Guatemalan authorities awaiting instructions from Belize police, who want McAfee as 'person of interest' in neighbour's murder

The fate of John McAfee remained unclear on Thursday as authorities in Guatemala, who ended the software pioneer's increasingly peculiar status as a blogging fugitive when they arrested him at the hotel where he was hiding, awaited instructions on what to do with him.

Police in Belize, where McAfee has lived for the past four years, are seeking him as a "person of interest" in the murder of his neighbor Gregory Faull. Citing his distrust in the Belizean government, McAfee went on the run.

Since his arrest, McAfee appears to have been blogging from jail, where he says he is being "treated like a king" and has been given access to a computer.

But it remains to be seen how long he will enjoy the pleasures of detention in Guatemala. "We are awaiting instructions from the foreign ministry. It will be the foreign relations department that decides the process," said interior minister Mauricio Lopez Bonilla, following McAfee's arrest on Wednesday at a hotel in an upscale part of Guatemala City.

McAfee has declared his intention to seek asylum in Guatemala but after his arrest, a government spokesman said he expected that McAfee would be expelled from the country.

However, there is no international arrest warrant for McAfee, and his lawyer Telésforo Guerra, a former Guatemala attorney general and the uncle of McAfee's 20-year-old Belizean girlfriend, Samantha Venegas, is seeking an injunction for his release.

Speaking to press on Wednesday, McAfee said he had been harassed by the Belize government and that he has documentation proving that there is "intense corruption at all levels of the police and government".

"I have for five years lived in Belize peacefully," McAfee said. "Seven months ago the Belizean government sent 42 armed soldiers into my property. They killed one of my dogs, they broke into all of my houses, they stole, they arrested me and kept me handcuffed in the sun for 14 hours. I was taken to jail and it was only the intervention of the US embassy that got me out of jail."

McAfee retired to Belize in 2008. He made millions as founder of his eponymous anti-virus software company, which he sold in 1994.

Cartoonist Chad Essley, who has been helping McAfee run the blog cataloging his life on the road, posted on whoismcafee.com that McAfee had been arrested in Guatemala on Wednesday. Three posts have appeared on the blog since then, reportedly written by McAfee from jail, where he says he is being treated "like a king".

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

McAfee is also engaging with blog readers. One commenter named Jenny offered McAfee some advice on relationships with a large age gap, to which McAfee replied: "I'm too old for pre-nups. Thank you for your support, my friend."

According to his most recent dispatch, entitled "Can't Sleep," McAfee's girlfriend is currently under the charge of his attorney and Israeli bodyguards.

In the blogpost, he also wrote about a prison warden who is providing him access to a computer.

"He makes me coffee and tells tender stories about his life," McAfee said. "He is a good companion. I believe I could spend weeks in the desert with him as a sole companion without once becoming irritated."

McAfee said he has reached out to the US and UK embassy in attempt to stay out of Belize. He has indicated that he is bored while in jail but continues to speak warmly about his treatment there.

"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 said.

McAfee added, however, that the language barrier had presented difficulties during his detainment: "Only Ennati speaks any English, and then not enough to catch much humor, so my joking has fallen largely on bewildered but kindly faces."

McAfee has been on the run for three weeks. His location was revealed on Monday when Vice magazine accidentally shared GPS data in a photo accompanying an article titled: "We are with John McAfee right now, suckers."

He initially claimed to have embedded the false data himself in the photo before admitting on Tuesday that he was in Guatemala.

The magazine has been putting together a documentary and magazine piece about its time on the run with McAfee and has released a video of his arrest in Guatemala.

In the video, McAfee, clad in a purple polo shirt, speaks to Guatemalan authorities. He is then driven away from the scene, smoking a cigarette.