BY GAIL EPSTEIN NIEVES

 Pilot René González, a U.S.-born Cuban spy who faked his defection back to America and successfully insinuated himself into the highest levels of Miami's anti-Castro movement, was sentenced Friday to the maximum term of 15 years for functioning as an unregistered foreign agent.

 U.S. District Judge Joan Lenard said González's crimes, coupled with his lack of remorse and his unabashed loyalty to Cuba, meant that he should serve two consecutive
 jail terms of five and 10 years. She denied a defense motion to make the terms concurrent.

 ``This defendant stands before this court as an American citizen,'' Lenard said, differentiating González, 45, from Gerardo Hernández and Ramón Labañino, two other Cuban spies she sentenced this week. Both got life terms for espionage conspiracy.

 But González's reclamation of U.S. citizenship -- after a daring defection in a stolen Cuban crop duster in 1990 -- was neither for the pursuit of liberty nor happiness,
 Lenard said. ``His purpose in asserting his U.S. citizenship was to serve a different master,'' she said.

 In Miami, González posed as an ardent anti-Castro activist at the same time he was on Castro's payroll as an intelligence agent for La Red Avispa, the Wasp Network.

 He joined the inner circles of and flew planes for two key exile groups -- Brothers to the Rescue and the Democracy Movement -- while reporting back to Havana
 exhaustive details about both organizations and working to foment internal dissent.

 Philip Horowitz, González's lawyer, had argued that González was in the United States to thwart exile-sponsored terror missions against the island. Horowitz said the
 15-year sentence was ``undeserved'' and would be appealed.

 He said González will be eligible for release in about 9 1/2 years because he's already served three years since his arrest.

 González was among five Cuban agents convicted in June after a six-month trial. The men tried to penetrate U.S. military bases and exile groups.

 González was so convincing in his patriotic fervor that even after his arrest three years ago, exile leaders hesitated to believe that their cocky, sharp-tongued friend was indeed a Cuban spy in their midst.

 ``I'm shocked,'' Democracy Movement founder Ramón Saúl Sánchez said at the time. ``I find it hard to say bad things about him.''

 There was no shortage of criticism about González on Friday, however.

 ``Today I am thanking God because the judge gave him the maximum,'' said Mercy Garcia, whose husband, Marcelino, is a coordinator of the Democracy Movement.

 ``He came to my home, he was like part of my family. But he is a traitor of the honor that a man should have.''

 Like the spies sentenced earlier, González delivered a defiant speech in court, but his tone had a sharper edge. He attacked prosecutors as ``hypocrites'' for going after Cuban agents but not militant exiles. He also said he enjoyed seeing the prosecutors ``squirm'' in court.

 The judge told González that his ``personal political beliefs do not justify his criminal conduct.'' She said, ``The terrorist acts by others cannot excuse the wrongful or
 illegal acts by this defendant or any other.''

 Brothers founder José Basulto, once a close friend, said González's speech told him all he needed to know about the man he once trusted. ``I wanted to see what was inside of him, and he provided us with an X-ray of his feelings: hate and resentment,'' Basulto said. ``If there was any doubt he deserved the maximum, he confirmed it to the judge with his own words.''

 ``He's the kind of soldier unquestioning of the authority above him, and that's what makes him so dangerous,'' said John Kastrenakes, who prosecuted the case with
 Caroline Heck Miller and David Buckner.

 After the judge ruled, González patted his attorney's back, gave a thumbs-up sign to his mother, crying teenage daughter Irmita and brother, and shook hands with two other Cuban agents who face sentencing later this month.

 All the relatives traveled from Cuba for the proceedings. They declined to comment.

 Evidence at trial showed that González was tasked with numerous ``active measures,'' the term used by Cuban intelligence for, among other things, offensive tactics
 against the exile community. They included letters and phone calls that spread scandalous misinformation or threats.

 The measures were designed to create internal dissent or to discredit the image of exile groups. Targets included Sánchez and the Democracy Movement, the Cuban
 American National Foundation and other anti-Castro groups.

 At González's request, U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Miami, wrote a routine letter to facilitate his wife's entry from Cuba into the United States. But he never told her he was a Cuban agent.

 Nor did González offer that information when he met in the fall of 1996 with FBI Agent Albert Alonso of Miami, who tried to recruit González as an informant.

 ``I thwarted him diplomatically, but I left the door open a crack. I think that I was very convincing and my `sincerity' impressed him,'' González wrote in a report to his bosses.

                                    © 2001