{"id":12303,"date":"2016-01-10T03:44:08","date_gmt":"2016-01-10T03:44:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=12303"},"modified":"2016-01-10T03:44:08","modified_gmt":"2016-01-10T03:44:08","slug":"el-chapo-saga-takes-strange-turn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=12303","title":{"rendered":"El Chapo saga takes strange turn"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\"CCkRgg\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I’m trying to figure this one out and, so help me, this item has me puzzled to the max.<\/p>\n

Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman escaped six months ago from a maximum-security prison in Mexico. He is one of the world’s most notorious drug lords, responsible for dealing in death while peddling meth, heroin and assorted other killer drugs.<\/p>\n

So, as one who practiced journalism for more than 36 years, I find myself asking tonight: If given a chance to interview this notorious criminal, would I accept the chance to do so or would I blow the whistle on his whereabouts to the authorities who are looking for him?<\/p>\n

The actor Sean Penn took the former course. He interviewed El Chapo for a Rolling Stone interview several months ago.<\/p>\n

I don’t think I would have done that.<\/p>\n

Then again, Penn is an actor.<\/a><\/p>\n

I’m also wondering tonight whether Penn has the same sense of outrage that El Chapo was on the lam that many others — such as yours truly — have had as he avoided capture by the authorities.<\/p>\n

The Mexican police caught up with him and Guzman is now facing extradition\u00a0to the United States.<\/p>\n

I believe it’s fair to ask: What was Sean Penn thinking?<\/p>\n

According to the New York Times: “Mr. Penn and Mr. Guzm\u00e1n spoke for seven hours, the story reports, at a compound amid dense jungle. The topics of conversation turned in unexpected directions. At one stage, Mr. Penn brought up Donald J. Trump, the Republican presidential candidate; there were some reports that Mr. Guzm\u00e1n had put a $100 million bounty on Mr. Trump after he made comments offensive to Mexicans. ‘Ah! Mi amigo!’ Mr. Guzm\u00e1n responded.”<\/p>\n

Perhaps there’s something about this story that goes over my head. I’ll admit that I’ve never been given a chance to interview one of the world’s most wanted fugitives . . . so I have no direct knowledge of how I’d respond to such an opportunity.<\/p>\n

Still, I find it strange in the extreme that a celebrity of Penn’s stature — someone with no apparent experience as a journalist — would seemingly turn a blind eye toward the circumstances that led to an interview subject’s arrest and conviction while he is seeking to avoid being thrown back into the slammer.<\/p>\n

Is it fair to question Penn’s loyalty?<\/p>\n

Hmmm. I think I just did.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n\n

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I’m trying to figure this one out and, so help me, this item has me puzzled to the max. Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman escaped six months ago from a maximum-security prison in Mexico. He is one of the world’s most notorious drug lords, responsible for dealing in death while peddling meth, heroin and assorted other … Continue reading El Chapo saga takes strange turn<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,5,8,10,13],"tags":[1424,1540,2497,3287,4004,5850],"class_list":["post-12303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-entertainment-news","category-international-news","category-legal-news","category-media-news","category-national-news","tag-donald-trump","tag-el-chapo","tag-joaquin-guzman","tag-new-york-times","tag-rolling-stone","tag-sean-penn"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12303","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12303"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12303\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12306,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12303\/revisions\/12306"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}