WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Season 2 of Narcos: Mexico, now streaming on Netflix.

Narcos: Mexico's second season throws Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo (Diego Luna) into a corner as he finds himself out of his depth while trying to assert dominance over Pablo Escobar's Colombian cartel. With several other plazas being contacted to independently ship cocaine to America, Félix wants his Federation to be the only partner. But in trying to maintain a monopoly, he alienated the Colombian businessmen.

In the process, the Mexican government's PRI party, whom Félix allied with last season, beings to lose faith in him. The civil unrest culminates in the heated 1988 general elections. Knowing that PRI's Carlos Salinas de Gortari would lose against a breakaway independent candidate from the party, Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas, Félix pulls out his biggest weapon to consolidate power and keep the PRI party in rulership -- fake news.

RELATED: Narcos: 10 Real-Life Stories About The Illegal Drug Trade That Could Work As A Narcos Spin-Off

During the elections, a computer system was put into place to tabulate votes as they came in real-time from various cities and districts. This would allow the media early access to gauge what the final tally would be while ballots were still being counted, though it wouldn't be final. The series does dramatize certain aspects of this story, but it's one which makes for great entertainment, especially given how fake news has been weaponized in modern society to influence elections globally, particularly the last American one.

In the show, Félix and his PRI contacts visit the data center. While the initial round of data is being mined, they see PRI is in for a heavy loss days before the polls open. However, Félix, knowing if PRI loses, he'll be shut down, has the coding team come up with a fake algorithm that will allow them to produce results indicating PRI's in the lead. By sending this false information to the media, Félix hopes to discourage PRI's opponents from turning out for the election.

RELATED: Netflix's Narcos Becomes a Comic Book Series From IDW

No one wants to expend energy voting for a loser, Félix says, so this way, when the votes are tallied, they won't have been tampered with. So long as no one was tampering with actual ballots, it would technically be a clean election regardless of the misdirection and lying. Most importantly, in the end, there would be more PRI votes.

On the day of the election, the plan works for a while. That is until journalists see Félix's coding team switching screens and realize something's amiss. As a melee breaks out, the PRI team, in a most sinister fashion, cuts power and resets the system so the fake code can't be found. But by then, the damage has been done.

News has leaked out about PRI's meddling with the system, resulting in voters coming out against them harder than ever. The anti-PRI victory is short-lived, though, because the shady Félix has a more aggressive back-up plan. He convinces PRI to let him use his plazas, as they all make dirty coke money for the government, to go out as enforcers.

In their desperation, the party allows it. The cartels burn opposition boxes, add in numbers on sheets for PRI and use intimidation tactics to raise the numbers, thus guaranteeing Carlos a small margin of victory. This act of corruption and terror was a bit more practical than the fake news, but combining both was a genius stroke as the Federation maintained power, receiving immunity for how they pumped $15 billion back into the treasury every year with drug money. Félix became a hero to the party, with journalists and naysayers being killed off afterward in order to keep the fake news scandal a secret.

Seasons 1-3 of Narcos, and the two seasons of Narcos: Mexico, are all available to stream right now on Netflix.

KEEP READING: Why Netflix Cancels So Many Shows After Two or Three Seasons