One of the letters written by El Chapo and a court illustration during his trial.REUTERS

JOAQUIN 'EL CHAPO' GUZMAN

El Chapo plays his last cards from prison: ‘The inefficiency of my lawyers cost me my freedom’

Since January, the notorious drug trafficker has taken on his own defense, despite not speaking or writing in English, as he navigates his new life behind bars. He has requested more visits with his wife, Emma Coronel, and demanded a retrial

Sean Penn / El Chapo Speaks / A secret visit with the most wanted man in the world

The author and then-fugitive El Chapo Guzmán, on October 2nd. The photo was taken for verification purposes. After a long dinner and conversation, Chapo granted Penn's request for a formal interview. 

El Chapo Speaks

A secret visit with the most wanted man in the world 

By Sean Penn
January 9, 2016

Disclosure: Some names have had
 to be changed, locations not named, and an understanding was brokered with the subject that this piece would be submitted for the subject’s approval before publication. The subject did not ask for any changes.

"The laws of conscience, which we pretend to be derived from nature, proceed from custom." —Montaigne

I

t's September 28th, 2015. My head is swimming, labeling TracPhones (burners), one per contact, one per day, destroy, burn, buy, balancing levels of encryption, mirroring through Blackphones, anonymous e-mail addresses, unsent messages accessed in draft form. It's a clandestine horror show for 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! It's 4:00 in the afternoon. Another gorgeous fall day in New York City. The streets are abuzz with the lights and sirens of diplomatic movement, heads of state, U.N. officials, Secret Service details, the NYPD. It's the week of the U.N. General Assembly. Pope Francis blazed a trail and left town two days before. I'm sitting in my room at the St. Regis Hotel with my colleague and brother in arms, Espinoza.

Espinoza and I have traveled many roads together, but none as unpredictable as the one we are now approaching. Espinoza is the owl who flies among falcons. Whether he's standing in the midst of a slum, a jungle or a battlefield, his idiosyncratic elegance, mischievous smile and self-effacing charm have a way of defusing threat. His bald head demands your attention to his twinkling eyes. He's a man fascinated and engaged. We whisper to each other in code. Finally a respite from the cyber technology that's been sizzling my brain and soul. We sit within quietude of fortified walls that are old New York hotel construction, when walls were walls, and telephones were usable without a Ph.D. We quietly make our plans, sensitive to the paradox that also in our hotel is President Enrique Peña Nieto of Mexico. Espinoza and I leave the room to get outside the hotel, breathe in the fall air and walk the five blocks to a Japanese restaurant, where we'll meet up with our colleague El Alto Garcia. As we exit onto 55th Street, the sidewalk is lined with the armored SUVs that will transport the president of Mexico to the General Assembly. Paradoxical indeed, as one among his detail asks if I will take a selfie with him. Flash frame: myself and a six-foot, ear-pieced Mexican security operator.

El Chapo's escape humiliates Mexican president: 'The state looks putrefied'

Joaquin El Chapo Guzmán

El Chapo's escape humiliates 

Mexican president: 'The state looks putrefied'

Behind bars, Joaquín Guzmán was a shining symbol of the government’s efforts to crack down on drug-war violence. His flight puts endemic corruption on show

Jo Tuckman in Mexico City
Monday 13 July 2015 20.30 BST

The Hollywood-style escape from a high-security prison by Mexican drug kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán was a stunning blow for the country’s prison service and security forces.

But for president Enrique Peña Nieto, Guzmán’s disappearance is a humiliating personal disaster.

The telegenic president’s “kingpin strategy” has not succeeded in ending rampant drug-war violence across the country, but it has at least offered the government a string of high-profile captures – and in the rogue’s gallery of arrests, El Chapo was the jewel in the crown.

Mexico’s most wanted … the Mexican military holding drug baron Joaquín Guzmán in 2014. He has escaped from a maximum-security prison for the second time. Photograph: Mario Guzmán/EPA

Joaquín 'El Chapo' Guzmán: the truth about the jailbreak of the millennium

The Mexican drug lord’s escape from a top-security prison looked audacious at face value, but Guzmán has benefited from inside jobs before. In this bankrupt ‘war on drugs’, the state has more common ground with world’s biggest mafia boss than it likes to admit

• El Chapo’s escape humiliates president: ‘The state looks putrefied’

Ed Vulliamy
Monday 13 July 2015 18.51 BST

At face value, this is the jailbreak of the millennium, and will take some beating. The world’s biggest mafia boss, Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, jailed in Mexico’s top-security prison near Toluca after what the US called “the biggest manhunt in history”, slips out after only 16 months inside, through a mile-long tunnel complete with ventilation and conveniently parked motorbike.

Guzmán, recently rated by Forbes as the 14th richest man in the world, is boss of the Sinaloa cartel, the world’s mightiest criminal syndicate, named after the Pacific state of that name, and now proves himself to be arguably the most powerful man in México, whatever beleaguered president Enrique Peña Nieto may think as he scrambles back from a state visit to France.

Mexican drug lord Joaquín 'El Chapo' Guzmán escapes from prison again

Mexican drug lord Joaquín 'El Chapo' Guzmán escapes from prison again

Head of Sinaloa cartel escapes from maximum-security jail after security cameras lost sight of him when he went to showers

Associated Press in Mexico City
Sunday 12 July 2015 10.44 BST

Top Mexican drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, head of the powerful Sinaloa cartel, has escaped from a maximum-security prison for the second time, Mexican officials said as they launched a manhunt.

Guzmán was last seen about 9pm on Saturday in the shower area of the Altiplano prison, 56 miles outside Mexico City, according to a statement from the national security commission. He went to the shower area but security cameras lost sight of him. Upon checking his cell, authorities found it was empty.

A search operation began immediately in the surrounding area and highways. Flights were also suspended at Toluca airport, near the prison.