Cuban Spy Mastermind Gets Life Sentence

The leader of a Cuban spy ring was sentenced to life in prison Wednesday for trying to infiltrate U.S. military bases and conspiring in the deaths of four Cuban Americans whose private planes were shot down by Fidel Castro’s government in 1996.

Gerardo Hernandez, 36, received the maximum sentence after a 20-minute speech in which he denounced his federal trial as a “propaganda show” and blamed his prosecution on the political clout of Miami’s Cuban exile community.

Hernandez was one of five men convicted June 8 of operating as unregistered foreign agents and conspiring to do so.

“This was a crime against America,” prosecutor Caroline Miller said. “The threat was to the country at large and to this community.”

Hernandez was the only one convicted of murder conspiracy in the deaths of four members of the exile group Brothers to the Rescue, which patrols the sea between Florida and Cuba, looking for refugees. The four were in planes shot down in international airspace nearly six years ago by Cuban fighter jets.

Prosecutors accused Hernandez of knowing about the plot to shoot down the planes because he warned two agents who infiltrated the group not to fly during a four-day period that included the day of the attack.

“Every night and every day, I have been praying for justice,” said Eva Barba, mother of Pablo Morales, one of the four pilots.

Hernandez denied he played a role in the attack or plotted espionage against the United States.

Relatives of the spies called them patriots, and the Cuban government insisted in a radio report Monday that the men were protecting their country from terrorism by Cuban Americans.

Hernandez and two others also were convicted of conspiring to commit espionage for trying to penetrate U.S. military bases, although they never obtained classified information. Those two, Ramon Labanino and Antonio Guerrero, also could face life in prison. Labanino’s sentencing began Wednesday and was expected to continue today.