'El Supremo' is a fictional character, possibly modeled on
José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia, the
Paraguayan dictator who used the same sobriquet, in
C.S. Forester's novels about
Horatio Hornblower, appearing in
The Happy Return. He is an insane and ambitious leader of a rebellion against the Spanish in the Pacific. He is aided and given a captured ship by Hornblower, until Hornblower discovers that the Spanish have switched sides. He is captured by the Spanish and eventually hanged.
He for example demanded a 23-gun salute, as a self-proclaimed superior being.
Some characters in
W. E. B. Griffin's
The Corps series referred to General
Douglas MacArthur as "El Supremo." The main character to do this,
Fleming Pickering, is a shipping magnate turned US Marine general from San Francisco. As a seaman himself, he could have been familiar with Forester's works.