In Miami's Cuban exile community, past membership in the Antonio Maceo Brigade rankles many.

BY ALFONSO CHARDY AND OSCAR CORRAL

A little-known group of Cuban Americans has emerged as part of the background of one of the two Florida International University employees accused of spying for Cuba.

Elsa Prieto Alvarez, 55, was a member of the Antonio Maceo Brigade -- a controversial organization founded 27 years ago by children of Cuban exiles who fled the Cuban revolution soon after Fidel Castro seized power in 1959. Prieto Alvarez and her husband, Carlos Alvarez, 61, have been accused of providing the Cuban government with information about exile groups and not registering as foreign agents.

Prieto Alvarez's membership in the brigade surfaced in congressional testimony by Florida Department of Law Enforcement agents in 1982.

Long denounced as Castro agents by die-hard anti-Castro exiles, brigade leaders have described themselves as sympathizers of the revolutionary ideals of a small country unfairly besieged by a hostile United States.

Brigade leader Andrés Gómez could not be reached for comment Thursday, but over the years he has denied any control by Cuban intelligence officers.

''There is no question that the Antonio Maceo Brigade is a leftist organization that coincides with the goals and aspirations of the Cuban revolution,'' Gómez said in a 1993 interview. ``But sympathy and solidarity with the Cuban revolution do not mean being an agent. We receive no payments or instructions from Cuba.''

Named after a Cuban independence hero, Gen. Antonio Maceo, the brigade was founded in 1978 by -- among others -- Gómez and Marifeli Pérez-Stable, a regular contributor to the editorial pages of The Miami Herald and vice president for democratic governance at Inter-American Dialogue, a research group in Washington, D.C.

Pérez-Stable declined comment Thursday on her former membership in the brigade, though in the 1980s she changed her views about Castro's Cuba, according to her essays.

Brigade members are Cuban Americans whose parents brought them into exile when they were children. Gómez arrived in November 1960, at age 12. As adults, these exiles broke with their parents and sided with the Cuban revolution, though not necessarily with Castro.

Gómez has said that hundreds of Cuban Americans have belonged to the group over the years.

One of its most prominent former members is José Pertierra, a lawyer in Washington who often speaks for the Venezuelan government of Castro ally President Hugo Chávez in matters affecting its interests, such as the case of detained Cuban exile militant Luís Posada Carriles. Pertierra also declined comment Thursday.

In the 1980s, the brigade helped organize rallies against the CIA-backed Nicaraguan contra rebels.

Now Gómez and the brigade have been active in organizing rallies seeking Posada's extradition and the release of five Cubans convicted on espionage charges in 2001.