Mexican scientist Héctor Alejando Cabrera Fuentes, in the Russian city of Kazan, in a file image.Courtesy
The spy novel of a small town in Oaxaca has reached its final chapter in a Florida court.
Mexican scientist Héctor Alejandro Cabrera Fuentes has been sentenced to four years in prison for espionage in a hearing held on Tuesday.
Cabrera Fuentes had already confessed that he was pressured to collaborate with the Russian intelligence services and had access to a reduced sentence after reaching an agreement with the Prosecutor's Office.
The 37-year-old Oaxacan scientist has appeared in a federal court in Miami accompanied only by his lawyers and dressed in the khaki prison uniform.
This newspaper confirmed that Cabrera Fuentes, an internationally renowned biochemist, wanted to face the last hearing of his judicial process alone, without the presence of his family.
The investigator has waited in silence to learn his fate: he chose to keep a low profile, limited his statements in court and has not offered any interviews during the two years he has been in jail.
"I am extremely sorry for my mistakes," said the accused shortly before knowing the sentence.
"We all make mistakes in life and this is the biggest of mine," said Cabrera Fuentes, who has apologized to the United States government and asked Judge Donald Middlebrooks for mercy.
"This tragic experience taught me that freedom and family are the most important thing one has," added the scientist after entering the room in handcuffs.
The case has caused a stir in Mexico, a country that saw one of its most promising scientists suddenly accused of acting as "an agent of a foreign government" on US soil.
Deep down, it is also the story of a man whose life changed from one moment to another.
Cabrera Fuentes was detained at the Miami airport in February 2020, after being watched for days by counterintelligence elements.
Under cross-examination, the scientist admitted that he had followed an FBI agent and photographed his car license plate at the request of an official in Vladimir Putin's government.
The image was taken by his wife, sent via WhatsApp and found in the recently deleted files folder on her phone.
That was the last mission that a Russian official entrusted to Cabrera Fuentes, but it was not the first.
The scientist began collaborating and maintaining constant communication with the Kremlin intelligence apparatus since March 2019, almost a year before his arrest.
The investigations exposed in detail the tactics used by Russian agencies to gather strategic information and recruit new sources.
It's a convincing process that takes time and ends up leaving recruits with no choice but to go ahead with the plan.
The investigations also uncovered the reasons why the scientist risked his prolific career.
Cabrera Fuentes acknowledged that he had a double life: he had a family in Mexico and, at the same time, separated by thousands of kilometers, another secret marriage and two daughters with a Russian woman who lived in Germany.
The scientist's second wife had to return to Russia to resolve an administrative procedure, but the authorities did not allow her to leave the country again.
In May 2019, Cabrera Fuentes traveled to Moscow to see how he could get his family to return to German soil and there he met for the first time with his contact with the Putin government.
"We can help each other," the man, whose identity has not been revealed, told him.
The deal was simple: the Mexican scientist did what he was asked in exchange for the mysterious official unblocking the bureaucratic mess in which his family was involved.
From there, there was no turning back.
In El Espinal, the hometown of Cabrera Fuentes in Oaxaca, the people who knew him were convinced that it was all a big hoax.
Héctor Alejandro Cabrera Fuentes is little less than a hero to his countrymen in Oaxaca, the second poorest state in Mexico.
Born into a humble family, he received a scholarship to study in Russia, where he faced all kinds of economic hardships and discrimination until he received the award for the best master's thesis.
Later, he received his doctorate with honors from the University of Giessen in Germany.
Meteoric career in the most prestigious medical college in Singapore.
Lecturer of the European Society of Cardiology.
Benefactor, generous, humble, polyglot, leader, sensitive to the problems of his community.
Family, friends and acquaintances were full of praise when they spoke of him: Héctor, the one who developed a prototype of anti-earthquake houses when a magnitude eight earthquake shook his land, the one who paid out of his pocket so that the children of his town they could have experiences and study trips abroad, the one who created a foundation to promote science among the most humble, the one who was described as an "outstanding worker" by his own custodians in prison.
After his arrest, all kinds of rumors and conspiracy theories spread to try to understand what was happening: Did they set him up?
Did you discover something that bothered the United States Government?
“I can't get it into my head that Hectorcito is a spy,” an uncle of his told this newspaper two years ago.
"This sentence seems fair to us because it takes into account his contributions as a scientist and for his people in Mexico," said Ronald Gainor, the defense attorney.
Gainor explained that the exact sentence is four years and one day.
That additional day was at the request of Cabrera Fuentes' own representatives in order to aspire to a new sentence reduction.
The lawyers hope that if good behavior is considered, the scientist can be released in a year and return to Mexico.
"He has been a model prisoner, we hope that the sentence can be further reduced and that he can return as soon as possible," said an official from the Mexican Consulate in Miami.
In Oaxaca he is a legend.
In Miami he is a spy.
That clash of realities, as if it had been taken from a Cold War book, opted for a case delayed by the pandemic, crossed by the Russian invasion of Ukraine and marked by statements by high-ranking Pentagon officials who pointed to Mexico as the largest center of Russian espionage operations abroad.
As a parallel plot, the story of the two families earned him to be crucified and ridiculed by the most tabloid sectors of the press.
Everything good and everything bad that he did was put under public scrutiny.
“We have always been and will continue to be proud,” Héctor Cabrera, her father, wrote in a letter sent to the court last week.
Upon express question, his family environment has decided not to make any further comments and reaffirm the unconditional support that they had already left settled in a series of letters sent to the judge last week.
Away from the media frenzy, a man trapped by circumstance sat in federal court for the southern district of Florida.
Judge Middlebrooks' sentence falls within what was anticipated and what this newspaper had already advanced as part of the negotiation between the parties in exchange for the confession of guilt.
The conviction marks the end of one process and the beginning of another, one last battle for Cabrera Fuentes and those around him: trying to recover his life as a world-renowned scientist and see his family again.
He will have a couple of more years in prison and a deportation to Mexico by mutual agreement to be able to do it or, at least, try.
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