A picture of Sean Penn made headlines this week by showing the actor shaking hands with the drug lord Joaqun Guzmn Loera, also known as El Chapo.
Rolling Stone magazine published the picture along with a more than 10,000-word account from Penn about how the picture with Guzmn came to be taken at the end their seven-hour meeting together. The Rolling Stone article also includes a brief interview Penn conducted with Guzmn several weeks later via a translated video.
Throughout their time together, Guzmn told Penn about the poverty he experienced as a child and how it motivated him to join the drug trade.
I remember from the time I was 6 until now, my parents, a very humble family, very poor, said Guzmn. I was raised in a ranch named La Tuna, in that area, and up until today, there are no job opportunities. The only way to have money to buy food, to survive, is to grow poppy, marijuana.
Penn also asked Guzmn about the violence brought to Mexico by the drug trade.
Well, it's a reality that drugs destroy, responded Guzmn, and indeed, tens of thousands of Mexicans have been killed by drug violence. Unfortunately, as I said, where I grew up there was no other way and there still isn't a way to survive, no way to work in our economy to be able to make a living.
If Guzmn was indeed pushed into the drug trade by poverty the violence, his drug cartel now orchestrates may be pushing others into poverty, creating a vicious cycle. In 2010, CNN reported that violence was scaring off potential tourists.
"The business, you can see for yourself, it went down 95 percent," a Mexican business owner told CNN. "Please tell them, the Americans, it's safe to come here.
In 2015, the U.S. State Department issued a travel warning for Mexico, putting it on a list alongside Syria and Somalia.
The connections between poverty, violence and the drug trade are complex but well-documented around the world.
This is a vicious cycle poor development fuels conflict, which fuels the drug trade, which fuels conflict, which fuel poverty, Nick Crofts wrote for The Guardian. As with most vicious cycles, this one is extremely hard to break.
Crofts went on to encourage a more holistic approach from drug control agencies.
Drug control agencies must learn to better look beyond the simple realities of drug production, and take into account the social and economic factors that fuel cultivation and consumption," he said.
However, many residents of Sinaloa, Guzmns home state, see the drug trade as a more virtuous rather than vicious cycle. The New York Times reported this week that Guzmn's cartel has become a shadow state, often keeping order more efficiently than the government and even building schools and hospitals in poor neighborhoods.
With the drug lord gone many Mexicans fear his absence will be filled with waves of violence.
We were perfectly comfortable when El Chapo was here, a 16-year-old named Elvira told The Times. Now we are worried someone else is going to come here and try to fill his spot.
A woman living near the scene of Guzmns capture named Martha Lpez said, Now that El Chapo has been captured, I am worried that all those young men that were employed by him are going to be left hanging jobless.
Rolling Stone magazine published the picture along with a more than 10,000-word account from Penn about how the picture with Guzmn came to be taken at the end their seven-hour meeting together. The Rolling Stone article also includes a brief interview Penn conducted with Guzmn several weeks later via a translated video.
Throughout their time together, Guzmn told Penn about the poverty he experienced as a child and how it motivated him to join the drug trade.
I remember from the time I was 6 until now, my parents, a very humble family, very poor, said Guzmn. I was raised in a ranch named La Tuna, in that area, and up until today, there are no job opportunities. The only way to have money to buy food, to survive, is to grow poppy, marijuana.
Penn also asked Guzmn about the violence brought to Mexico by the drug trade.
Well, it's a reality that drugs destroy, responded Guzmn, and indeed, tens of thousands of Mexicans have been killed by drug violence. Unfortunately, as I said, where I grew up there was no other way and there still isn't a way to survive, no way to work in our economy to be able to make a living.
If Guzmn was indeed pushed into the drug trade by poverty the violence, his drug cartel now orchestrates may be pushing others into poverty, creating a vicious cycle. In 2010, CNN reported that violence was scaring off potential tourists.
"The business, you can see for yourself, it went down 95 percent," a Mexican business owner told CNN. "Please tell them, the Americans, it's safe to come here.
In 2015, the U.S. State Department issued a travel warning for Mexico, putting it on a list alongside Syria and Somalia.
The connections between poverty, violence and the drug trade are complex but well-documented around the world.
This is a vicious cycle poor development fuels conflict, which fuels the drug trade, which fuels conflict, which fuel poverty, Nick Crofts wrote for The Guardian. As with most vicious cycles, this one is extremely hard to break.
Crofts went on to encourage a more holistic approach from drug control agencies.
Drug control agencies must learn to better look beyond the simple realities of drug production, and take into account the social and economic factors that fuel cultivation and consumption," he said.
However, many residents of Sinaloa, Guzmns home state, see the drug trade as a more virtuous rather than vicious cycle. The New York Times reported this week that Guzmn's cartel has become a shadow state, often keeping order more efficiently than the government and even building schools and hospitals in poor neighborhoods.
With the drug lord gone many Mexicans fear his absence will be filled with waves of violence.
We were perfectly comfortable when El Chapo was here, a 16-year-old named Elvira told The Times. Now we are worried someone else is going to come here and try to fill his spot.
A woman living near the scene of Guzmns capture named Martha Lpez said, Now that El Chapo has been captured, I am worried that all those young men that were employed by him are going to be left hanging jobless.
