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.
In an interview with CBS’s 60 Minutes, host Charlie Rose asked the actor whether he believed Mexico president Enrique Pena Nieto’s government credited Sean because “they want to see you blamed and put at risk” from the Sinaloa Cartel.
“Yes,” Sean replied.
Charlie continued: “They wanted to encourage the cartel to put you in their crosshairs?”
“Yes,” Sean again confirmed.
He explained: “There is this myth about the visit that we made, my colleagues and I with El Chapo, that it was … ‘essential’ to his capture.”
He added: “We know the Mexican government, they clearly were humiliated by the notion that someone found him before they did.”
Sean, who was interviewing the Mexican fugitive for an article for Rolling Stone magazine, said he had in fact met El Chapo “many weeks earlier on October 2 in a place nowhere near to where he was captured”.
The world’s most wanted drug lord was recaptured by Mexican marines on January 8, six months after he fled through a tunnel from a maximum security prison.
The Oscar-winning actor said he agreed to do the interview to “begin a conversation about the policy of the War on Drugs. That was my simple idea.”
He confirmed to Charlie that he had failed in his intention.
“I have a terrible regret. 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 on the War on Drugs.”
“Let me be clear. My article has failed,” he said.
Sean Penn’s episode of 60 Minutes airs on CBS on Sunday.
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