Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman is probably the most famous name throughout all of drug lord history. His story has been well documented.
El Chapo has been wanted by the authorities since 2001. He was incarcerated that year and subsequently escaped January 19, 2001 and was incarcerated again and escaped July 11, 2015.
In 2015, Hollywood stars Sean Penn and Kate del Castillo reportedly set up a meeting between Penn and El Chapo, with Castillo also in attendance.
Now, actress Kate del Castillo has recently launched a three-part series about the encounter that takes form of a documentary on Netflix.
After being captured again, a day after Sean Penn sent in his 10,000 word first person narrative essay to Rolling Stone, El Chapo was extradited and is currently awaiting trial in the US for a a third time. Since the encounter, Castillo and Penn have different stories of what really went down.
A recent interview with the Washington Post has Castillo’s accounts of what happened, and she hopes to clear up anything that was misunderstood before.
For example, she wanted to make a clear point that she did not have a sexual relationship with El Chapo.
She did admit to a sexual relationship with Penn, however, and wrote it off as two single adults who were doing business together.
When asked about her and Penn’s accounts of what happened after the initial meeting,
“He has a perception of what happened and I have another perception of what happened… We tried to reach out to (Penn) many times in the documentary and he decided to ignore the requests and then he watched it and he didn’t like it and now he wants to say and be a part of it and sorry. He’s too late.”
The series, which is called The Day I Met El Chapo: The Kate del Castillo Story gives Castillo’s perspective. She has since claimed that Penn tipped off authorities in hopes of capturing El Chapo.
Penn has described the show as “nothing but a cheap National Enquirer-esque tale spun by a delusional person whose hunger for fame is both tawdry and transparent,” according to NBC News.
TMZ, according to Variety, has requested that Netflix “at the very least, eliminate any references to their client contacting (the Justice Department) prior to meeting Chapo.”
But Netflix has spoken up against these requests,
“Sean Penn was given the opportunity on multiple occasions to participate in ‘The Day I Met El Chapo’ and did not do so. The events surrounding the now-infamous meeting have been well covered, including by Penn himself in Rolling Stone and his many public comments since. The only new ground we’re breaking with this series is to give Kate a chance to finally tell her side of this stranger-than-fiction story.”
It seems odd that Sean Penn has reacted so aggressively yet refused to participate in the documentary.
Check out the series on Netflix now, and let us know what you think about it.