Sean Penn has claimed that the Mexican government deliberately credited him with the capture of Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman to put him in the crosshairs of his feared gang. Penn recently told USA news show 60 Minutes he seriously doubts his meeting with El Chapo led to his subject’s recapture, but he assumed the authorities knew all about the fugitive’s plans to meet with him.
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“I was asked did I think he’d let himself be taken alive”. The government has been humiliated that Guzman has been able to escape prison twice and that Penn and Mexican actress Kate del Castillo were able to find him before they could, he said. “It seems to be so unmovable”, Penn said.
Later on, Rose again presses Penn on his unwillingness to talk about El Chapo’s violent history and Penn states “I was not present to report on the things people would like to see reported on”. An article that focused not on one of the world’s most unsafe drug lords, but on logistics, travel and farting.
The US-Mexican star has come under scrutiny since it was revealed last week that she exchanged affectionate text messages with Guzman and brokered a meeting between the Sinaloa drug cartel honcho and US actor Sean Penn.
According to reports, Penn and Rolling Stone magazine also gave El Chapo story approval, a move that Rolling Stone publisher Jann Wenner said was “a small price to pay”.
Mexican officials wanted to encourage drug cartels to blame Guzman’s capture on the meeting, Penn said, because the government was embarrassed that Penn and his coworkers found the drug kingpin before they could.
Sean Penn isn’t too thrilled with how his Rolling Stone piece with Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán Loera has been processed around the country. “We all want them – the killings in Chicago to stop”, Penn added.
He blasted critics who have dismissed him as “not a journalist”. And if you are in the moral right, or on the far left, just as many of your children are doing these drugs…And how much time have they spent in the last week since this article [has] come out, talking about that?
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Rose: I first wanted to know why you wanted to do this, why you wanted to go there. Penn also admitted to a certain realization about just how powerful “El Chapo” or any of his associates actually were.
