Mexican soap star lauds drug baron

One of Mexico’s most popular soap stars, Kate del Castillo recently published a provocative open letter to one of the world’s most wanted criminals – billionaire drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.

Perhaps the actress took her role as Teresa Mendoza in the telenovela La Reina del Sur (The Queen of the South) a little too much to heart. In the popular Telemundo production, del Castillo plays a rising star of the Sinaloa drug cartel that becomes the most powerful drug trafficker in southern Spain.

“El Chapo” is the head of the Sinaloa cartel and the most powerful drug trafficker in the world according to Forbes magazine.

In her stunning letter, de Castillo said that the billionaire drug lord was more credible than “governments that hide truths from me, even when they are painful ones.”

She goes on to say that Guzman could traffic cures for diseases and food for street children, asking “Would it be really cool if you started trafficking for the good?” before suggesting “You would be the hero of heroes.”

Interestingly, del Castillo’s letter was made public the same day that the U.S. Treasury Department officially bestowed Guzman with the moniker of “the world’s most powerful drug trafficker.”

A $7 million reward is being offered for information leading to El Chapo’s arrest–$5 million from the U.S. government and another $2 million from Mexico.

Across Latin America the actress’s admission has been the subject of radio talk back shows and a hot topic in the social media sphere, with astonished fans wondering what inspired her to say such a thing. “What was she thinking?... I don’t know,” Javier Poza, a radio host commented after reading the letter on air, while one of the many social network comments asked, “Was that Kate talking, or Teresa Mendoza?”