Mexican actress challenges Penn’s Chapo account

A prominent Mexican actress has spoken out on meeting drug baron Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzm-an to imply that Oscar-winning star Sean Penn fabricated an account of government soldiers waving them through a checkpoint.

Kate del Castillo, who lives in Los Angeles, made the remarks in an interview with the New Yorker, adding to an avalanche of criticism against Penn about meeting Guzman and then writing about it in Rolling Stone magazine. Penn’s much mocked 10,000-word article alleged that uniformed government soldiers allowed them to pass through after identifying Guzman’s son Alfredo in their convoy during a lengthy drive through the Mexican bush to meet Guzman.

“Wow. So it is, the power of a Guzman face. And the corruption of an institution,” Penn wrote. But Del Castillo told the New Yorker that the convoy did not go through a military checkpoint, nor did government soldiers wave them on. Argentinian producers Fernando Sulichin and Jose Ibanez, who were in the car ahead of del Castillo and Penn, also have no recollection of encountering a military checkpoint, the New Yorker wrote.

Penn maintains that his account is correct, the publication added. Penn’s article was published on January 9, one day after Guzman was captured following six months on the run from jail in Mexico. Del Castillo also grumbled to the New Yorker that the Hollywood star and ex-husband of Madonna did not reveal he was working on an article until she was translating his conversation with Guzman. Penn says he discussed his intentions in their first meeting and again en route to their meeting with Guzman, the New Yorker reported. Del Castillo hoped instead that Penn would collaborate with her on a film project about Guzman, one of the world’s most notorious drug traffickers and blamed for the deaths of thousands of people in Mexico. The actress also complained that Penn implied she had encouraged romantic-style overtures from Guzman, when in fact her dealings were purely professional with an eye to working on a movie project. Penn faced enormous criticism over the article that poured scorn on the information he obtained.