Monday, January 11, 2016

How a Mexican actress set up Sean Penn's interview with El Chapo

Kate del Castillo, glamorous star of Mexican telenovelas, was apparently contacted by drug lord's lawyer after supportive Twitter messages



Mexican actress Kate del Castillo and Sean Penn
Mexican actress Kate del Castillo and Sean Penn  Photo: Instagram/katedelcastillo
Known as a drug cartel "queen" in a telenovela, Kate del Castillo is now starring in a real-life drama as the go-between for Sean Penn and Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman.
The 43-year-old actress, who starred in the 2011 show La Reina del Sur (The Queen of the South), had a relatively scandal-free career until she directed tweets at Guzman in February 2012.
In one tweet, written while Guzman was on the run a decade after his first prison break, del Castillo said she "believes more in Chapo Guzman than the governments that hide the truth from me even though it might be painful".
She also pleads with Guzman to get out of the drug business.
Sean Penn and El Chappo
Sean Penn and El Chappo   Photo: Sean Penn
In an interview with Televisa that same year, the daughter of Eric del Castillo, a famous telenovela actor, said she had been misunderstood, insisting that her messages were "totally ironic, sarcasm".
The dark-haired actress said Guzman never responded and that she did not know him.
But in his bombshell article for Rolling Stone on Saturday, Penn wrote that a lawyer for Guzman contacted her after reading her statement on Twitter.
"He said El Senor wanted to send her flowers in gratitude. She nervously offered her address, but with the gypsy movements of an actress, the flowers did not find her," Penn wrote.
After Guzman's second capture in February 2014, the same lawyer found her again and the actress and drug lord began to correspond in handwritten letters and text messages, the Oscar-winning actor said.
While in prison, Guzman wanted a film made about his life "but would entrust its telling only to Kate," Penn wrote.
Joaquin Guzman Loera, also known as "El Chapo" is transported to Maximum Security Prison of El Altiplano in Mexico City, Mexico on January 08, 2016Joaquin Guzman Loera, also known as "El Chapo" is transported to Maximum Security Prison of El Altiplano in Mexico City, Mexico on Friday
Penn, who wanted to write a magazine article about the imprisoned kingpin, met Del Castillo, who passed the message to Guzman. The drug lord agreed to meet them.
The now notorious meeting between Penn, Del Castillo and Guzman finally took place on October 2.
When they arrive at the rendezvous in a jungle clearing, Guzman opens Del Castillo's car door "and greets her like a daughter returning from college," Penn wrote.
In a video recording that Guzman made after the face-to-face meeting, the drug lord said the content was an "exclusive for senorita Kate del Castillo and senor Sean Penn".
"The Queen of the South mediated the interview with El Chapo. I would not expect less from her," Arturo Perez-Reverte, the Spanish author of the book that inspired the TV series, wrote on Twitter.
Drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman has been recaptured
Arely Gomez, Mexico's attorney general, said on Friday that Guzman had contacted "actresses and producers," whom she did not name, in a bid to make a biopic.
The Mexican attorney general's office now wants to question Del Castillo and Penn about the meeting, a federal official told AFP.
While the actors strived to keep the meeting secret, officials said they found out about it and it helped investigators track down Guzman, who was nearly captured days after the interview.
Guzman was eventually caught on Friday in the seaside city of Los Mochis, Sinaloa state, after a deadly military raid.

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