This is Chapo Guzman’s first interview since escaping from the Atiplano high security prison fifty-five miles from Mexico City. His representatives blindfolded and administered narcotics to an anonymous journalist before taking him/her to meet the man.

Anonymous Journalist – Congratulations on your thrilling escape.

Chapo Guzman – Those cocksuckers were loco to think they could hold me for long.

AJ – I doubt many of them, including the prison director, really thought they could hold you.

CG – They said they could.

AJ – Now many are saying they had to cooperate or die.

CG – I’m a brilliant strategist and merciless enforcer. That’s why I’m the general.

AJ – Prison officials, the ones who haven’t been fired, estimate you had about eighteen minutes head start before they discovered your cell empty.

CG – Many times I’ve moved quite far in much less time.

AJ – Did you have to run the mile? A short, stocky man your age, sixty, would need about ten minutes to go that far in a tunnel, even one lit and ventilated. Or did you ride that motorcycle on rails?

CG – If they found the motorcycle near my cell, then I didn’t use it. If it was in the free house, I did.

AJ – Are you going to retire now and enjoy the rewards of a very successful man? Or are you going to resume control of operations?

CG – I never completely lost control. People knew what I’d want, and they believed, or at least feared, that I’d someday get out. I don’t like sitting around. Since I was a kid I’ve been selling drugs, beating people, killing them if necessary, making deals with other traffickers in this country and abroad, growing great pot and opium, making heroin, building factories to make the best meth, digging tunnels and arranging flights to move my stuff into the United States and many other countries. That’s what I love doing. That’s also where my power comes from. If I try to be an old man in a rocking chair, my enemies will blow me away.

AJ – Who are your enemies?

CG – Rival traffickers, the police, the army, plenty of others.

AJ – Two of your sons have been active on Twitter, predicting weeks ago you’d soon be free, and threatening Donald Trump because of his statement many Mexicans illegally entering the United States are criminals and rapists. Don’t you think this is a bad business for the sons of any man?

CG – It’s my business, and my sons’ business, if they want it.

AJ – One of your sons was killed several years ago.

CG – Don’t bring him up.

AJ – You also have a child with your young wife.

CG – We’ve talked enough.

AJ – I have to ask what millions wonder: where you are now?

CG – Want me to tell you?

AJ – Absolutely.

CG – Okay, but once you know, you’ll have to die.

AJ – Just give me another good dose and my blindfold for the return trip.