[Spooks] Prof, Wife Accused of Being Cuban Agents

[Al Fansome]

January 9, 2006
Prof, Wife Accused of Being Cuban Agents
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 5:33 p.m. ET

MIAMI (AP) -- A Florida college professor and his wife, a university 
administrator, were accused in federal court Monday of using their academic 
positions for decades as cover to spy on Americans for Cuba's communist 
government.

Carlos Alvarez, 61, a psychology professor at Florida International 
University, and Elsa Alvarez, 55, used an encryption system to communicate 
with their handlers via short-wave radio and carried messages to and from 
Cuba, said federal prosecutor Brian Frazier.

''These were highly placed and very well-regarded operatives in the United 
States,'' Frazier said.

The couple were charged with acting as agents of Fidel Castro without 
registering with the U.S. government.

Frazier said Alvarez had spied for Cuba since 1977 and his wife since 1982. 
Neither was charged with the more serious offense of espionage, and FBI 
agents said there was no evidence they provided classified or military 
information to Cuba.

Much of what they provided involved information about the U.S. political 
situation, prominent Cuban-Americans in South Florida and the names of at 
least one FBI agent, Frazier said.

The couple were ordered held without bail Monday after prosecutors warned 
that they might leave their five children and flee to Cuba if released.

Neither defendant entered a plea, and another hearing was set for Jan. 19.

They were arrested Friday, months after giving statements to the FBI last 
summer about their contacts with Cuba, prosecutors said.

Alvarez is identified on the Florida International Web site as an associate 
professor in the educational leadership and policy studies department. Elsa 
Alvarez is described as a coordinator in the social work training program, 
specializing in psychological treatment, crisis intervention and group 
psychotherapy.

The indictment marks the latest turn in the cloak-and-dagger underworld of 
espionage between the United States and Cuba, much of it taking place in 
South Florida where thousands of Cuban exiles live.

In August, the convictions and sentences of five alleged Cuban spies were 
thrown out by a federal appeals court, which said the five were unfairly 
tried because of intense publicity, community prejudice and inflammatory 
remarks by prosecutors.

The defendants insisted they were spying on Cuban exiles opposed to Castro, 
not on the United States itself.