By Khurram Aziz | Dec 10, 2012 02:02 PM EST
Fugitive software tycoon John McAfee has spoken of his desire to return to his native U.S. which he sees as his "only hope" in his fight to avoid deportation to Belize.
The 67-year-old was speaking to reporters via live Internet stream from his detention center in Guatemala where authorities are still deciding whether he should be sent back to the neighboring Central American country in Belize where he's wanted in connection with a murder.
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"I cannot ever return to Belize," said McAfee. "There is no hope for my life if I am ever returned to Belize."
McAfee, the man behind the McAfee antivirus software, has been living in Belize since 2010 where he ran QuorumEx, a new venture in the field of bacterial quorum sensing.
He's been on the run from authorities there since November after the police labelled him a "person of interest" in the killing of Gregory Faull.
Faull, a fellow American expatriate, was a neighbor of McAfee and was found shot dead in his home on November 10. The two supposedly had a quarrel over the behavior of McAfee's dogs.
Last week, McAfee turned up in Guatemala where he contacted authorities seeking political asylum. But he was instead arrested and is now being held in a detention center.
"I simply would like to live comfortably day by day, fish, swim, enjoy my declining years," he said in reply to questions sent in by journalists.
McAfee, who left his antivirus company in 1994, was once worth $100 million, but that fortune, according to a 2009 New York Times article, has since declined to $4 million.
Earlier this week McAfee was hospitalized due to what many believed was a heart attack. However, the tycoon says that it was just a fainting episode.
"I did not eat for two days, I drank very little liquids, and for the first time in many years I've been smoking almost non-stop," he said. "I stood up, passed out hit my head on the wall, came to."
McAfee says he is wanted in Belize due to political reasons and his refusal to pay $2 million to the country's ruling party.
The software founder, whose net wealth was once estimated at $100 million, praised the role of his 20-year-old girlfriend, Samantha Vanegas, in helping him get out of Belize, and said he would take her with him to the United States if he is allowed to go there.
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