Jim McAfee, of that McAfee, lives in Belize and has become the victim of their national “Gang Suppression Unit.” Technically, those who put him in custody were arms of the state working to preserve the safety of their citizens, though one has to wonder who was terrorizing who this week…
In his own words, McAfee says: “On Monday at six o’clock, I was awakened by the sound of a bullhorn, a megaphone. I went outside and saw about thirty GSU in full uniform, full dressed, automatic weapons, storming through the property and drive way. I went back inside, got some clothes on, I came out. I was told to put up my hands up against the wall as was eleven other people on the compound. We had about eleven people present at the time—five of them were women. I was told that they had a warrant to search property. They began, with sledge hammers, to break the doors of the buildings—none of them were locked, but they just went and broke them in any case. I was merely watching this. They confiscated my passport, all of the weapons we used for security on the compound, handcuffed me and everyone and for fourteen hours outside in the sun, I sat handcuffed without food or water….
They murdered my dog in cold blood. That was the thing I think—it was a warning to us that this is serious; don’t mess with us. They threw things around, they stole things—it was unbelievable, unimaginable for a country that was supposedly a democratic country. I was arrested on a bogus charge of having an illegal firearm—a firearm without a license. At the very beginning of the day, one of the GSU soldiers, one of the GSU officers, took all of my firearm licenses and put them in his vest. When he took them out to check the firearms, this one was missing. They charged me for having a firearm without a license; took me to Belize City. Fortunately we had copies. We showed up later at the police station with the copies. Even then it was difficult to get out. I had to get the intervention of the American embassy to get released.”
McAfee goes on to discuss his apolitical stance and general peacefulness. He seems to be a model citizen but, unfortunately, it’s hard to get the press to sympathize with wealthy individuals targeted by the state (see also: Mikhail Khodorkovsky).
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