Guatemala City: US software guru John McAfee was hospitalized here Thursday after complaining of chest pain as Guatemalan authorities prepared to deport him to neighbouring Belize, where police want to question him in connection with a murder.
The millionaire was taken to the police hospital after he collapsed at the immigration detention center where he was being held pending deportation, McAfee attorney Carla Paz said.
While doctors think it was only an anxiety attack, they plan to keep him under observation, a source at the police hospital told EFE.
“He can’t move. He says his chest and his heart hurt, but he’s conscious,” Paz said. Another member of McAfee’s legal team, Telesforo Guerra, told reporters his client suffers from heart problems.
Guatemalan President Otto Perez Molina announced earlier Thursday that his government turned down McAfee’s request for asylum.
McAfee, 67, creator of the anti-virus software program that bears his name, said he sought refuge in Guatemala because he was being persecuted by the “very corrupt” Belize government.
The mogul, who has lived in Belize since 2008, said soldiers had been sent to harass him after he stopped making donations to Belizean politicians.
Perez Molina did not offer any explanation for the rejection of McAfee’s asylum bid, but Foreign Minister Harold Caballeros said that Guatemala “cannot cooperate with impunity”.
The eccentric millionaire had remained in hiding for several weeks and had put out false clues about his whereabouts on his blog to elude Belize authorities.
They wanted to question him about the Nov 10 murder of fellow American expat Gregory Faull, his neighbour on the island of Ambergris Caye. (PTI)