John McAfee: I've Escaped to Guatemala
Photo uploaded to Vice Magazine accidentally reveals fugitive's location.
Dec. 4, 2012 — -- John McAfee's bizarre run from authorities in Belize took another strange turn Tuesday with the millionaire anti-virus software company founder now claiming he has escaped the country and is in Guatemala.
McAfee, 67, who is wanted for questioning in Belize about the shooting death of his neighbor, is now in Guatemala and "will be meeting with Guatemalan officials this morning," according to a blog post written under his name. McAfee made the announcement after an iPhone photo of McAfee uploaded to the U.S. magazine Vice had accidentally revealed his exact location inside Guatemala.
"I apologize for all of the misdirections over the past few days," the post reads. "It was not easy to exit Belize and required many supporters in many countries."
The update is the latest in a puzzling series of posts on the blog, which over the weekend claimed that he had been detained on the Belizean/Mexico border.
On Monday, a follow-up post said that the "John McAfee" taken into custody was actually a "double" who was carrying a North Korean passport with McAfee's name.
That post claimed that McAfee had already escaped Belize and was on the run with his 20-year-old girlfriend Samantha and two reporters from Vice Magazine.
McAfee did not reveal his location in that post, and a spokesperson for Belize's National Security Ministry, Raphael Martinez, told ABC News on Monday that no one by McAfee's name was ever detained at the border and that Belizean security officials believed McAfee was still in their country.
However, a photo posted by Vice Magazine on Monday with their article, "We Are With John McAfee Right Now, Suckers," apparently had been taken on an iPhone 4S and had location information embedded in it which revealed the exact coordinates where the photo was taken - in the Rio Dulce National Park in Guatemala – as reported by Wired.com.
The latest blog post on McAfee's site confirmed that the photo had mistakenly revealed his location, and said that Monday was "chaotic due to the accidental release of my exact co-ordinates by an unseasoned technician at Vice headquarters."
"We made it to safety in spite of this handicap," the post reads. "I had to cancel numerous interviews with the press yesterday because of this and I apologize to all of those affected."An official at the Guatemalan Embassy in Washington, D.C. could not immediately confirm whether McAfee was in the Central American country.
McAfee, who founded his namesake anti-virus company, has been wanted for questioning since November 11, when his neighbor, Greg Faull, was found shot in the head. McAfee has not been formally charged, but claims he's innocent and is on the run because he will be killed if he is taken into custody.McAfee has managed to stay in the public eye while a fugitive, giving his first broadcast interview to ABC News last month. He has also spoken to other major media outlets and has declared that he never planned to leave Belize.
In Monday's post, he wrote that he just wants to find a safe place for Samantha before he returns. "My fight is in Belize," he wrote, "and I can do little in exile."
Matt Gutman contributed to this report.
