FIU professor, wife accused of being illegal agents for Cuba's Castro

By CURT ANDERSON
Associated Press
Posted January 9 2006, 11:59 AM EST


MIAMI -- A college professor and his wife have been charged with being longtime illegal agents of Cuban President Fidel Castro, The Associated Press has learned.

Documents filed Monday in U.S. District Court show that Carlos Alvarez, a psychology professor at Florida International University, and his wife, Elsa Alvarez, have been charged with acting as agents of Cuba without registering with the U.S. government as required.




The two were scheduled to make an initial court appearance Monday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Andrea Simonton, according to the documents. An indictment further describing the charges was expected to be unsealed after that court appearance, court officials 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.

Alvarez didn't return two phone messages left at his office, nor did his wife. A university spokesman didn't return several calls.

U.S. Attorney R. Alexander Acosta, the FBI and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service scheduled a news conference for later Monday to discuss the case.

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 three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which ruled that the five were unfairly tried because of intense publicity, community prejudice and inflammatory remarks by prosecutors.

They were accused of being part of the Wasp Network of Cuban spies operating on U.S. soil. They admitted being agents of Cuba but insisted they were spying on Cuban exiles opposed to Castro, not on the United States itself. The full 11th Circuit has agreed to rehear the arguments on whether the five got a fair trial.




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