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Wednesday, Dec 5, 2012 4:00 PM UTC

Vice Magazine gives away John McAfee’s location

UPDATED: The eccentric fugitive hires a lawyer and sets out conditions for speaking to Belize authorities

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Topics: John McAfee, Vice, Guatemala, Belize, Murder, anti-virus, ,

Vice Magazine gives away John McAfee's location McAfee's Twitter profile image (via @officialmcafee)

UPDATE, Dec. 5th, 11.00 am (EST): On Tuesday, following his confirmation that he has fled to Guatemala, John McAfee announced that he has retained an attorney and will meet with the Belize authorities on certain conditions. He posted on his blog:

To the Prime Minister of Belize I make the following offer:  I will agree to meet you in a neutral country to discuss our mutual issues.  It is entirely possible that you have little or no knowledge of the level of corruption being propagated throughout every branch of your government.  I will turn over to you thousands of hours of video and audio as proof, providing that we meet as gentlemen and are mutually convinced of our honesty.

To the family of Gregory Faul:  I had nothing to do with his death.  I have lost five close family members in my 67 years and I know your suffering.

The eccentric fugitive has retained as his defense lawyer Telésforo Guerra, former Attorney General for the country of Guatemala and the his girlfriend Samantha Vanegas’ uncle.

 

Dec. 4th: John McAfee’s time on the lam from Belize police is coming to an end. The eccentric anti-virus mogul is wanted in connection to a murder near his island home and confirmed his current whereabouts in Guatemala Tuesday, following the accidental outing of his location by a Vice Magazine editor.

McAfee blogged:

I apologize for all of the misdirections over the past few days.  It was not easy to exit Belize and required many supporters in many countries.  I am in Guatemala and will be meeting with Guatemalan officials this morning.  If all goes well I will do a press conference tomorrow. Vice Magazine reporters are indeed with me in Guatemala.  Yesterday was chaotic due to the accidental release of my exact co-ordinates by an unseasoned technician at Vice headquarters.

On Monday, Vice’s Editor-In-Chief Rocco Castoro reported on the Vice site that he was with McAfee making a documentary. Castoro accompanied his post with a photo featuring himself with the fugitive. As Gawker’s Adrian Chen noted, “it had been taken with an iPhone and hadn’t been scrubbed of GPS data, which revealed it was taken just three hours earlier in Guatemala, near the border with Belize.”

A software mogul busted by software — some irony indeed.

Natasha Lennard is an assistant news editor at Salon, covering non-electoral politics, general news and rabble-rousing. Follow her on Twitter @natashalennard, email nlennard@salon.com. More Natasha Lennard.

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