Sean Penn secretly met El Chapo in jungle hideout
Sean Penn, a famed American actor, says he interviewed Mexican drug kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman in his hideout, months before his recent recapture.
Guzman, who had escaped from Mexico’s maximum security Altiplano prison in July 2015, was recaptured on Friday.
While he was on the run, El Chapo found enough time to sit down with Sean Penn, and Mexican actress Kate del Castillo for an interview in October. Rolling Stone published the interview on Saturday.
In their seven-hour meeting, Penn and Guzman discussed various topics including drug trafficking.
Penn described Guzman as “Mexico’s other president,” and claimed he is different from his counterparts in exercising violence.
“Unlike many of his counterparts who engage in gratuitous kidnapping and murder, El Chapo is a businessman first, and only resorts to violence when he deems it advantageous to himself or his business interests,” Penn was quoted as saying by Rolling Stone.
This is while the boss of the powerful Sinaloa drug cartel is wanted by American authorities over smuggling billions of dollars worth of illicit narcotics into the US as well as thousands of deaths due to his gang's violence.
Penn said the media and public attention dedicated to El-Chapo’s manhunt was unprecedented since Osama bin Laden.
The star of “I Am Sam” and “Mystic River” further argued that the American public’s “insatiable appetite for illicit narcotics” makes them complicit in Guzman’s crimes.
Each year, more than 27,000 Mexicans are losing their lives in relation to the deadly drug trade.
In a short two-minute video featured in the Rolling Stone article, Guzman rejects responsibility for spreading drug addiction, saying, "The day I don't exist, it's not going to decrease in any way at all."
The meeting, reportedly arranged by Castillo, took place in a remote part of Durango state, a Mexican official told Associated Press. Durango borders Sinaloa state, the heart of Guzman’s cartel operations.
His narcotic success has ranked him among the richest drug dealers in history. Forbes magazine has estimated his net worth at nearly $1 billion.
Mexico is set to extradite Guzman to the US, where he faces drug trafficking charges connected to his cartel, the CNN reported Sunday, citing Mexican officials.
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