He wanted to be a movie star

If you wanted a Hollywood star to do a movie about you, which star would you choose? El Chapo Guzman might choose Sean Penn, who has written an article in Rolling Stone about his meeting with Guzman in a remote Mexican jungle. Guzman wanted Hollywood to do a biopic about his life, and had arranged for his representatives to contact Mexican actress Kate del Castillo, who had tweeted in 2012,

"Today I believe more in El Chapo Guzman than in the governments that hide the truth from me even though it is painful."

Kate del Castillo, one of the most famous actors in Mexico, brokered the meeting. Uriel Santana

Sean Penn writes about the experience in Rolling Stone Magazine. Several interesting tidbits. Sean Penn does not even know how to use a laptop! He describes himself as

the single most technologically illiterate man left standing. At 55 years old, I've never learned to use a laptop. Do they still make laptops? No fucking idea!

Penn's glowing tribute to Guzman:

Today, he runs the biggest international drug cartel the world has ever known, exceeding even that of Pablo Escobar. He shops and ships by some estimates more than half of all the cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and marijuana that come into the United States.

They call him El Chapo. Or "Shorty." Joaquín Archivaldo Guzmán Loera. The same El Chapo Guzman who only two months earlier had humiliated the Peña Nieto government and stunned the world with his extraordinary escape from Altiplano maximum-security prison through an impeccably engineered mile-long tunnel.

Some more of Penn's superior reasoning:

are we, the American public, not indeed complicit in what we demonize? We are the consumers, and as such, we are complicit in every murder, and in every corruption of an institution's ability to protect the quality of life for citizens of Mexico and the United States that comes as a result of our insatiable appetite for illicit narcotics.

To Penn, morality is "relative."

As much as anything, it's a question of relative morality. What of the tens of thousands of sick and suffering chemically addicted Americans, barbarically imprisoned for the crime of their illness? Locked down in facilities where unspeakable acts of dehumanization and violence are inescapable, and murder a looming threat. Are we saying that what's systemic in our culture, and out of our direct hands and view, shares no moral equivalency to those abominations that may rival narco assassinations in Juarez? Or, is that a distinction for the passive self-righteous?

Penn is, of course, an advocate of legalization of "recreational" drugs. What he hates about America is our "puritanical" war on drugs and our lack of

recognition of the proven benefits in so many other countries achieved through the regulated legalization of recreational drugs.

Sean Penn, to no one's surprise, is fond of his penis. When the plane flying him and del Castillo to meet el Chapo in the Mexican jungle lands, he proceeds to

throw my satchel into the open back of one of the SUVs, and lumber over to the tree line to take a piss. Dick in hand, I do consider it among my body parts vulnerable to the knives of irrational narco types, and take a fond last look, before tucking it back into my pants.

Would it surprise you to learn that el Chapo is married to a beauty queen, whose name is Emma Coronel? They have twin daughters, age four. Penn also mentions two adult sons.

So, what are Penn's initial impressions of Guzman?

As has been said of many notorious men, he has an indisputable charisma.

...Beneath his smile, there is a doubtlessness to his facial expression. A question comes to mind as I observe his face. Both as he speaks as while he listens. What is it that removes all doubt from a man's eyes? Is it power? Admirable clarity? Or soullessness? Soullessness...wasn't it that that my moral conditioning was obliged to recognize in him? Wasn't it soullessness that I must perceive in him for myself to be perceived here as other than a Pollyanna?

...This simple man from a simple place, surrounded by the simple affections of his sons to their father, and his toward them, does not initially strike me as the big bad wolf of lore. His presence conjures questions of cultural complexity and context, of survivalists and capitalists, farmers and technocrats, clever entrepreneurs of every ilk, some say silver, and others lead.

...El Chapo sticks to an illicit game, proudly volunteering, "I supply more heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine and marijuana than anybody else in the world. I have a fleet of submarines, airplanes, trucks and boats."

...He is entirely unapologetic. Against the challenges of doing business in such a clandestine industry he has ––built an empire. I am reminded of press accounts alleging a hundred-million-dollar bounty the man across from me is said to have put on Donald Trump's life. I mention Trump. El Chapo smiles, ironically saying, "Ah! Mi amigo!"

...Remarkably, while Chapo has access to hundreds of soldiers and associates at all times, apparently not one speaks English.

...Whatever villainy is attributable to this man, and his indisputable street genius, he is also a humble, rural Mexican, whose perception of his place in the world offers a window into an extraordinary riddle of cultural disparity. It became evident that the peasant-farmer-turned-billionaire-drug-lord seemed to be overwhelmed and somewhat bewildered at the notion that he may be of interest to the world beyond the mountains.

Penn's account of el Chapo's capture:

Since our late-night visit in the Mexican mountains, raids on ranches there have been relentless. A war zone. Navy helicopters waging air assaults and inserting troops. Helos shot down by Sinaloa cartel gunmen. Marines killed. Cartel fighters killed. Campasinos killed or displaced. Rumors spread that El Chapo escaped to Guatemala, or even further, into South America. But no. He was right there where he was born and raised. On Friday, January 8th, 2016, it happened. El Chapo was captured and arrested – alive.

Read more here.