Slashdot Mirror
McAfee Arrested In Guatemala
Reports are coming in that John McAfee's on again off again relationship with various law enforcement agencies has finally come to an end. According to interior minister Mauricio Lopez Bonilla, he has been arrested in Guatemala after trying to enter the country illegally.
that he's going to get a 30 day trial.
An intentional typo and boom - 100 posts. And some people still think the editors are stupid....
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
and now the Guatemala court system will slow down big time to be able to run McAfee though the system.
An interesting note on how McAfee was busted:
To promote its exclusive access, VICE published a smartphone picture of McAfee with reporter Rocco Castoro. That was a big mistake.
Digitally embedded in the photo was the location where it was taken, and it placed McAfee in Guatemala -- just across the border from Belize. Now the world knew where John McAfee was hiding.
From http://in.reuters.com/article/2012/12/06/belize-mcafee-arrest-idINDEE8B501X20121206
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-202_162-57557443/john-mcafee-arrested-in-guatemala-for-illegal-entry/
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
He spent the last year of his life posting on some pro-drug forum about all the weird shit he was cooking up. He was obsessed with drugs and drug use, about perfecting recreational drugs and inventing new drugs. He's been frying his brain for a while now and this was the inevitable conclusion.
McAfee said he would seek political asylum in Guatemala, which has been embroiled in a long-running territorial dispute with Belize. There is no extradition treaty between the two countries...
Questions raise, answers kill. Raise questions to stay alive.
> Why flee to Guatemala?
Okay, I know this flies in the face of every movie ever, but in real life a person who is trying to avoid being detained by law enforcement (for something serious, like murder, not just parking tickets or whatnot) generally has to avoid international airports. Ships are almost as bad. That leaves small boats (like, personal sailboats) as the main way to get off the continent. *Buying* a boat, if you don't already have one, is a frighteningly high-profile activity.
So going by land is a fairly logical choice. That limits the possible destinations somewhat. If you go north from the US, you can only go to Canada. It's not particularly easy to hide in Canada. So the logical thing is to go south. You probably don't want to stay in Mexico, because it's directly adjacent to the country you're fleeing. And you definitely don't want to try to cross the Panama canal, because there are only a couple of bridges that cross it, and it would be trivial for someone (like, say, law enforcement) to have them watched.
So you end up in Central America. This gives you a choice of seven countries to hide in, which means anyone who's looking for you has potentially seven distinct local jurisdictions to deal with (eight if they can't be sure you're not still in Mexico), which is an annoying impediment for them and may just buy you a bit of extra time to figure out what to do. Maybe.
There's still a substantial amount of risk, of course. Running from the law is always going to be somewhat risky. And, indeed, he got caught.
Cut that out, or I will ship you to Norilsk in a box.
Hello,
From RTFA'ing, it seems that Guatemala and Belize have no mutual legal assistance treat and are, in fact, engaged in a territorial dispute over their border, so I am wondering why Guatemala would bother sending him back to Belize, as opposed to escorting him to the airport and putting him on the next plane out of the country, wherever that might be. Or Mr. McAfee* could certainly afford a flight back to the United States, Switzerland or pretty much any other place.
Even more strange is the report from CBS News quoting Guatemala's Interior Minister Mauricio Lopez Bonilla that "McAfee was detained by police at a hotel in an upscale Guatemala City neighborhood with the help of Interpol agents" (emphasis mine) as Interpol agents do not have arrest powers. Interpol can request that someone be provisionally arrested in order for them to be extradited, but a search of the Wanted Person's database on their web site reveals that no such "Red Notice" has been issued for John McAfee.
I do hope that Mr. McAfee is treated fairly by the Belizean authorities, and that his concerns of abuse and torture at their hands is simply an irrational fear.
Regards,
Aryeh Goretsky
*I was told earlier that is improper to use a title of Doctor since his doctorate is an an honorary degree.
Dexter is a good dog.
Shouldn't it have been McAflee?
Imagine that! A country that arrests somebody who enters illegally! Wow! The U.S. could learn a lesson.