Software guru McAfee wants to return to the United States

GUATEMALA CITY (REUTERS) - US software guru John McAfee, fighting deportation from Guatemala to Belize to face questions about the slaying of a neighbor, said on Saturday he wants to return to the United States.

"My goal is to get back to America as soon as possible," Mr McAfee, 67, said in a phone call to Reuters from the immigration facility where he is being held for illegally crossing the border to Guatemala with his 20-year-old girlfriend.

"I wish I could just pack my bags and go to Miami," Mr McAfee said. "I don't think I fully understood the political situation. I'm an embarrassment to the Guatemalan government and I'm jeopardising their relationship with Belize." The two neighbouring countries in Central America are locked in a decades-long territorial dispute and voters in 2013 will decide in a referendum how to proceed.

Responding to Mr McAfee's remarks, a US State Department spokesman said US citizens in foreign countries are subject to local laws. Officials can only ensure they are "treated properly within this framework," she said. On Wednesday, Guatemalan authorities arrested Mr McAfee in a hotel in Guatemala City where he was holed up with his Belizean girlfriend.