The Mexican government now says Penn and a female actress who assisted in the interview, Kate del Castillo, are being investigated for the meeting.
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“That is correct, of course, it’s to determine responsibilities”, a federal official said.
Mexican journalists are routinely killed in their coverage of cartels, but Penn’s interview was different – he was served rounds of tequila by the drug boss in a secret location reached while plane Global Positioning System signals were scrambled by cartel insiders.
McDonough responded that he didn’t want to get ahead of any possible action, but that it “poses a lot of very interesting questions, both for him and for others involved in this…so-called interview”.
On Saturday, a federal law enforcement official speaking anonymously to the AP said that Mexico is willing to extradite Guzman to the United States, a reversal from the official position after his last arrest in 2014.
Guzman was finally recaptured on Friday in the northern city of Los Mochis after a bloody action movie-like shootout.
Penn said Guzman was entirely unapologetic and when asked: “Of all the countries and cultures with whom you do business, which is the most hard?”
Describing his preparation before meeting the drug lord, Penn said he was using burner phones, “one per contact, one per day, destroy, burn, buy, balancing levels of encryption, mirroring through Blackphones, anonymous email addresses, unsent messages accessed in draft form”.
According to the magazine, Penn and del Castillo were surrounded at the time by more than 100 cartel soldiers.
When asked to define himself as a person, El Chapo answered: “Well, if I knew him – with respect, and from my point of view, it’s a person who’s not looking for problems in any way. Everything I say to everyone must be true”. He is wearing a print blue shirt and dark baseball cap, but his face is clearly visible.
And he added proudly: “I supply more heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine and marijuana than anybody else in the world”.
Penn wrote that he was motivated to pursue Guzman’s story to uncover “what is inconsistent” with the “portrayals our government and media brand upon their declared enemies”. Guzman faces drug trafficking charges in a clutch of U.S. states.
The engineers who built the tunnel were flown to Germany for specialized training, Penn said Guzman told him.
Guzman said in the video that he doesn’t believe he is responsible for drug addiction in the world, according to Penn.
“No, that is false, because the day I don’t exist, it’s not going to decrease in any way at all”.
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It was this meeting, as well as Guzman’s desire to have a flashy biopic made about him, that brought about the kingpin’s rearrest.
