Sean Penn says Mexican government wanted to use him as scapegoat

Hollywood actor Sean Penn has stirred the controversy surrounding his meeting with fugitive druglord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán by claiming the Mexican government wanted to use him as a scapegoat and put him in danger.

In an interview with CBS’s 60 Minutes, to be aired in full on Sunday, Mr Penn blasted as a “myth” Mexican government assertions that his interview in El Chapo’s jungle hide-out, published in Rolling Stone, led to the Sinaloa cartel boss’ capture.

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“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," Mr Penn said. "We had met with him many weeks earlier . . . on October 2, in a place nowhere near where he was captured."
Asked if, as far as he knew, the meeting had nothing to do with the recapture, Mr Penn told CBS: "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 didn't — we're not smarter than the DEA [US Drug Enforcement Administration] or the Mexican intelligence. We had a contact upon which we were able to facilitate an invitation."
He was then asked if the government had been seeking, in part, to see Mr Penn put “in the crosshairs” of the cartel and at risk. “Yes,” the actor replied, but he said he was not afraid for his life.
The Mexican government says its intelligence was aware of the meeting between Mr Penn and the drug lord, which was brokered by Kate del Castillo, a Mexican actress who had been exchanging emails with Mr Guzmán with a view to helping him produce a biopic.

Close-range newspaper photographs of the two actors apparently on their Mexican trip have been published in the week since the drug kingpin was recaptured. Officials say the encounter helped Mexican marines close in on Mr Guzmán days later but that recapture attempt failed because he used a girl as a human shield.

The incident, however, helped flush Mr Guzmán out of the mountains and towards the city as he saw security forces closing in, leading to his arrest on January 8 after fleeing a house in Los Mochis. Government officials maintain the recapture was entirely the work of Mexican security and intelligence agents with no involvement from the US.

“The Mexican presidency is not going to get into an argument with this actor,” said one government source, in response to Mr Penn’s CBS interview contradicting the official version of events. His comments “do not warrant a response," the source added.
With Mr Guzmán back behind bars, under 24-hour surveillance, with tightened security and being regularly moved from cell to cell, public attention has ben gripped by the soap opera surrounding his contacts with Ms del Castillo. 

An alleged transcript of the lengthy, flirtatious cell phone messages from the drug lord to the actress has been published by newspaper Milenio as investigations turn to whether the pair had any financial dealings. The government says it is investigating whether any criminal misconduct took place.

The actress has said on Twitter that she will give her version of events “soon”.
Mr Penn, who has faced an outpouring of scorn over his lowball questions in the Rolling Stone article, lashed back at his detractors as jealous “green-eyed monsters”.
But he told CBS that his interview, which he said was based on the simple idea that he could “begin a conversation about the policy of the war on drugs”, had failed.