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McAfee hospitalized after asylum denial

Thu, 06 Dec 2012 21:50:00 +0000

GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — Software company founder John McAfee was hospitalized Thursday after being denied political asylum in Guatemala and his lawyers said they were making a last-ditch effort to keep him from being flown back to Belize for questioning about the killing of a fellow American expatriate.

McAfee told The Associated Press that he had suffered chest pains overnight but didn't believe he had suffered a heart attack. A government doctor who examined him agreed, saying McAfee's heart rhythm and blood pressure were normal, and he appeared to be suffering from high stress.

McAfee was moved from an immigration center to a police-run hospital Thursday afternoon after Guatemalan authorities said McAfee's request for asylum had been denied. They did not explain why. Shortly after the decision was announced, McAfee issued a plea on his blog for the public to petition Guatemalan President Otto Perez Molina to let him stay.

"Please email the President of Guatemala and beg him to allow the court system to proceed, to determine my status in Guatemala, and please support the political asylum that I am asking for," the post read.

Guatemalan police arrest McAfee

Thu, 06 Dec 2012 12:54:00 +0000

GUATEMALA CITY (AP) -- Software company founder John McAfee was arrested by Guatemalan police for entering the country illegally, ending his bizarre weekslong journey as a blogging fugitive claiming to be persecuted by authorities in Belize.

The fate of the anti-virus guru remained unclear Thursday as Guatemalan authorities awaited word from their Foreign Ministry as to what they would do with McAfee and whether they intended to send him back to Belize, where he is a person of interest in the killing of a fellow ex-pat.

"We are awaiting instructions from the Foreign Ministry. It will be the foreign relations department that decides the process," Interior Minister Mauricio Lopez Bonilla said following McAfee's arrest Wednesday at a hotel in an upscale part of Guatemala City.

Earlier on Wednesday, McAfee said he had formally requested asylum in Guatemala after entering the country from Belize, where he says he fears for his safety because he has sensitive information about official corruption and refused to donate to local politicians.

Since refusing to turn himself in to authorities in Belize, the 67-year-old had been in hiding, blogging his movements and calling reporters, until reappearing in Guatemala to claim asylum. He has not said how he crossed the border into Guatemala.

Vice Magazine gives away John McAfee’s location

Wed, 05 Dec 2012 16:00:00 +0000

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.

John McAfee takes to Twitter

Fri, 23 Nov 2012 14:56:00 +0000

As Salon reported earlier this week, eccentric anti-virus mogul John McAfee has been blogging his time on the run from Belize police -- now he's micro-blogging too. McAfee, who is considered a "person of interest" in a Belize murder case launched a Twitter account on Thursday and already has gained over 3,000 followers. His tweets intersperse links to longer blog posts and short observations of life on the lam:

[embedtweet id="271712984563326978"]