Guatemala releases McAfee, heads for flight to US
Software founder McAfee released in Guatemala, heads to airport for flight to Florida
FILE - In this Dec. 4, 2012, file photo, software company founder John McAfee listens to a question during an interview at a local restaurant in Guatemala City. McAfee said Sunday, Dec. 9, 2012, a live-stream Internet broadcast from the Guatemalan detention center where he is fighting a government order that he be returned to Belize, that he wants to return to the United States and "settle down to whatever normal life" he can. Police in neighboring Belize want to question McAfee in the fatal shooting of a U.S. expatriate who lived near his home on a Belizean island in November. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo, File)
GUATEMALA CITY (AP) -- Anti-virus software founder John McAfee was released from a detention center Wednesday and was escorted by immigration officials and police trucks to the Guatemala City airport, where he said he was put on a commercial flight bound for Miami.
The escort to the airport, accompanied by a throng of journalists and two police trucks with sirens blaring, marked the last chapter for McAfee's strange, monthlong odyssey to avoid police questioning about a killing in neighboring Belize.
"McAfee entered the country illegally," immigration service spokesman Fernando Lucero said. "Guatemala is expelling him. Since his country of origin is the United States, Guatemala is expelling him to the United States."
In one of the most highly publicized flights from police questioning since O.J. Simpson led police on televised low-speed car chase, McAfee constantly blogged and spoke with reporters about his life on the lam.
Bystanders in Guatemala City stopped to stare at the passing police convoy, and people at the airport massed around the immigration truck carrying McAfee, straining to take pictures of him with their cell phones.
Dressed in a black suit and white shirt, McAfee said, "I'm free. I'm going to America."
He suggested his weeklong detention in Guatemala for entering the country clandestinely had taken its toll on him.
"All I can tell you is I'm 10 years older, and I don't know what I'm doing. I'm just going to Miami," he said.
McAfee was detained last week for immigration violations after he sneaked into Guatemala from neighboring Belize, where authorities sought to question him about the murder of a neighbor.
His 20-year-old Belizean girlfriend who has accompanied him since he went on the run was not with him on the ride to the airport. She was last seen early Wednesday leaving the detention facility crying, after bringing McAfee breakfast.
