El Patron. I will always belong to him. He will never let me go? (Farmer 143). Even Matt noticed certain hostility in her voice when she said the last part. While she was talking about why MacGregor couldn?t take Tom, she told Matt, ?Once El Patron decides something belongs to him, he never lets it go? (Farmer 139). Eejits are also a good example of how he tries to keep supreme power. So that he doesn?t have to worry about revolts or any kind of opposition, anyone who questions his authority and security by crossing into the boundaries of Opium is immediately turned into an eejit - harmless and lifeless. Someone with a computer chip in their brain is about as threatening as a mouse.
In conclusion
El Patron is a greedy man who wrongfully uses his hard-earned power for evil uses. Maybe, in all of his wrongdoings, he leaves room for allowing Matt to make the right decisions that he never made himself. Matt would have to desperately want to be a horrible person to turn out similarly to El Patron.
