LatinNews Daily Report - 05 December 2012

CRIME | McAfee seeking political asylum in Guatemala. On 4 December the US anti-virus software entrepreneur John McAfee, 67, gave a press conference in Guatemala City, in which he announced he was seeking political asylum after fleeing Belize, where he has been living since 2008. McAfee disappeared last month after the Belizean police said they wanted to question him about the death of a Florida businessman, Gregory Faull, who was shot dead on 11 November. McAfee is known to have had a long-running row with Faull about the guard dogs he used to protect his compound. McAfee – who Belize considers “a person of interest” in the murder investigation – fled, going into hiding and insisting on his innocence. He claims he ran from the police because he believed that the Belize authorities were out to kill him. Belize’s prime minister, Dean Barrow, said: “I don’t want to be unkind to the gentleman, but I believe he is extremely paranoid”. McAfree has hired Telésforo Guerra, a former attorney general of Guatemala and the uncle of his 20-year-old Belizean girlfriend, as his lawyer. His choice of Guatemala is not completely random - the two countries have a longstanding territorial dispute on which a referendum in both is due to be held next year. There is no extradition treaty between the two countries.

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