Live-in lover reveals Cuban's poems, calls anti-terrorism mission virtuous

 Maggie Becker shared more than 175 poems Antonio Guerrero has written from
 prison since his 1998 arrest. She said the works reflect the real him.
 
BY GAIL EPSTEIN NIEVES

 Until a troop of FBI agents stormed through Maggie Becker's door -- forcing her
 boyfriend to the floor at gunpoint and rummaging through their belongings --
 Becker had no idea she was living with a man the United States had labeled a
 Cuban spy.

 ``That's absurd,'' said Becker, 50, a Key West masseuse who met Antonio
 Guerrero seven years ago.

 The person portrayed by prosecutors as sneaky and manipulative in a federal
 courtroom in downtown Miami is not the ``Zen Buddhist kind of guy'' whom Becker
 loved and lived with, she said in the first insider account of life with one of the five
 accused spies on trial.

 Becker shared with The Herald more than 175 poems Guerrero has written from
 prison since his Sept. 12, 1998, arrest. She said the works reflect who he really
 is: ``A total person of peace, a total person of love.''

 Guerrero, 42, is charged with conspiracy to commit espionage for allegedly
 snooping around Key West's Boca Chica Naval Air Station in a bid to feed U.S.
 military secrets to Cuba. Prosecutors acknowledge Guerrero never got ahold of
 classified information, but say it was not for a lack of trying.

 Becker met Guerrero when he taught salsa dancing to her girlfriends. He was
 dark and thin with an even-tempered disposition. She was an artsy Pennsylvania
 native who moved to Key West 15 years ago.

 Together the couple danced and took singing lessons, visited Cuba, and played
 with Becker's cat Tashi -- Guerrero called her Tashita, little Tashi. She says she
 never had an inkling about his double life.

 Becker doesn't want to discuss the espionage case against Guerrero in detail
 but, not surprisingly, she believes in his innocence. Her answers echo the theme
 put forth in court by Guerrero's defense attorney, Jack Blumenfeld.

 ``My understanding of what he was doing, and it kind of goes along with who he
 is, was something very virtuous, a mission trying to prevent terrorism,'' she said,
 referring to a string of hotel bombings in Cuba blamed on extremist exiles. ``I
 know he was here totally for idealistic reasons, not political.''

 Guerrero and his codefendants -- Gerardo Hernández, Ramón Labañino, René
 González and Fernando González -- acknowledge working on orders from the
 Cuban government.

 But they deny obtaining secret information or intending to harm U.S. interests.
 Instead, they say they were trying to protect Cuba from a U.S. invasion or terrorist
 exiles. Becker said she never heard Guerrero mention any of the other men.

 Most of Guerrero's poems address love or noble values like brotherhood, peace,
 compassion and humility. The bleak solitude of prison life is a frequent topic, too.

 In a forward to the collection, Guerrero writes that the poems were translated into
 English ``by the person who is most indicated therein, who is the most knowing of
 the essence of these inspirations, my inseparable and beloved Maggie.''

 But the works also reflect Guerrero's nationalistic pride of Cuba, the land he
 moved to as a toddler after being born at Jackson Memorial Hospital.

 In El Beso de La Patria, or The Kiss of the Homeland, dated June 27, 1999,
 Guerrero wrote:

 There are special things in life/that make us feel great emotion/some beginning,
 some farewell/a new friend, a sweet song./Sometimes to select the preferred one,
 the one you desire with more hope/is difficult because, in certain measure/all of
 them touch deeply, the heart.

 But if I were selected/to decide in this situation/I would ponder on what I have
 loved more/that which deserves more love/and I would say without vacillation:/the
 kiss of the homeland is the best.

 Becker said she is more than confident of Guerrero's love for her despite poems
 like that and despite evidence introduced at trial that he couldn't make a romantic
 move without first consulting his intelligence bosses in Havana.

 Should he break up with Becker or move in with her? Get married? Have children?

 Guerrero posed all those questions to the Directorate of Intelligence, according to
 encrypted computer files seized by the FBI during searches of his and
 Hernández's homes.

 ``What we are asking is that the status of our relationship with Maggie be
 evaluated and that we be given the opportunity to decide whether to move into
 Maggie's house in the next few months,'' Guerrero wrote in a 1996 report to
 Havana shown to jurors.

 The files showed that Guerrero's bosses were concerned that living together would
 compromise the security of his clandestine intelligence work.

 Becker does think ``it was odd'' that her boyfriend sought permission for such
 matters.

 She first learned of the computerized reports when Guerrero sent them to her from
 jail. He wanted to make sure she became aware of their contents from him first.

 He calls her from jail every day. She also came to the trial once. They smiled and
 mouthed messages across the aisle under the watchful eye of half a dozen U.S.
 marshals.

 But Becker dismisses the notion that Guerrero wasn't making independent
 choices about their relationship. The way she sees it now, he worked for ``a
 bureaucratic operation'' that like ``the FBI or anything else'' had logistical
 concerns he had to address.

 ``I can see in retrospect . . . there was some weight on us to make decisions
 about living or not living together based on the needs of the mission,'' she said.

 That mission, according to testimony and documents, had Guerrero reporting
 extensively to Cuba on the numbers and types of military airplanes using Boca
 Chica. His laborer job there allowed him some freedom to move about the base.

 Under his code name of Lorient, Guerrero also reported on the renovation of a
 building that he believed was going to house ``top secret'' activity.

 Blumenfeld, Guerrero's lawyer, said Guerrero merely reported what any visitor to
 the base could see.

 Becker said Guerrero has faith that he'll be exonerated ``if the truth comes out.''
 The trial could run into March.

 ``If you come from a small country that's trying to survive and has done some very
 positive things with some hindrance from the world's largest power, and if you're
 having violence inflicted upon your family and friends, what are you going to do to
 prevent it?'' she asked.