BACALAR, Mexico (AP) — Software company founder JohnMcAfee said Sunday he wants to
return to the United States and "settledown to whatever normal life"
he can.In a live-stream Internetbroadcast from the Guatemalan detention center
where he is fighting agovernment order that he be returned to Belize, the
67-year-old said "Isimply would like to live comfortably day by day, fish,
swim, enjoy mydeclining years."Police in neighboring Belize want to
questionMcAfee in the fatal shooting of a U.S. expatriate who lived near hishome
on a Belizean island in November.The creator of the McAfeeantivirus program
again denied involvement in the killing during theSunday Internet video hook-up,
during which he answered what he saidwere reporters’ questions.His comments were
sometimescontradictory. McAfee is an acknowledged practical joker who has
dabbledin yoga, ultra-light aircraft and the production of herbal
medications.TheBritish-born McAfee first said that returning to the United
States "ismy only hope now." But he later added, "I would be
happy to go toEngland, I have dual citizenship."He was emphatic that
"I cannot ever return to Belize … There is no hope for my life if I am
ever returned to Belize.""If I am returned," he said, "bad
things will clearly happen to me."Hedescibed the health problems that had
him briefly hospitalized earlierthis week after Guatemalan authorities detained
him for entering thecountry illegally. He apparently snuck in across a rural,
unguarded spotalong the border."I did not eat for two days, I drank
verylittle liquids, and for the first time in many years I’ve been smokingalmost
non-stop," he said. "I stood up, passed out hit my head on thewall,
came to," though he now said he was feeling better.McAfeepraised the role
his 20-year-old Belizean girlfriend, Samantha Vanegas,played in his escape from
Belize, where he claims he is being persecutedby corrupt politicians.
Authorities in Belize deny that they arepersecuting him and have questioned his
mental state."Sam savedthe day many times" during their escape, he
said, and suggested he wouldtake her with him to the United States if he is
allowed to go there.Heconfirmed that journalists from Vice magazine who
accompanied him onhis escape after weeks of hiding in Belize had unwittingly
posted photoswith embedded data that revealed his exact location."It was an
error anyone could make," he said, noting they were under a lot of pressure
at the time.McAfeehas led an eccentric life since he sold his stake in the
softwarecompany named after him in the early 1990s and moved to Belize
aboutthree years ago to lower his taxes.He told The New York Times in2009 that
he had lost all but $4 million of his $100 million fortune inthe U.S. financial
crisis. However, a story on the Gizmodo websitequoted him as describing that
claim as "not very accurate at all."McAfee’sGuatemalan attorney,
Telesforo Guerra, says that he has filed threeseparate legal appeals in the hope
that his client can stay inGuatemala, where his political asylum request was
rejected.Guerrasaid he filed an appeal for a judge to make sure McAfee’s
physicalintegrity is protected, an appeal against the asylum denial and
apetition with immigration officials to allow his client to stay in thisCentral
American country indefinitely.The appeals could takeseveral days to resolve,
Guerra said. He added that he could still useseveral other legal resources but
wouldn’t give any other details.FredyViana, a spokesman for the Immigration
Department, said that before theagency looks into the request to allow McAfee to
stay in Guatemala, ajudge must first deal with the appeal asking that
authorities make sureMcAfee’s physical integrity is protected."We won’t
look into(allowing him to stay) until the other appeal is resolved," Viana
said."The law gives me 30 days to resolve the issue."McAfee went onthe
run last month after Belizean officials tried to question him aboutthe killing
of Gregory Viant Faull, who was shot to death in earlyNovember.McAfee
acknowledges that his dogs were bothersome andthat Faull had complained about
them, but denies killing Faull. Faull’shome was a couple of houses down from
McAfee’s compound in AmbergrisCaye, off Belize’s Caribbean coast.Copyright 2012
The Associated Press.
