WASHINGTON, D.C. Jan. 11 (DPI) – In a stark example that celebrities live by different rules, Sean Penn managed to snag an interview with the era’s most notorious and ruthless drug trafficker, Mexican narco Joaquin Guzman Loera, a publicity stunt that readers found questionable at best and abhorrent at worst. Rolling Stone magazine Saturday announced the publication of a 10,000-word article based on Penn’s efforts, only a few days after Mexican marines tracked down “El Chapo” and apprehended him yet again.
All the events suggested a lengthy behind-the-scenes drama – by Hollywood stars, Mexican officials both on the narco’s payroll and not, editors of a counterculture magazine, and US drug prosecutors — that left many wondering what had actually happened, and whether Penn’s access to the drug kingpin served as anything more than PR pressure to arrest El Chapo.
Readers reacted as though the revelation that Penn – long a pal of leftist Latin despots – hung around with El Chapo on several occasions was a strange and unjustifiable act. El Chapo is believed to be responsible for the murders of hundreds of innocents, including innocent children and journalists who questioned his empire. That Penn, a celebrity actor, safely navigated the dark channels of a Mexican drug cartel – and then gave a kingpin-reviewed-and-approved article to Rolling Stone – shocked many; it was a scenario no ordinary reporter could ever pull off.
The timing of the kingpin’s arrest – so close to the release of news of Penn’s access to him while he was on the lam — spurred many to wonder how exactly the two events were intertwined.
Mexican authorities are now considering extraditing El Chapo to the US to face a multitude of charges, the conviction for which would likely keep him in prison for life.
The top five recommended reader comments all received more than 500 recommendations:
A man who has been responsible for deaths by beheading, shooting, torture, not to mention the distribution of a dangerous class A drug to all manner of people worldwide, plus the deaths of women and children, not to mention entire families, plus the wholesale corruption or an entire society, its police force, its government and the murder of decent people opposed to him, is lauded even by America as some kind of folk hero? This isn’t Breaking Bad, people. That was a TV show. Our Hollywood star is courting a monster and it’s wrong.
I can barely wrap my head around this. I don’t thinkdru even Hunter S. Thompson in his heyday could have pulled this off. This is one of those insane zeitgeist events that is truly stranger than fiction and shows just how incredibly strong the pull of Hollywood is – no matter how much money and power one has, it’s meaningless unless one can share it with a movie star. I can’t believe Guzmán didn’t think that doing this could have led to his re-capture (though we’ll see how long that lasts.) Maybe he doesn’t take drugs anymore but he’s still high on the manifestations of his ego. And then there’s Sean Penn’s ego. Wow. What a time we’re in.
Guzman is responsible for hundreds if not thousands of deaths — many of them innocent women and children. He is a deeply evil monster. Instead of bantering about Donald Trump and movie financing and playing journalist in the mountains WHY DIDN’T MR. PENN TELL THE AUTHORITIES WHERE ONE OF THE WORLD’S MOST WANTED MEN WAS??????
Sean Penn is a one man wrecking machine when it comes to Latin America. First he ardently and vocally supported Huigo Chavez despite the incontrovertible destruction that Mr. Chavez brought upon Venezuela. Now we hear that he has used his celebrity to interview a murderous Mexican drug lord. That he brought a young starlet along for the ride is Mexico lends an air of narcissism to Mr. Penn’s incredibly bad judgment.
Nearly speechless. Admire Sean Penn for his humanitarian activities, but not quite sure why he would interview this miscreant. The irony is rich that he (El Chapo) said he hopes he dies of natural causes after all the death and destruction caused by the drugs he and his cartel have sold.
And the sixth most recommended:
This seems extremely weird. Sean Penn is contacted by Guzman, then goes to Mexico and connects with Guzman’s cartel. He is airlifted into a hideout to interview Guzman. Yet he never informs U.S. and Mexican authorities about such contacts and meetings? Suppose he’d been contacted by, say, Bin Laden? Would it have been okay to keep that secret from the C.I.A.? A fugitive from justice isn’t a celebrity “get”; s/he’s a wanted criminal. So this story is puzzling. I’m sure that the interview is fascinating. But either Penn isn’t telling us the whole story, or he’s broken a few U.S. and Mexican — and international — laws.