Published Saturday, January 22, 2001, in the
Miami Herald
U.S. condemns Cuba's arrest of 2 pro-democracy Czechs
From Herald Staff and Wire Reports
WASHINGTON -- The United States is condemning the arrest by the Cuban
government of two Czech citizens, one of whom is a member of parliament, for
meeting with pro-democracy activists on the island.
State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Thursday the only "offense''
the two committed was to meet with Cuban activists who seek "peaceful
change of Cuba's totalitarian government.''
In Havana, Cuban authorities remained tight-lipped Friday on the tense
standoff with the Prague government, failing to give the Eastern European
government an answer to three protest notes over the arrests.
"There is no official reaction to any of the three [notes],'' said Petr
Janousek, spokesman for the Embassy of the Czech Republic in Washington.
Ivan Pilip, a member of the lower house of the Czech parliament, and Jan
Bubenik, a student leader of the 1989 "Velvet revolution,'' were arrested
Jan. 12 and accused of attempting to establish "subversive contacts.''
U.S. officials said Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, a native of
Prague, is personally acquainted with the two.
Pilip's wife, Lucie Pilipova, and Bubenik's brother, Martin, received Cuban
visas on Friday and were scheduled to arrive in Havana this evening.
Cuba has given the green light for the visit of a parliamentary delegation
but no date has been set. Czech diplomats have been denied access to the two
jailed men since the start of the week.
Boucher said the administration agrees with the Czech Republic's statement
calling their detention "groundless and in defiance of the principles that
all democratic nations stand for.'' He called for the immediate release of the
two men.
An article this week in the Communist Party newspaper Granma said Pilip and
Bubenik entered Cuba on Jan. 8 as tourists but that their true purpose was to "contact
counter-revolutionary elements, give them instructions and hand over
resources.''
Herald staff writer Jane Bussey contributed to this
report.
Judge asked to be lenient in Faget case
Ex-immigration supervisor convicted of espionage receives show of
support
By Marika Lynch. mlynch@herald.com. Published Saturday,
January 20, 2001, in the Miami Herald
An immigration judge, top Catholic leaders and Mariano Faget's stepson
pleaded with a Miami federal judge Friday to be lenient in sentencing the former
Immigration and Naturalization Service supervisor, convicted last year under
espionage laws for telling government secrets to a friend.
The trio who testified joined dozens of other Faget supporters who sent
letters to U.S. District Judge Alan S. Gold asking for a light sentence. A
three-ring binder was filled with notes from some of South Florida's most
prominent immigration lawyers and a dozen former INS co-workers, including
Faget's boss of 36 years, INS Senior Special Agent Richard Kellner. On
Department of Justice stationery, he asked that Faget's "long and
outstanding service to his community'' be considered.
Gold delayed sentencing Faget, caught in an espionage sting in February
2000.
Under federal guidelines, Faget could receive between 10 and 12 years in
prison. Gold did not set a new sentencing date Friday.
Lawyers for the 34-year federal employee argued that the sentence should be
less because the information Faget relayed to a friend about the defection of a
Cuban intelligence officer was invented to snag Faget and didn't pose a risk to
national security. The friend, a Cuban businessman, had had contacts with the
intelligence officer, according to the FBI.
The two had planned to open a business on the island after the U.S. embargo
ends. U.S. agents suspected Faget as a spy when they saw him meeting in a Miami
bar with the intelligence officer, who worked out of the Cuban Interests Section
in Washington, D.C. Agents decided to set up a sting, in which an FBI agent told
Faget about the alleged defection. Twelve minutes later, Faget called his friend
and business partner, Pedro Font, with the news.
Prosecutors said Faget relayed the news to curry favor with the Cubans and
forge business contacts, but Faget said he was merely trying to warn a friend.
Gold asked federal probation officers to seek guidance from the U.S.
Sentencing Commission.
At Friday's hearing, a lawyer for Catholic Charities, a social services
organization, spoke on behalf of Bishop Thomas Wenski, who could not attend.
Instead of going to prison, Faget should be sentenced to work for the group,
Randolph McGrorty said, reading a letter signed by himself and Wenski. The
letter also praised Faget for his work on behalf of refugees.
"If we take the view that Mariano Faget's conduct is a break of the
public trust, let him regain that trust through community service,'' the letter
said. "We need the help.''
U.S. Immigration Judge Nancy McCormack, a Faget colleague and friend for 24
years, said she wasn't asked to speak on Faget's behalf, but felt compelled. Her
voice shook as she described a man who always had a kind word and was dedicated
to the church and his family.
"It is especially distressing for me to see this happen to a really
great person,'' McCormack said.
Faget's stepson, Alex Sanchez, said Faget's arrest has been hard on the
close-knit family.
"I believe I am, in great part, the person I am today because of him.
He always had time for me. If there wasn't time, he made time,'' Sanchez said. "I
just want the court to know that this man has a heart of gold, and I love him
and will continue to support him no matter what happens.''
Faget, jailed since his arrest almost a year ago, didn't speak at the
hearing. He did write a letter to the judge, though.
He made no excuses for what he called a "lapse in judgment.''
"Whatever punishment you give me can be no greater than that which I
carry with me all the time.''
Accused spies leaked exile's illness
Mas Canosa notes read at pair's trial
By Gail Epstein Nieves. gepstein@herald.com. Published
Saturday, January 20, 2001, in the Miami Herald
Cuba apparently learned that exile leader Jorge Mas Canosa was dying of
cancer when activist Ramón Saúl Sánchez told a select group
of people -- including a trusted associate who is now on trial accused of being
a Cuban spy.
"A bit of news was given which Saúl asked be kept secret. It is
about Mas Canosa, who has terminal cancer and, according to Saúl, they
don't think he will make it to the end of the year,'' accused spy René
González wrote in a March 1997 note to codefendant Gerardo Hernández,
his alleged spy "handler.''
Mas Canosa died Nov. 23, 1997, after months of denying reports that he had
terminal cancer. Associates said he tried to keep the seriousness of his illness
private because he did not want to show any sign of weakness to his greatest
foe: Fidel Castro.
The writer of the note, González, was a pilot who infiltrated Sánchez's
Democracy Movement and the pilots' group Brothers to the Rescue on orders from
Havana's intelligence directorate, according to encrypted communications seized
by the FBI and read to jurors at the trial Friday.
Word of Mas Canosa's illness brought great cheer to the accused spies, who
spoke of him and other well-known Cuban exiles with irreverence and sometimes
blasphemy.
During an April 1997 meeting, González, his wife, Ida, and Hernández
mocked news accounts of Mas Canosa's grandson being "miraculously'' saved
from a life-threatening illness thanks to the "power of prayer.'' They then
offered a sarcastic petition for Mas Canosa to die.
"We united our 'faith' in a brief mental 'prayer' that the news about
the cancer is true, and we hope it cuts him in four pieces as soon as possible.
Amen,'' Hernández reported to Havana.
In other decoded communications read aloud by FBI Agent Richard Giannotti,
jurors learned that Ida González also was a Cuban intelligence agent who
was sent to Miami in December 1996 to join the alleged spy ring known as La Red
Avispa, the Wasp Network.
At René González's request, U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen,
R-Miami, wrote a routine letter to facilitate his wife's entry into the United
States, the communications showed.
Ida González reported having a hard time adjusting to her new life in
Miami, accused spy Hernández reported to Havana. It was recommended that
she get close to Ana Margarita Martinez, the former wife of Cuban
double-defector Juan Pablo Roque, who vanished from Miami the day before the
February 1996 Brothers to the Rescue shoot-down that killed four Miami men.
Wrote Hernández: "We asked about Ana Margarita (the merry
'widow') because we had suggested to Ida that she cultivate the relationship
with this one and to keep up with any detail which might be of interest. Ida
told us that Ana Margarita is such a jerk . . . ''
In other decoded reports read by the FBI's Giannotti, René González
bragged about his fall 1996 meetings with FBI Agent Albert Alonso of Miami, who
tried to recruit González as an informant against the Democracy Movement
and Brothers to the Rescue.
González was noncommittal, telling Alonso that he supported the
anti-Castro groups but still might feed the FBI some information occasionally.
"I thwarted him diplomatically, but I left the door open a crack. I
think that I was very convincing and my 'sincerity' impressed him,'' wrote González,
who played the role of an exile with conflicting loyalties during his meetings
with FBI agents.
But Alonso might have known at the time that he was dealing with a Cuban
intelligence agent. Prosecutor Caroline Heck Miller brought out during direct
examination that the FBI had already started decrypting the Wasp Network's
communications by the time Alonso met with González.
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