FIU prof, wife plead guilty to reduced charges in Cuba spy case.

Byline: Jay Weaver

Dec. 19--Almost one year after his arrest jolted Miami, former Florida International University professor Carlos Alvarez pleaded guilty today to conspiring to be an unregistered agent who informed on the Cuban exile community for the communist government of Fidel Castro.

His wife Elsa, an FIU counselor on leave, also pleaded guilty in Miami federal court to being aware of his illegal activity, harboring him and failing to disclose it to authorities.

By pleading guilty, the Alvarezes averted a difficult jury trial next month on the more serious, previous charge of being Cuban agents who did not register with the U.S. government, an offense that carries up to 10 years in prison.

The plea deals were struck after a judge decided to allow a major piece of incriminating evidence at trial -- Carlos Alvarez's "confession" last year to the FBI of his collaboration with Cuban intelligence agents, including use of a home computer, encrypted disks and travel to the island nation.

"The entire case against Dr. Alvarez came from his own mouth," defense lawyer Steven Chaykin said outside the courthouse. He argued that his client told FBI agents "everything he did" after they dangled a "promise" to leave him alone if he helped them infiltrate the Cuban intelligence branch -- but Alvarez didn't want to do it.

Both Chaykin and Elsa Alvarez's lawyer, Jane Moscowitz, stressed to reporters that their clients "never sought to do any harm to anyone in this community." Chaykin said his client was simply trying to open an alternative dialogue with the Cuban government in the hope of lifting the U.S. embargo against the nation -- an "idealism" infused with "naivete" that "ensnared" him in the Cuban Intelligence Service.