McAfee seeking political asylum in Guatemala

5:01PM EST December 4. 2012 - Software anti-virus pioneer and man on the run John McAfee has fled Belize for Guatemala and will seek political asylum there, his lawyer said Tuesday.


The 67-year-old McAfee and his 20-year-old girlfriend fled Belize over the weekend after three weeks on the run from police, who call him a person of interest in the Nov. 11 slaying of an American neighbor on the island of Ambergris Caye. They are in Guatemala City.

McAfee "is persecuted in Belize, persecuted politically because he stopped financing the government," his lawyer, Telesforo Guerra, a former Guatemalan attorney general and the woman's uncle, told AFP. "They accuse him of a common crime. So what I have to obtain is an authorization of asylum."

McAfee "fears for his life, because after having helped and supported the current government in Belize, they now want more and more money, which they pocket and don't invest."

No response yet from Belizean authorities.

On his blog, McAfee wrote Tuesday that it "was not easy to exit Belize and required many supporters in many countries." He said he planned to hold a news conference Wednesday.

McAfee is accompanied by journalists from Vice Magazine, who inadvertently revealed their location Monday by failing to delete location data from a photo they posted. When the gaffe was pointed out online, McAfee later wrote an "apology" for having "manipulated the xif data on the image taken from my cellphone," which he said he did "for my own safety."

But McAfee's "apology" turned out to be a ruse.

"I apologize for all of the misdirections over the past few days," McAfee wrote Tuesday. "Yesterday was chaotic due to the accidental release of my exact co-ordinates by an unseasoned technician at Vice headquarters."

Tuesday, the magazine's editor in chief, Rocco Castoro, wrote a fawning dispatch about being with McAfee. It begins:

This morning I had a delicious breakfast of crepes and fresh fruit with John McAfee and his 20-year-old Belizean girlfriend, Sam Vanegas, at a luxurious resort in Guatemala City. We awoke early, preparing for our meeting with powerful Guatemalan lawyer and former Attorney General Tel�sforo Guerra. He also happens to be Sam's uncle.

He goes on to quote McAfee as saying that Vanegas, whom he's known 18 months, is "a remarkable young woman. I love her very much and we are getting married."

Castoro writes that he and his photographer/videographer are wrapping up a "documentary and corresponding magazine piece, and that "very soon the world will be able to watch everything that happened along the way.

"It has been dangerous, amazing, touching and many other adjectives that I cannot remember right now because I am so exhausted and blown away by it all."

The piece ends with a photo of McAfee kissing his bride-to-be.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/...lize-guatemala-political-asylum/1746043/