Sean Penn's portrait of El Chapo's 'mature' son clashes with history of violence | Joaqun 'El Chap

Sean Penn's portrait of El Chapo's 'mature' son clashes with history of violence

Iván Guzmán, described as showing ‘calm maturity’, is wanted over murder of Canadian student

In his Rolling Stone article on accessing the secret hideout of drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, actor and activist Sean Penn paints a flattering picture of friends and family while sitting around a picnic table and feasting on carne asada.

El Chapo’s lawyer, who visited him two hours before his July 2015 escape, was seated at the table. The godfather of his four-year-old twins, born to his beauty queen wife in a US hospital, was there, too.

Rounding out the crew, “there is Ivan, Chapo’s eldest son,” Penn wrote. “At 32, he is considered the heir to the Sinaloa cartel. He’s attentive with a calm maturity.

“Like his brother [Alfredo, who drove Penn to the hideout] he boasts a fabulous wristwatch.”

“Calm” and “mature” are seldom used words in stories on Iván Archivaldo Guzmán, who, like his father, makes headlines in the Mexican media for all the wrong reasons. A Twitter account with his name has attracted 127,000 followers and features a cover photo of sports cars parked in a garage, though its authenticity is not verified.

Whoever it is who runs the account claiming to be Chapito, that person exploded after Guzmán’s arrest, tweeting out, “The government, like an ungrateful dog, always bites the hand that feeds it.”

He also tweeted, “They also see my father as a trophy when the trophy should be stopping kidnappers extortionists and hunger piece of shit government.”

Authorities named him as a suspect in the April 2004 murder of Canadian exchange student, Kristen Deyell, as she left a suburban Guadalajara nightclub with a man she didn’t know well. The man, César Pulido, had been in a fight inside – reportedly over her. His rivals waited outside the bar in a red BMW, not far from a pricy, private university. They ambushed them and drove away. Both Deyell and Pulido died at the scene.

Iván, often called “Chapito”, was detained the next year – in the same suburb, after he flipped his SUV leaving a party. Press reports say police found a package of cocaine and weapons, and Chapito was charged with money laundering and organized crime offenses. The charges didn’t stick, but authorities indicted him again, this time for purchasing cars with the proceeds of illicit activities.

A judge overturned the conviction in 2008 – then found himself suspended for a series of questionable rulings. The judge denied any wrongdoing and said the cases were poorly presented. Iván’s lawyers said the accusations over Deyell’s death were trumped up to keep their client in prison, according to press reports.

Reporter Humberto Padgett of the online news site Sin Embargo obtained a copy of a psychological profile from 2005 on Iván, who had barely finished secondary school.

“Anxious, suspicious, reserved and evasive, with veiled hostility. He becomes sensitive,” the profile read.

In the section on anger management, the report said that he channelled it positively into recreational activities, such as auto racing. On the downside, the profile said, the young Guzmán showed “probable psychological violence toward persons that he does not consider on his socio-economic level”.

With his father back behind bars, whether the man with a “calm maturity” and a long rap sheet of suspected crimes can succeed El Chapo remains to be seen.

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7tbTEoKyaqpSerq96wqikaK%2Bfp7mle5FpaG9nmpa7cH2PaJylZZOdrrG7jKKtmqZdnMK7ucCnZKynnmK6tr7Dnqlmq5WWu268xKel