This Near Pure Evil was headlined on February 2025.
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~ Hectorās last words before suffering a stroke.
Don Hector "Tio" Salamanca is one of the two overarching antagonists (alongside Don Eladio) of the crime drama series Breaking Bad and one of the two secondary antagonists (alongside Howard Hamlin) of its prequel series Better Call Saul.
One of the founding members of the Cartel, he is the patriarch of the Salamanca Family who serves as the grandfather of Joaquin Salamanca as well as the uncle of Lalo, Tuco, and the twins Marco and Leonel, respectively. He is also the business rival and sworn archenemy of Gustavo Fring upon murdering the latter's boyfriend and business partner Maximino Arciniega on the orders of his boss Don Eladio, which in turn led to Gus seeking revenge against Hector and the Cartel to avenge Max's death as a result.
Eventually, thanks to the machinations of Nacho Varga, he suffers a stroke that renders his body almost completely paralyzed. He then tries to inform the Cartel about Gus but no one takes him seriously and he is carried off. As the events in Breaking Bad kick off, his family dies one after another, with his grandson Joaquin being the last one to go as Hector must suffer as the last remaining Salamanca and Cartel member as well. So when given the chance, he decides to team up with Gus' arch-foe Walter White in order to eliminate Gus by having Hector be used as a suicide bomb. Thereafter going to the DEA to mock them, he has Gus come to his nursing him and ultimately kills him in a murder-suicide.
Although he became unable to walk and talk after Nacho Varga manipulated his pills and Gus Fring manipulated his recovery, and was psychologically tortured by Gus about the death of his nephews and members of the Cartel, not only did this happen after he did most of his worst actions, but it doesn't even come close to making him sympathetic due to how horrible he is. This is especially shown with how much he enjoys crossing the Moral Event Horizon, and did so many times before his stroke.
Furthermore, almost everything bad that happens to him and his family is either directly or indirectly a consequence of their horrible actions for which Hector is ultimately responsible, because he molded them all into remorseless and sadistic murderers.
While he does have some comedic moments, such as intentionally pooping himself during a DEA interrogation with Jesse, making a nurse say "Suck my..." and "Fuc..." with the rest being obvious during another interview with the DEA, or his tantrum when he hears Tuco knifed someone in prison, they don't detract from his heinousness and he's still treated seriously in-universe, and they rather serve to signify his utterly detestable and pathetic nature.
Not only does he show no remorse for all of his crimes, but he actually seems to revel in them.
He has a terribly frequent habit of making a bad impression on others, even at first, making him a generally unappealing and unpleseant person.
Although throughout both shows, almost every single major character is a bad person with few exceptions, he is one of the worst as he is not only a drug cartel boss, but also very racist, homophobic and likely misogynistic which makes him all the more deplorable. The only characters who are similar to him in this term are Lalo, Jack Welker, with his nephew. However, Hector outranks them in terms of heinousness and for having a major role in the overarching story of both shows, as well as being partially responsible for Lalo's villainy.
He's politically incorrect and prejudiced in several ways:
He is racist against South Americans, referring to them as "dirty people", and advising against doing business with Gus solely on the basis of him being South American. What's worse is that he's Mexican, and many South Americans has similar descent with Mexicans.
He also called Gus "Sudaca", which is a racist slur used to offend South American people.
He is also homophobic, making several cruel jokes about the relationship between Gus and his boyfriend and partner Max (especially after he murdered Max right in front of him), even calling them "the butt brothers."
He is also shown to be quite perverted and misogynistic. This is best evidenced when he deliberately drops a glass of water so he can stare at the butt of the nurse cleaning it up.
Despite claiming to be loyal to the Cartel, he is not loyal to Don Eladio at all - even insulting him (not to his face, of course) by saying he can suck him. This also makes it clear he also views his āloyaltyā as a burden for which he firmly believes he's owed compensation.
He is the one to blame for most of the deaths and other bad events that occurred throughout the franchise, both directly and indirectly, because of his role in founding the Cartel, raising all of the Salamancas into remorseless sadistic psychopaths and his role in Gus' further descent into villainy, all of which became a catalyst for many horrible events.
Almost everybody across both Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul either hates or fears him, with others even outright disgusted by him. The only ones who actually care about him are his family members, however, this is pretty minor since he abused them and all of them are almost as bad as he is.
While Gus has understandable and even sympathetic reasons for his and Hector's feud, Hector's initial motivation for hating Gus is shown to be a mixture of homophobia, racism and jealousy.
In the Past[]
According to Steven Gomez in Breaking Bad, he was imprisoned for 17 years at some point for possible criminal activities in his youth.
Horribly abused all his nephews with Lalo claiming he's crazy because of his uncle's influence, and raised all of them into bloodthirsty murderers who only care about their family.
He almost drowned Marco just to teach his twin, Leonel, a lesson when they were just kids.
The effects of his abuse on his nephews disturbs even Eladio of all people, up to the point where he asks Nacho if he is okay in the head for having worked with Tuco in the first place.
Speaking of Tuco, while he does love his uncle, he seems to be annoyed and angry at him in Breaking Bad; it is possible that Tuco has some anger towards Hector due to the abuse he put him through as a child.
His crimes have certainly earned him quite a reputation as Manuel Varga becomes disgusted and enraged after learning that his son Nacho is working for him, with Manuel clearly knowing who Hector is.
When he is called about Gus and his viewpoint on him, Hector claims he doesn't trust him due to being South-American and mockingly calls Gus "big generalissimo", "big fry cook" and "the Chicken Man."
When meeting with Gus and his boyfriend, Maximino Arciniega, he relieves himself into Eladio's pool in front of them and quips they were liking what they were seeing and homophobically insulting them.
When Bolsa gets disgusted at Hector's act, he simply dares him to tell Eladio about it.
During the aforementioned meeting, he murdered Max right in front of Gus and then sadistically forced the latter to watch his corpse bleed out before tauntingly saying itās Gusā fault this happened to him and mockingly advising him to "stick to chicken." This action is what would lead to chain of events with Gus dedicating 20 years of exacting his revenge on The Cartel, especially Hector himself.
The event, as later shown in Better Call Saul, haunted Gus for the rest of his life and prevented him from ever moving on from Max and develop another relationship with anyone else.
Tortured a hotel proprietor to death while his wife listened and then burned down his hotel alongside his nephew Lalo. It is also possible that by burning down the place, they have killed all of the other guests as well.
He is heavily implied to have forced a driver of an ice cream shop named Ximenez Lecerda he bought to transport his drugs, and humiliates him and berates him in front of Don Eladio when introducing him during a meeting. As seen in Better Call Saul Seasons 2-3, he uses these trucks to smuggle both cocaine and money across the border illegally so that his drug empire could run.
Better Call Saul[]
Season 2[]
Acts as an old worried uncle in order to convince Mike Ehrmantraut to drop charges against Tuco, for which he claims to pay 5000 dollars which is quite a low price, proving Hector's disrespect towards those he views beneath him, although to be fair he did come to respect and agreed with Mike's requirements after he stood on own point.
Despite initially presenting himself as affable and reasonable, he orders his men to intimidate Mike by sneaking into his house and later sends his nephews to threaten to murder Mike's daughter-in-law and granddaughter to punish Mike when he refused to give a false statement so his nephew, Tuco, would get a lighter sentence.
When Mike tries to negotiate a payment for lying about Tuco's gun, Hector casually tells Mike that he will have his entire remaining family killed to intimidate him into doing what he wants.
After Mike robbed one of his trucks, Hector lashes out at his minions and pushes Arturo away after the man helped him take his heart medications, instead of thanking him.
When a good samaritan picks up the driver of one of his drug shipments that have been robbed by Mike (preventing the police from getting a lead on Hector), he murders the samaritan in cold blood (shooting him in the face, according to Nacho) and has his body buried in the desert.
This makes the infuriated Mike Ehrmantraut try to kill Hector, only being prevented by Gus.
He has the Cousins torture and execute Lecerda just for being robbed.
Season 3[]
When he wants to discuss business with Gus, he barges into the nearest Los Pollos Hermanos restaurant with Nacho Varga and Arturo Colon and starts harassing the staff and customers while taking them hostage, (But he still had an honorable moment for Lyle personally).
While demanding for Gus to transport his drugs for him, he disrespectfully uses Gus' pen to scratch dirt from his shoes, while also putting his shoes on top of his desk.
When Nacho Varga lets his friend Krazy-8 off with a warning for not having enough money, Hector forces him to brutally beat the man up while he calmly drinks his coffee.
Forced Nacho to demand more drugs from Gus' men and then laughed after hearing they tried to shoot him.
He tries to use the car repairs shop of Nacho's innocent father as a front for his drug business (thus forcing him into a life of crime).
He continues to do so even after he is explicitly forbidden this by Eladio.
In addition to this, after Manuel Varga rejects Hector's offer and orders him to leave his shop, Hector states that he doesn't trust the man to Nacho who is pleading for his father's life, most likely intending to have Manuel killed which forces Nacho to switch his pills and eventually cause his stroke at the end of this season, sparking the chain of events that leads to Nacho being forced to work as a double agent for Gustavo Fring and his eventual demise.
After being informed about the news that Gus will be trusted to transport the drugs to the north, Hector begins to curse out both Eladio and Bolsa in a fit of rage before his stroke.
Although one can argue that this he felt disrespected out of petty jealousy towards Gus, Hector brings up the sacrifices his family has made to build up the Cartel. However, considering how many misery the Salamancas are responsible for, this isn't really played for sympathy.
Season 4[]
He visibly relishes in Lalo reminding him of their shared destruction of the aforementioned hotel and the torture of its owner. He also told Lalo that he wanted to kill everyone around him.
Season 5[]
He gives the idea to ruin Gus' reputation in Eladio's eyes to Lalo, leading to Lalo using Nacho to burn down a Los Pollos Hermanos restaurant.
Season 6[]
He gave Lalo a hint of finding actual evidence to Gus' treachery, making him partially responsible for Lalo's heinous actions throughout the season, including the murder of Howard Hamlin leading to the break up of Jimmy McGill and Kim Wexler, leading to Jimmy becoming the corrupt and crooked lawyer Saul Goodman in Breaking Bad.
During Lalo's vengeful mission against Gus, started by Hector, Lalo meets his end for which Hector is partially to blame for as Gus was prepared to Lalo's arrival thanks to Hector giving a smug look to Fring, revealing that Lalo was alive the whole time.
Furthermore, Jimmy finally becoming Saul leads to Walter White rising up in the criminal underworld as Heisenberg, as Jimmy admits in the finale that without him Walt would've got killed or imprisoned within a short time. Thus, Hector is partially responsible for this again.
He wanted the Cousins to brutally torture Nacho out of revenge for Lalo's "death" and possibly to gain information about Gus' treachery.
During Nacho's final moments Hector spitefully points at Gus, hoping that Nacho might expose Gus.
After Nacho killed himself, he spitefully shot his corpse repeatedly out of pure fury after Nacho confessed to being the sole cause of Hector's disability.
After Lalo's actual death, he tries to convince Eladio and Bolsa to kill Gus.
Breaking Bad[]
Season 2[]
Tried to get Tuco to kill Walt and Jesse, although to be fair it was because he noticed they poisoned Tucoās burrito and he just wanted to protect him.
When Hank Schrader interrogates him as a witness to the Heisenberg case, he defecates on the floor of the interrogation room.
While that is true that he refused to give up Jesse to the DEA despite him partaking in Tuco's downfall and subsequent death, it's very unlikely that he did so out of a sense of criminal "honor", since he possibly just wanted to decimate Jesse personally or simply hated the DEA more, especially considering that it was the DEA agent who killed Tuco.
Season 3[]
He sends the Cousins after Walter in retaliation of Tuco's death, which results in the Cousins killing multiple people, Hank getting severely injured and the Cousins themselves getting killed in the process.
This also gives the opportunity for Gus to betray Juan Bolsa and have him killed as well.
Season 4[]
While he does cry at the hearing of the fates of Eladio and his capos, given his hatred of Eladio, it was only because he couldn't handle Gus winning over him and the Cartel.
Temporarily teamed up with Walter White in killing Gustavo Fring, although it was clear that he only teamed up with Walter because of his personal grudge towards Gustavo.
He mocks the police even when he comes willingly to "report Gus" and actually gives no information.
Baited Gus into letting his guard down by refusing to look at him, knowing how much it would irritate Gus and then suicide-bombs himself, simply to take out and drag Gus to death with him, which also killed Tyrus, Gus' bodyguard. It also must be noted that the residents inside the nursing home could've gotten injured in the process. Also, while he does end up killing Gus and himself, it is not in any way for seeking redemption for his crimes, but as vengeance for the deaths of his family and for himself to die in a blaze of glory. This also makes him die without suffering any further consequences for his actions.
Season 5, El Camino and Better Call Saul 6x10-6x13[]
Because of his help, Walter won against Gustavo. Thus, not only did this Walt to become the main kingpin in Albuquerque, but it also kickstarted numerous events such as Los Pollos Hermanos shutting down for good (getting many people unemployed in the process and Peter Schuler committing suicide), the deaths of several people (most notably Hank, Steven, Andrea and even Walt himself), Jesse being forced to live alone in Alaska for the rest of his life under a new identity, Saul being sent to prison for 86 years and Walt's family being driven apart after Hank's death as well as the bond between the Whites and Schraders being almost completely destroyed due to Jack Welker killing Hank, which led to Skyler pinning the blame on Walt and betraying him, causing him to leave Albuquerque for 6 months.
What Prevents Him from Being Pure Evil?[]
He genuinely cared about his family, as he was visibly saddened when hearing Tuco, Marco, Leonel and Joaquin died, and was devastated when he thought Lalo was dead (even if it turned out his death was faked). When he thinks Gus actually killed Lalo, he tries to get him killed by revealing it to Eladio.
While he did put the Cousins through abuse (he tried to drown Marco and it's implied that he put Tuco and Lalo through similar abuse), it's not a subversion of this redeeming quality, as even if the way he taught it to them was cruel, it was only done to teach them a lesson he believed to be the most important: Family is all.
He sometimes respects people who stand up to him. When Mike demanded $50,000 in exchange for giving Tuco a reduced sentence, and stood his ground despite being threatened, Hector chose to give him the money without any further threats and joked about how ballsy he was. As well, despite still refusing to comply, he admired Lyleās commitment to his job when Lyle continued to insist he leave Los Pollos Hermanos after harassing the customers and staff, smiling in response while giving him a pat on the back.
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Near Pure Evils
