The husband and wife are arrested and held without bail on federal charges.

Curt Anderson
The Associated Press

MIAMI -- A college psychology professor and his wife, a social-work program coordinator at the same university, appeared in federal court Monday on charges that for decades they used their academic positions as cover to spy as illegal agents of the communist Cuban government run by President Fidel Castro.

Carlos Alvarez, 61, a professor at Florida International University, and his wife, Elsa Alvarez, 55, were charged in a federal indictment unsealed Monday with acting as agents of a foreign power without registering as required with the U.S. government. They were arrested Friday at their south Miami home.

The couple was ordered held without bail by U.S. Magistrate Judge Andrea Simonton, who said she agreed with federal prosecutors that they would leave their five children -- four grown sons of Carlos Alvarez's and a 12-year-old daughter together -- and flee to Cuba if released.

Neither defendant entered a plea, and another hearing was set for Jan. 19. Their attorneys, Steven Chaykin and Norman Moscowitz, indicated they would plead not guilty. Each faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison if convicted.

U.S. Attorney R. Alexander Acosta said the two gave voluntary statements to the FBI last summer detailing their lengthy contacts with Cuba's Directorate of Intelligence. He said Carlos Alvarez had spied for Cuba since 1977 and his wife since 1982, working independently at first and later together.

Neither was charged with the more serious offense of espionage, and FBI agents acknowledged there is no evidence that they provided classified or military information to Cuba. There also is no evidence they were paid by Cuba for the information.

But Acosta said they did provide information about the U.S. political situation, public opinion, prominent Cuban-Americans opposed to Castro's government and the name of at least one FBI agent.

Carlos Alvarez also had worked on a contract basis doing psychological screenings for police cadets for both the Miami Police Department and the Miami-Dade County Police Department, prosecutors said.

Alvarez is identified on the FIU Web site as an associate professor in the Educational Leadership and Policy Studies Department. Elsa Alvarez is described as a coordinator in the social-work training program, specializing in psychological treatment, crisis intervention and group psychotherapy.

FIU officials did not respond to telephone calls seeking comment.

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