John McAfee arrested, asks for computer, blogs from jail cell (updated)

UPDATE: John McAfee was rushed from jail to the hospital after suffering two mild heart attacks, his lawyer confirmed to Reuters. Whether the heart attacks delay attempts to extradite McAfee to Belize isn’t clear, but Guatemalan officials seem intent on deporting him. A spokesman for the immigration department said “immediate deportation had been ruled out,” but Reuters quoted two other Guatemalan officials saying they intend to deport McAfee. “He entered the country illegally and we are going to seek his expulsion for this crime,” Interior Minister Mauricio Lopez Bonilla said, according to the Reuters report. Another government spokesman named Francisco Cuevas also said McAfee will be expelled to Belize.

Original story follows:

John McAfee, the fugitive software company founder who is wanted by authorities in relation to a murder in Belize, was arrested in Guatemala today for “entering the country illegally,” the Associated Press reported.

What will happen next remains uncertain, but McAfee may well be sent back to Belize, which has named him a “person of interest” in the shooting death of Gregory Faull. McAfee founded the security company McAfee in 1987 but resigned from the company in 1994 and no longer has any connection to it.

Upon being placed in jail, McAfee immediately looked for a way to continue updating his blog:

I am in jail in Guatemala. Vastly superior to Belize jails. I asked for a computer and one magically appeared. The coffee is also excellent.

Only time will tell what will happen. No one has a crystal ball. However, I would be truly shocked if I did not conduct the press conference tomorrow as I had originally planned.

Stay tuned.

I believe, by the way, that blogging from a jail cell might be a groundbreaking activity. Let’s see if it catches on.

John

A little later, McAfee was back with an update: “My lawyer just brought a judge to the jail and the judge issued a stay order until a higher judge can review the case. This effectively stops Immigration from returning me to the Belize border. So….. the urgency is eased a bit.”

McAfee had tried to claim asylum in Guatemala, but he was arrested at a hotel “in an upscale part of Guatemala City,” the AP report said. “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 in relation to whether Guatemalan authorities intend to send McAfee back to Belize.

McAfee’s lawyer, Telesforo Guerra, said “He will be in danger if he is returned to Belize, where he has denounced authorities.”

At the jail, McAfee reported a pleasant scene. He was using the computer of one of the wardens, who “is a sweet man and a gentleman.” McAfee’s girlfriend, Sam, “is fine, by the way. She is under my attorney’s charge—and some Israeli bodyguards. Serious looking fellows with plenty of body mass. Made me worry a bit less about Sam. She is worried about me, of course, but I have a more optimistic view of things.”

“Everyone here is nice,” McAfee continued. “And sympathetic. So far, my experience on the inside of this establishment has worn away a bit of my natural cynicism and added a measure of hope for humanity.”

McAfee also responded to one person who asked if he’d considered suicide, saying “I enjoy living, and suicide is absurdly redundant. The world, from the very begining, hurls viruses, accidents, hungry animals, defective DNA — and uncountable more – in an attempt to kill us. It always succeeds. Suicide is simply aiding and abetting.”