MEXICO CITY (AP) – Kate del Castillo ended two months of silence about her and Sean Penn’s controversial meeting with then-fugitive drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, saying Penn’s account of an encounter with a Mexican military checkpoint never happened.
The Mexican-born actress spoke in three days of interviews for an article in the upcoming issue of The New Yorker that was available online Friday, after largely keeping out of the spotlight ever since Guzman’s recapture and the publication of Penn’s article about the meeting.
In his January Rolling Stone piece, Penn wrote that while traveling to meet Guzman they came across a checkpoint and were allowed to continue when soldiers recognized one of the cartel capo’s sons, who was traveling with the actors.
According to del Castillo, “they didn’t go through any military checkpoint, much less one where government soldiers waved them on,” The New Yorker reported.
It added that two Argentine film producers who were riding in another car also “have no recollection of encountering a military checkpoint.”