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“Mild” heart attack in jail – another John McAfee trick?

Headline“Mild” heart attack in jail – another John McAfee trick?

The wily American antivirus pioneer has managed to evade Belize authorities and flee to Guatemala, where authorities arrested him

John McAfee, 67, of McAfee Antivirus fame, has managed to elude Belize police one more time, even though Police Press Officer Rafael Martinez told Amandala that they don’t want to “arrest” him; they just want to “talk to him.”

McAfee has been on the run from Belizean authorities since the murder of fellow American Gregory Faull, his neighbor in San Pedro, Ambergris Caye, on Sunday, November 11, 2012, over three weeks ago.

McAfee, whose sanity Prime Minister Dean Barrow has publicly called into question, fled San Pedro, then Belize, all the while keeping in touch with different media houses, some in-country, some abroad, airing his side of the story.

While blogging on the run, McAfee’s reports of his tricks in successfully avoiding Belize police have sounded somewhat “Indiana Jones-ish.”

Apart from denying that he killed Faull, McAfee’s main themes are that Belize police will kill him if they lay hands on him; the government is corrupt; and that the plot against him in the murder of Faull stems from his refusal to donate money to a politician in the north of the country.

On Tuesday, Reuters news agency had reported that McAfee had managed to cross into Guatemala and was asking for asylum there, quoting the aforesaid “plot against his life and corruption of the government” as his excuse.

McAfee reportedly spoke with Reuters by telephone from Guatemala’s Supreme Court, and with him was his Belizean girlfriend, Samantha Vanegas, 20, and his lawyer, former Guatemalan attorney general, Telesforo Guerra.

According to the Tuesday story, “there is no extradition treaty between the two countries, and a Guatemalan government source said there was ‘no reason’ to detain McAfee because there was no legal case against him pending in the country.”

According to Guerra, McAfee did not rule out returning to the United States.

When questioned at the time by Amandala about the fact that McAfee now appeared beyond the reach of Belizean police, Martinez reiterated that they don’t want to extradite McAfee because he was never arrested and is not a suspect; they only want to “talk” to him in relation to Faull’s murder.

He expressed the hope, however, that because McAfee entered Guatemala illegally, the officials there would arrest him and send him back to Belize.

From the safety of Guatemala, McAfee allegedly wrote to PM Barrow, telling him that “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.”

There is no indication that the Prime Minister is interested in McAfee’s offer. McAfee, for his part, before he escaped to Guatemala, reportedly offered a $25,000 reward for Faull’s killer.

Today, Thursday, however, USA TODAY reports that according to Reuters, McAfee was denied asylum in Guatemala yesterday, Wednesday, by Interior Minister Mauricio Lopez Bonilla, and was detained because he entered the country illegally, a crime for which he would be expelled.

Additionally, McAfee, said USA TODAY, suffered two mild heart attacks in jail today, Thursday, and he was taken by ambulance to a Guatemala City hospital.

Reportedly, McAfee’s expulsion order should have been completed this morning, Thursday, but he has won a decision to have his case reviewed by a higher judge, putting the expulsion order on hold.

According to the news agency, however, McAfee says he remains scared of being forced to return to Belize, and the US Embassy itself is awaiting the judge’s decision.

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