John McAfee heart problems delay deportation to Belize

Antivirus software entrepreneur John McAfee has been admitted to a police-run hospital in Guatemala City after suffering chest pains, it has been reported.

McAfee’s lawyer described the medical event as relating to “stress, hypertension and tachycardia” (a raised heart rate) and added that his client had not suffered a heart attack, as earlier assumed by reporters who photographed him lying in the back of an ambulance with his eyes closed.

The US founder of the McAfee antivirus brand was finally arrested on Wednesday after sneaking into Guatemala from Belize where is wanted for questioning as a “person of interest” over the murder of his US-born neighbour, Gregory Viant Faull on 11 November.

It is not clear when McAfee will be deported back to Belize – his legal team is mounting an appeal that could delay matters – but he has appeared upbeat in recent blog entries.

“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,” he wrote nonchalantly in the hours before suffering his apparent medical problems.

McAfee is keen not to return to Belize where he claims he might be killed by the authorities but seems aware that his date with police there is now only a matter of time.

“I just spoke with the duty officer at the Embassy who said there is nothing that they can do. I asked to be returned to the States, and again nothing they can do. So I will wait and see,” he wrote on his blog. “P.S. Anybody have friends in the State Department?.”

From the start, McAfee’s attempts to evade police questioning by going into hiding while blogging about it have sounded more like an hallucinogenic farce from the pages of Hunter S. Thompson than the aftermath of a serious crime.

That Belize police haven’t directly accused McAfee of any involvement in the death has added to the odd atmosphere hanging around the case.

McAfee’s claim to fame is for having founded McAfee Software in 1987, the company whose software now protects millions of PCs from malware depsite having had no connection to the famous entrepreneur since the 1990s.