By Jose Dante Parra Herrera
The Sun-Sentinel. Web-posted: 10:53 p.m.
Jan. 8, 2001
MIAMI -- His original mission was to infiltrate U.S. military
installations and keep the Cuban government informed of American military
movements, he told the jury.
But on Monday, Joseph Santos' new mission was to help federal prosecutors
convict five men who allegedly once worked alongside him to spy on U.S. military
installations and infiltrate Cuban exile groups.
His testimony was the beginning of a series of first-hand accounts the
government is bringing to the stand in a trial loaded with talk of encrypted
messages and cloak-and-dagger techniques.
Santos was among 10 people arrested in connection with the alleged spy
ring in 1998. A few weeks after his arrest, he struck a deal with prosecutors
and pleaded guilty to conspiracy to act as an unregistered agent of a foreign
government.
Defense attorneys, however, were quick to point out that Santos has a lot
to gain from his testimony: a ticket out of jail.
"The U.S. attorney is trying to help you out," said Paul
McKenna, Gerardo Hernandez's attorney, pointing out that the maximum sentence
for his crime was five years in prison. "It certainly worked that they came
in here and asked the judge to sentence you to 48 months. That's exactly what
you got, and that was before you set foot on that stand to testify."
Assistant U.S. Attorney David Buckner pre-empted that attack by asking
Santos to explain that he understood all the prosecution could do for him was
propose, but not guarantee, a mitigated sentence. That's because the ultimate
decision rests with U.S. District Judge Joan Lenard.
Santos told the jury how his mission and that of Amarylis Silverio
Santos, his wife, was to infiltrate the U.S. Southern Command, the nerve center
for all military operations in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Following Buckner's questions, Santos took the jury through a life
account that started with his birth in New Jersey and his move as a toddler to
revolutionary Cuba. He gave a detailed account of his training as a Cuban
intelligence operative and talked about his initial move to Puerto Rico and his
transfer to Miami after news spread about the move of the U.S. Southern Command
from Panama to Miami.
Here, superiors in Havana assigned him to work with a supervisor named "Giro,"
Santos said. "Giro" is the code name for Hernandez, who is accused of
being the ringleader.
Of the five men, Hernandez faces the most serious charge. The government
accuses him of helping Havana orchestrate the shooting down over international
waters of two Cessna planes from the Brothers to the Rescue exile group. The
other men are accused of being unregistered agents of a foreign government and
infiltrating exile organizations and U.S. military installations.
Santos explained how initially his mission was to get information about
the area surrounding the Southcom building. He said he passed on to Hernandez
information ranging from bus routes to what restaurants were being built.
Once that was accomplished and the headquarters was operational, he was
supposed to land a job inside the complex, said Santos. Once inside his job
would have been to establish relationships with people who had access to
information. But he never did get a job inside and supported himself with jobs
as an electrical technician at the Miami Arena and at a Goya Foods plant near
Southcom.
During his cross-examination, McKenna tried to prove that Hernandez, his
client, only received from Santos information anyone could have gleaned from
reading newspapers or driving outside of Southcom's headquarters in west
Miami-Dade County. He said Santos was never pressured to get anything illegal.
"He never asked you to get national security information. Did he?"
McKenna said.
But when Buckner asked Santos earlier if his supervisors were satisfied,
Santos painted a different picture.
"We were always told this was a top priority," Santos said. "Once
Southcom moved the pressure for us to obtain a job (inside) increased."
José Dante Parra Herrera can be reached at
jparra@sun-sentinel.com or at 305-810-5005.
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