Actor Sean Penn is breaking his silence regarding his secret trip to Mexico to meet and interview kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman. El Chapo was finally recaptured after six months on the run last week and following his arrest Rolling Stone published Penn’s article which details meeting the notorious drug lord back in October.
Since the article was released Penn has been highly criticized and now wants to clear up many of the misconceptions about his meeting with El Chapo. In an interview with 60 Minutes Penn sat down with Charlie Rose for the discussion.
More below.
In the 6 minute teaser for the interview set to air Sunday Penn says, “There is this myth about the visit that we made, my colleagues and I, with El Chapo, that it was—as the Attorney General of Mexico is quoted—’essential’ to his capture,” he explains, “We had met with him many weeks earlier…on October 2, in a place nowhere near where he was captured.”
Penn also believes that the Mexican government was suffering from hurt feelings about his contact with El Chapo which is caused them to reveal information of his meeting. He says, “Here’s the things that we know: We know that the Mexican government, they were clearly very humiliated by the notion that someone found him before they did, well, nobody found him before they did. We’re not smarter than the DEA or the Mexican intelligence. We had a contact upon which we were able to facilitate an invitation.” We now know that the contact Penn had was Mexican actress Kate del Castillo whom El Chapo was very interested in.
Penn reveals the only regret he as about the article was that it opened a dialogue that does not serve it’s purpose. He said, “I have a regret that the entire discussion about this article ignores its purpose, which was to try to contribute to this discussion about the policy in the War on Drugs.”
Check out the full clip below.
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