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Actor Sean Penn spoke against "demonizing" a character like Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán and insisted that his meeting with one of the most wanted men in the world had the purpose of opening a debate on drug policies.
"To over-demonize any human being is not in our best self-interest. Like it or not, we're married to 'em. They're of our time. They're affecting us. So like a marriage, you know, you might want a divorce," he said in an interview with Charlie Rose, on CBS.
"But you've got to look at this person as a person," he added.
Rose asked him if it "was it naive of you, naive, to believe that you could come to Mexico, meet with Kate del Castillo, and go see El Chapo without somebody knowing about it?"
Penn insisted that the version of the Mexican authorities about how they used that meeting to capture "El Chapo" has him now in the crosshairs of the Sinaloa Cartel.
“Well, nobody found him before they did. We didn't f-- we're not smarter than the DEA or the Mexican intelligence. We had a contact upon which we were able to facilitate an invitation that allowed us in," expressed the actor.
"I was not present to report on the things people would like to see reported on. I was not present at murders. I was not present to see narcotics. I was not present to that. What I was present for I wrote. I wrote that to use it as a pillar for an article about the policy of the war on drugs," Penn insisted.
When questioned about the possibility that his decision to meet with Guzmán Loera was motivated by his ego, Penn denied that probability.
"Do I accept that people feel that way? ... I absolutely accept that they feel that way ... No, they're not right," expressed Penn.
"My problem with people is that they think they know more about it. Let's go to the big picture of what we-- what we all want. We all want this drug problem to stop. And if you are in the moral right, or on the far left, just as many of your children are doing these drugs, just as many of your brothers and sisters, your mothers and fathers, the teachers at school, are doing these drugs. Just as many. And how much time have they spent in the last week since this article come out, talking about that? One percent? I think that'd be generous," he lamented.
He also regretted the fact that, on his view, his article did not obtain the results he expected and ended creating a storm instead.
"Let me be clear. My article has failed ... in that everything that's spoken about is everything but what I was trying to speak about," he said.
"I think the policy of the war on drugs, which so deeply affects all of our lives, seems not to change. It seems to be so unmovable. And it occurs to me that often, because we want to simplify the problem, and we want to look at a black hat and put our resources into focusing on the bad guy and ... and I understand that. I absolutely understand justice and the rule of law. And so I do what I call experiential journalism. I don't have to be the one that reports on the alleged murders or the amount of narcotics that are brought in. I go and I spend time in the company of another human being, which everyone is. And I make an observation and try to parallel that, try to balance that with the focus that we-- that I believe we-- we tend to put too much emphasis on," Penn said.
