Guapo Maldito is very likely not his birth name (it translates to "handsome and damned"), but the alias is his preferred ID, and probably it's best for everyone not to dig too closely into his past. Tariq thinks Guapo originated from somewhere south of Mexico, but, again, no need to dig too much. The long and short of it is that Tariq, in his Lunarian days, was on with a gang/neighborhood protection org of poor Bengali clankers. Guapo, seeing the gang was somewhat competant, approached the Bengalis with an offer of hostile takeover partnership from the Night Cartel.
Would *you* say no to the Night Cartel?
Now owing alliegance to the Night Cartel, Guapo was essentially Tariq's boss until Tariq got arrested and sold to Leon.
Guapo has advanced further in the Cartel ranks over the years, and now oversees several cells on Extropia.
Guapo has a personal vendetta against the Nine Lives gang. Possibly stemming from the pre-Fall days, when Latin American gangs (one of which Guapo presumably belonged to) clashed with Haitian gangs (a few of whom went on to establish Nine Lives) over smuggling territory and other finite resources.