Professor Jailed In US For Spying

Taken from The Times, UK, February 28, 2007
By Devika Bhat and agencies

A Florida university professor and his wife have been handed jail terms after being charged with spying on Cuban exiles and sending information back to the Havana government.



Carlos Alvarez, 61, a professor in psychology at Florida International University in Miami, was sentenced to five years in prison and three years probation after pleading guilty to conspiracy to become an unregistered foreign agent.

His wife Elsa, 56, a counsellor at the university, admitted to knowing about her husband’s activities but failing to report them to authorities, and was given three years in jail and one year of probation – despite the prosecution requesting only 21 months.

The couple, who were born in Cuba but emigrated to the US and have since become American citizens, had originally been charged with the more serious crime of acting as illegal Cuban agents, but were sentenced on the reduced charges to which they admitted guilt.

Alvarez confirmed that for almost three decades he had supplied the Cuban Intelligence Service with information about Miami’s exile community and prominent Cuban-Americans opposed to Fidel Castro’s regime, as well as reporting on US political affairs.

His defence argued that Alvarez’ intentions were not malevolent, insisting he opposed communism and Castro’s command but hoped that by sharing information he would open dialogue between Cuban exiles and the communist nation. The judge however, ruled that “good motive is never an excuse for criminal conduct" and their actions had “undermined U.S. foreign policy.”

Mrs Alvarez was initially also accused of working as a covert agent from 1982, but because she apparently ended such activities in the 1990s, she was sentenced only for concealing her husband’s actions.

Lawyers for the couple told the Miami court that the information conveyed to Cuba was little more than gossip, available in the public domain and free from any secret, classified or defence material.

But the prosecution insisted it was unclear how much damage the pair may have done as only a fraction of the information transmitted was retrieved. Operating under the codenames David and Deborah, they worked under a shroud of secrecy while pretending to be upstanding US citizens, it was claimed.

“This is not idle chit-chat. Mr. Alvarez was tasked by Cuban intelligence to collect information,” said Matthew Axelrod, for the prosecution, adding that this was a case of classic intelligence work."

Mr Axelrod said that “sensitive details” recovered from a computer at the couple’s home showed that Alvarez had written reports on the business ventures of the university’s president, and discussed a “redacted” version of a US report on telecommunications in Cuba.

Before he was sentenced, Alvarez - described in testimony by friends and colleagues as a hardworking teacher and devout Roman Catholic - told the court he had once belonged to an underground movement that sought to topple Castro’s regime by force, but later became “an advocate of dialogue."

“I decided to engage in a relation that would require sharing what I consider innocuous information and analysis for access,” he said. “The method and channel that I used were unfortunately wrong.”

He pleaded for leniency for his wife, who insisted her husband had acted in good faith and did not profit from the Cuban government.

Several family members and friends gave emotional testimony on behalf of the couple, insisting Alvarez was a man of integrity and loyal US citizen. “We are extremely upset,” said the couple’s 40-year-old son, also named Carlos Alvarez, after the hearing.