News Digest

Sean Penn: My ‘El Chapo’ mission failed to get us talking about war on drugs

Sean Penn has revealed “a terrible regret” about his interview with Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman. The Hollywood star said his article failed because it did not spark a discussion about the so-called war on drugs. In an interview for the 60 Minutes, he also denied he was to blame for the drug lord’s arrest last week. Penn, who interviewed El Chapo at his jungle lair in October for Rolling Stone magazine, told CBS host Charlie Rose: “I have a regret that the entire discussion about this article ignores its purpose, which was to try to contribute to this discussion about the policy in the war on drugs.”

Let’s go to the big picture of what we all want. We all want this drug problem to stop. We all want them - the killings in Chicago to stop

Sean Penn

Oscar-winner Penn, whose foray into journalism for Rolling Stone has been condemned as naive, badly written and navel-gazing, said: “We are the consumer. Whether you agree with Sean Penn or not, there is a complicity there. And if you are in the moral right, or on the far left, just as many of your children are doing these drugs. And how much time have they spent in the last week since this article come out, talking about that? One per cent? I think that’d be generous.” Penn also accused the Mexican government of trying to blame him for the kingpin’s arrest so the Sinaloa cartel would seek revenge against the actor. However, he denied feeling his life was in danger.