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A story of corruption

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I had spoken to Josh Davis many times before he came to Belize.  He had contacted me about doing a story on the April GSU raid on my property.  I told him I was tired of personality pieces and was looking for a journalist willing to do a story on the abuses of the current government here in Belize.  He assured me that the story would focus on the Government and political situation.  When he arrived, his story had warped somewhat to “We’ll see how the story evolves.”

My radar immediately sounded an alarm, but, what the heck, he was already here.  There were two possible outcomes:

1.  He does a great job of reporting on the runaway corruption here and I get bto relax.  or:

2.  This is yet one more personality piece and I have to use him as a springboard to tell the story myself.

If it turned out to be option two I had the advantage.  I was older and a bit more experienced.  I also have a lot of free time.

The free time allowed me to start writing my story before he even began his research.  (You do not seriously believe that a man on the run could do even the photo-editing of some of the pieces in here?).

It turns out that the second possibility was the true one.  Josh’s piece is entirely a personality piece.  It is about my paranoia, my relationships, my past, my actions.  It features sensationaist photos and disregards the thousands of normal photos taken by the photographer.  It tells a shadowy tale of me, and disregards the mountain of evidence (only the tip of which has been divulged recently in this blog) of real threats, real corruption, real poverty, real suffering.

It is up to me now to disclose the corruption.  The last photo Josh and I took together:

 

 

___________________________________________________________________________________________________

Three of my friends are still being held in prison on trumped up charges.  They are:

Eddie Ancona

Cassian  Chavarria

William Mulligan

 They were charged and have been imprisoned because three legally licensed firearms were found in the incorrect rooms on my property (stretching the law to the extreme).  I would ask you to please email the following and demand their release:

  info@tourism.gov.bz
  james.scott@radisson.com
  agministrybze@yahoo.com
  audrey.wallace@opm.gov.bz
  secretarypm@opm.gov.bz
  director@pressoffice.gov.bz
  info@pressoffice.gov.bz
  joseph.waight@mof.gov.bz

33 Responses to “A story of corruption”

  1. Do you have a copy of the video of the speech available? Been trying to track down a copy. It was on youtube, then removed. Any ideas of where I can see this?

  2. Hi Dan,

    Do you have a copy of the video of the speech available? Been trying to track down a copy. It was on youtube, then removed. Any ideas of where I can see this?

    Thanks,
    Jason

  3. John is on the run from rampant corruption and when he tries to focus reporters on it, they turn out to be scandal mongering, sensationalist, truth warpers. I understand trying to sell copy and make some bucks, but this Josh guy is a real clown. Now he won’t get anything straight from John again in the future. He shot himself in the foot with all his BS.

  4. I know, I know…figure of speech.

  5. You are right stuffmonger fan. Some people will head to Belize just because of the story. I would. But in my experience (over the past few years) if the press gets wind of even ONE American or Canadian killed or accidentally shot it gets blown way out of proportion by media and has a tremendous negative effect on the other 90% of vacation dollars which may be families with kids, conservative couples, cruise ship bookings etc… certainly not his fault as he tells the story. I have seen innocent people harassed (so they would leave their successful business to some local who wanted it) and go through a few years of hell and come through it. I have also seen people give up and leave. Standing up for your rights has a price and keeping a low profile is usually the path to a much more carefree life abroad. The biggest problem is that many locals look at all of us as guests in their country. How John chooses to live his life is up to him and as long as he’s not in the habit of breaking laws all the time then standing up for those rights may be crazy, but is somewhat honorable. He certainly did not get to be as successful as he was letting people walk all over him. Hopefully this will have a happy ending.

  6. No wonder you’re in hiding … Read these official stat’s …
    Belize now has the sixth highest homicide rate in the world. Officials estimate the perpetrators are convicted in only about 10 percent of homicides

    A 2011 report by the American Bar Association scored Belize poorly on 16 out of 28 factors in evaluating its prosecutorial and criminal justice system. Defendants can remain free on bail or in pretrial detention for years amid a heavy case backlog; about one-fifth of the country’s detainees are awaiting trial.

  7. Ps … Happy Thanksgiving

  8. LawyeronSPvacation
    November 22, 2012 at 10:20 pm

    Two questions “arise” from this photo:
    1) why are you doing a Michael Jackson crotch grab and
    2) why is the journalist staring at it?

  10. Happy Thanksgiving John. and Thanks for posting this pic. I see two men with nothing in common…lol. Thankful for the disappearance of ‘nine lives’ as well. Be smart and safe!!

  11. Just read the article at the London Financial Times. This is the first article that does not paint you as a drugged up, sex crazed mad man. I hope you grant them more access. They seem to at least not be in pre-judge mode and being a Financial Times paper, the coverage should remain less sensationalistic.

    What is the likelihood that the Faull murder would have been any more than a passing blurb in his local Florida paper had you not been involved? How many of these murders go unsolved and uninvestigated?

  12. The more I read the Jeff Wise Gizmodo pieces, the more suspicious I became about their legitimacy. When I read Josh Davis’ piece (shelled out the 99 cents to B&N), all kinds of red flags went up. The opening reads like a scene from the soon-to-be-made movie. He can’t seem to determine if Adonizio’s research is in antibacterial or antibiotics. He indicated that you were regularly taking Quaaludes in 1983.
    About two minutes of research shows that Adonizio is listed on a patent filed in 2008 for antibacterial-related research involving buttonwood, a plant native to Belize. If you even had Quaaludes in 1983, you would have saved them for a special occasion, not taken them whenever you “got too high to focus.” Most “Quaaludes” in ’83 were lookalikes, distinguishable from “714” on the tablet, rather than “Lemmon” and “714.” That research comes from a time before Wikipedia.
    I sincerely hope Davis’ description of the Russian roulette scenes were accurate. How much can you fuck with someone’s head before they catch on?

  13. I have followed this whole story since I saw it broken out on “Marketwatch” , I think I have red every word posted . I think you have received some great empathy , support and advice . I can relate to your Third World idiosyncrasies that you have put up with in the past , I have watched a similar story on a Caribbean island that I’ll leave nameless , for the last 12+ years . I think it’s just the price of a Third World environment. Unlike yourself , I have had enough and would like to be able to sell out and move on …..I have a partner that does not see what I see and so disagrees.
    I wish you all the best and the strength to carry on if that’s what you want , otherwise, get the Hell out , if and when you can , and cut your losses. Bon Chance…..

    This will be a great movie some day.

  14. international traveller
    November 22, 2012 at 4:32 pm

    john,

    i’m a tech guy from silicon valley who has lived in a 3rd world country exactly like Belize for a decade. i’m very familiar with the corruption and problems you are facing, since i dealt with them myself. i think you are right when you feel your life is threatened and you’ve taken a smart move to work with the international media to protect yourself. this may well have already saved your life.

    some thoughts

    – my suggestion would be to find intermediaries, pay off some people to peacefully resolve this situation, then turn yourself in via a quietly pre-negotiated agreement. the government can then do a fake investigation, clear you, then you quietly move to another country. there are at least 20 more just like it and you can live peacefully and happily.

    – you become like the people you surround yourself with. you’ve surrounded yourself by apparently violent/dangerous people as protection, which i can understand you’d feel you need. however if someone in san francisco, CA hangs out with people from the tenderloin or east palo alto all the time, they will eventually run into trouble too. it just catches up with you. if you move somewhere else, hang out with higher quality people. you can still find plenty of girls, just keep it a little quiet.

    – you are not going to be able to fix corruption in the country. this kind of change has to come from within, just like the founding fathers did in the USA. if you want to change Belize, find a group of people like the US founding fathers but who grew up in the country and work with them. my guess is you don’t really want to do that and just want a nice place to retire with warm weather and pretty girls. i’d pick another country and quietly move on.

    good luck..

  15. Wow, I knew you had a good reason not to hire a lawyer and be escorted to speak with the police. You are exposing the corruption and evil that was plotted against you, big time!!! I cannot even imagine what other info. you will post. A lot of people do not understand, but yet still many of us do. I admire your courage to expose those who need to be in the light. You have prepared yourself for the trouble you knew, was coming sooner or later. I keep my beloved Belize in prayer as I do you also. There are so many wonderful, good Belizeans. I am saddened to hear about the negatives that never existed in the past. In general, we use to be a peaceful people and country. Continue to expose as much as possible, but above all stay safe and have a good thanksgiving!!!!

  16. Hey John, much love from the USA. I hope you’re actually innocent and not lying to us all!

  17. They arw still here if you want to wade through the 1,000 plus comments we have posted. Some people have been posting up to 30 comments per hour. We are swamped without that additional headache. Anyone posting more than 10 comments per hour will have all subsequent comments disabled. Any any questions that have been asked and answered many times will be trashed. We are struggling with the volume here.

  18. What has happened to all of the posts that question some of the comments & claims that McAfee has made here? All that’s left are the ones who agree & accept everything he says as the truth. Very biased & not worth reading or posting.

  19. It is not an island but a country with many ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_islands_of_Belize ).

  20. Steve Jobs had nothing on this.

  21. Holy fuck. I hadn’t read that yet. Thanks for bringing it to our attention, Dan! Best graduation speech ever…ahahah

    http://roanoke.edu/News_and_Events/Campus_News/McAfees_Speech_Available_Online.htm

    “Question every idea that begs to be obeyed. Resist accepted patterns. Be skeptical of the majority. Meet every event fresh, unencumbered by presuppositions. And see that if we all walk the same road, there could be no discoveries, no mysteries, no new things. So make your own path.

    Strike out in the heart of the wilderness and claim everything that presents itself as your own-no matter how contradictory or strange it may seem to the rest of the world. And don’t be afraid. The least trodden path is always the sweetest.”

  22. I actually wonder if Belize won’t get MORE visitors as a result of the publicity…

    I certainly didn’t know it was one of the most beautiful islands in the world, prior to this.

  23. Hi John,

    Can you offer advice to us all like you did at the graduation class of 2008. Some very inspiring thoughts in there.

    Thanks,

    Dan

  24. Lol you’re amazing!

  25. I was never a jealous person in my life, but there are exceptions to that rule. Every so often, I meet some kind of special flavour of “rich man” that really makes me feel small. Usually there is money involved, but in these special cases that is just a natural symptom of, and not the reason for true wealth. These are rare occasions, but this is one of them. I hope that story will turn out the right way. Good luck man!

  26. Keep up the amazing work. Let me know if you need any assistance with anything. Happy Thanksgiving.

  27. Praying 4 you.

  28. He looks excited; looks like he wanted a bit more from you… if you know what I mean.

  29. in germany we have a saying: he still has got some eggshells behind his ears. he was actually the reason i got interested in the story, when he said in an interview, “I intervied mcafee about a 100 hours and i think i know him”. right there i thought to myself this is going to be a funny story. i did not know what i was getting into. by the way, does the blog produce any results yet, other than getting attention? does the belize gov. feel the pressure yet? good spirits to mr. mcafee and thnx to chad for keeping the world up to date.

  30. INNOCENT UNTIL PROVEN GUILTY…
    Is all anyone posting from the US can really say about your part in this whole story, and what a story it is. It’s not like any kind of evidence (even the fabricated kind) has been brought forth other than hearsay about possible motives which is meaningless. Unfortunately, that is not the way the law is written in most countries south of the US boarder. I have lived in Mexico and other third world countries for several years and having any kind of wealth puts you under a totally different set of rules. Most people with your kind of resources (even in Mexico) have security guards with paid gun permits and bullet proof glass in their SUV’s. And Belize is much more “Wild West” than Mexico especially when you step off the island. The average expat seems to like the lower cost and to some the different and seemingly dangerous environment makes them feel more alive again. A guy who has enough to buy a house, go to the bar, out to eat, and enjoy a view that would cost millions in the states doesn’t mind paying a $20 bribe to the police when they let you keep the beer in your cup holder. Once the average expat gets desensitized to the culture it’s just less rules, less bills, and a slower pace.

    The photo of Josh portraits him as nervous and ready to get the hell of of that island. Looks like you really shook him up on that trip. There are so many versions of your shoes out there now that nobody can possibly know what it’s like wearing them. I have to say with all respect though that I don’t see a happy ending to your life in Belize. Even if this was about fixing a system that’s broken, the people you are trying to help may suffer in the short term. I can here the phones ringing at travel agencies canceling flights, hotels, dive reservations etc… 80% of Americans would be scared to death by these stories and stay clear like they have from Mexico the past few years. I assume you had nothing to do with the murder because you would have disappeared quietly, but you certainly had a lot to do with broadcasting it and the danger on the island in a big way. The good people and your friends that own businesses, and even the girls that get exploited still have to eat and I’m sure Belize has already taken a beating on tourism with the down economy.

    So I hope the end game works. Looks like that would mean the government would be overthrown and things would go back to the way they were before, which was still a corrupt government and police system just at a different level. If the right people were put away you would certainly be a legend from all of this but that’s a long shot, and you are already a legend anyway.

    Good luck and consider Mexico. You could buy a small town and have your own police. 🙂

  31. I can see the red line in here, it looks like a giant social experiments: we are what people see in us. A wonderful guy for our friends, a sweet person for our lover, a crazy geniuos for someone else… someone that fight against corruption, a killer a drug addict, a lover, a funny guy… each one of us that read this blog see Mcaffee in his own way

  32. Nice Vibrams John.

    This blog keeps delivering. Ahahah

  33. Hmmm … One wonders what the context of that photo was 😛

    You can see how the younger student is hoping to learn…is more naive in the ways of the world. It is all so obvious.