Kate del Castillo to return to Mexico for 1st time since El Chapo controversy

Actress Kate del Castillo confirmed Thursday that she will visit Mexico over the Christmas holidays after an absence of more than two years after legal problems she faced over a meeting she had with now-imprisoned drug kingpin Joaquin Guzman , known as “El Chapo.”

The Mexican told EFE that she is excited about visiting her parents and enjoying a few days of rest over the yearend holidays, when she will also spend time at her home in Los Angeles, where she has been ensconced since the controversial meeting she had in 2015 with the Mexican drug trafficker, now in prison in New York.

The star of “The Queen of the South” said that despite the fact that the legal issues that had faced her in her country have now been resolved, she does not know if she will “be able to enter Mexico without a problem,” although she said she was sure that there would be no unforeseen contingencies.

Del Castillo said that her decision to return to her homeland was not made because of the change in Mexico’s government, now led by leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, and she noted that she does not need “a green light from anyone” to enter her own country.

“The case is legally closed. Nobody has to do me any favors. I don’t need that because I haven’t done anything wrong and I don’t need the approval of any government,” she added.

The actress’s name came to the fore once again in January 2016 when Rolling Stone magazine published an article by actor Sean Penn in which he described a meeting that he and Del Castillo had with the head of the Sinaloa drug cartel in October 2015 in northwestern Mexico, when El Chapo was a fugitive from justice.

After examining the article, the Mexican Attorney General’s Office looked into whether the actress had received money from Guzman, about whom she had wanted to make a film about his life.

Del Castillo had had contacts with El Chapo - who was arrested on Jan. 8, 2016 - for months by telephone and through her attorneys.