Sean Penn says his controversial El Chapo article was a failure

Sean Penn says he has "a terrible regret" about his controversial meeting with escapee drug lord Joaquin Guzman and his interview with the wanted man was a failure.

The actor has broken his silence to 60 Minutes about his secret trip to Mexico to meet the kingpin known as El Chapo and denied he played any role in authorities tracking down the convict who spent six months on the run after escaping from prison.

Penn accused the Mexican government of fuelling claims he led authorities to El Chapo in a bid to make him a target of the drug cartel.

But he denied he was fearful for his life.

"There is this myth about the visit that we made … (that it) is central to his capture. We had met with him many weeks earlier on October 2, in a place nowhere near where he was captured," Penn said.

"Here's the things that we know: we know that the Mexican government, they were clearly very humiliated by the notion that someone found him before they did. Well no one found him before they did … we had a contact upon which we were able to facilitate an invitation."

Penn said his subsequent article for Rolling Stone magazine, published the day after El Chapo's arrest, had failed in his attempt to "begin a conversation about the policy of the war on drugs".

"I have a terrible regret. I have a regret that the entire discussion about this article ignores its purpose which was to try to contribute to this discussion about the policy on the war on drugs," he said.

"We all want this drug problem to stop … And how much time have they spent in the past week since this article came out talking about this? One percent?

"My article failed, let me be clear. My article has failed."

Penn says he is no longer in contact with El Chapo and has not spoken with anyone in the cartel since the drug lord's arrest.