[News] Florida Couple Indicted as Cuban Agents

[Anti-Imperialist News]

<http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-agents10jan10,0,4866114.story?coll=la-home-nation>http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-agents10jan10,0,4866114.story?coll=la-home-nation
 From the Los Angeles Times


THE NATION




Florida Couple Indicted as Cuban Agents




A professor and his wife could face up to 10 
years in prison for failing to register. They are 
not charged with espionage, a more serious crime.

By John-Thor Dahlburg
Times Staff Writer

January 10, 2006

MIAMI ­ U.S. officials on Monday accused a 
Florida university professor and his wife of 
acting as Cuban spies for more than two decades ­ 
sending Fidel Castro's intelligence agency 
encrypted reports about American officials, FBI 
agents and anti-Castro groups and attempting to 
recruit young Cuban Americans as fellow agents.

In an indictment unsealed in federal court, 
Carlos Alvarez, 61, and Elsa Alvarez, 55, were 
charged with acting as agents of a foreign power 
without registering with the U.S. government, as 
required by law. If convicted, each could be 
sentenced to up to 10 years in prison and fined $250,000.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Andrea M. Simonton ordered 
the couple, who both work at Florida 
International University, held without bond. 
Prosecutors warned that they might try to flee to 
Cuba, their birthplace, if released. Neither 
defendant entered a plea. They were due back in court Jan. 19.

The Alvarezes were not charged with the more 
serious offense of espionage. FBI agents said 
there was no evidence that the couple had 
provided classified or defense-related information to Cuba.

But "whenever information is transmitted by spies 
to the government of Cuba, that clearly endangers 
the United States," U.S. Atty. R. Alexander Acosta said.

Acosta accused Carlos Alvarez of further 
betraying his adopted country by leading exchange 
programs to Cuba, where there would be an 
opportunity "to further manipulate and indoctrinate students."

"Sometimes individuals who are trusted by a 
community are not deserving of that trust," Acosta said.

According to federal prosecutors, the Alvarezes ­ 
who were arrested Friday at their South Miami 
home ­ used the codenames "David" and "Deborah" 
to communicate with Cuba's Directorate of 
Intelligence, the communist island nation's espionage agency.

Prosecutors said the couple sent information via 
shortwave radio, using an encryption system 
furnished by their spymasters. They also 
allegedly carried messages to and from Cuba in secret briefcase compartments.

In statements that prosecutors said were 
tantamount to a confession, Alvarez reportedly 
acknowledged working for the Cubans since 1977, 
and his wife since 1982. They began their alleged 
spying activities separately, before they married 
in 1980, Assistant U.S. Atty. Brian K. Frazier said.

Alvarez holds a PhD in clinical psychology. He is 
identified on the university's website as a 
specialist in conflict resolution and the construction of ethnic identities.

His wife, a clinical social worker, is a 
part-time coordinator of Florida International 
University's social work training program, 
specializing in psychological treatment, crisis 
intervention and group psychotherapy.

Many of the Alvarezes' colleagues said Monday 
that word of the charges left them stunned.

"I'm totally baffled," said Uva de Aragon, 
associate director of FIU's Cuban Research 
Institute, who called Alvarez a close colleague 
and friend. "He is the last person I could think 
of doing anything like this. We talked about 
politics, of course, but he was not active 
politically in any kind of group or petition."

De Aragon, who has known Alvarez for 19 years, 
said Alvarez has been worried recently about his 
wife, who has been on medical leave for the last 
year. "Really, I'm just so in disbelief of 
everything," De Aragon said. "If it's true, I 
feel like I've been taken for a fool by a great friend."

University President Modesto A. Maidique 
considers himself and Alvarez to be "longtime 
friends," university spokesman Mark Riordan said. 
Maidique attended Monday's bail hearing to 
contend that his friend of 25 years, as well as 
his wife, Elsa, were not flight risks, Riordan said.

"Obviously the Alvarezes are respected, long-term 
members of the FIU community, and we'll be 
watching this and monitoring this along with the 
rest of the community," Riordan said, adding that 
there had been no decision about whether to 
suspend the couple or place them on administrative leave.

In August, a three-judge panel of the U.S. 11th 
Circuit Court of Appeals threw out the 
convictions of five other alleged Cuban spies, 
saying they should be retried in part because of 
the widespread prejudice against Castro and his 
government among the many Cuban exiles living in Miami.

The five were allegedly members of Cuba's Wasp 
Network of undercover agents who infiltrated the 
exile community and tried to pass U.S. military secrets to Havana.

In November, a full panel of the 11th Circuit 
court reinstated their convictions and sentences 
but agreed to hear arguments on why they might not have received a fair trial.



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