He said both directed him to get a job at the Southern Command's Miami headquarters.

 BY GAIL EPSTEIN NIEVES

 A former Cuban intelligence agent on Monday identified two more defendants in
 the Cuban spy trial as his ``handlers'' and said both of them directed him to get a
 job at the Southern Command's Miami headquarters so he could snoop for the
 Cuban government.

 The testimony of acknowledged ex-agent Joseph Santos, 40, was the first to link
 accused spies Ramón Lavaniño and Fernando González with in-the-trenches
 intelligence activity. On Friday, Santos similarly implicated co-defendant Gerardo
 Hernández.

 The trial's opening weeks focused on documentary and physical evidence against
 the five accused spies. With Santos, jurors are hearing firsthand accounts about
 the inner workings of Cuba's intelligence apparatus, from spy recruitment to
 training to work assignments.

 In the case of Santos and his wife, Amarylis -- also a Cuban agent -- their
 achievements were far less illustrious than their assignments, according to
 testimony.

 Santos said he successfully completed a research project on the Southern
 Command while its new headquarters were being built in Miami's Doral section in
 early 1997.

 He and his wife took photographs of all the surrounding buildings, between
 Northwest 87th and 99th avenues and 25th and 40th streets, ``to provide a pretty
 clear idea to anyone'' what the area looked like.

 Santos said he gave the report to his handler Lavaniño, an ``illegal agent'' or
 ranking Cuban intelligence operative who also went by the name Luis Medina.

 But more importantly, Lavaniño told the Santos couple that their ``supreme task''
 was to get jobs at the Pentagon's SouthCom headquarters, which directs U.S.
 military operations in Latin America and the Caribbean.

 Accused spy González -- who also went by the name Rubén Campa -- gave them
 the same task, Santos testified. ``Penetrating'' SouthCom was a high priority set
 by Cuba's intelligence chiefs, according to Havana-to-Miami directives seized by
 the FBI and read to jurors Monday.

 MISSION FAILED

 The Santos failed at that assignment. They were too busy trying to make a
 legitimate living and never found a place to apply for a job, Santos said.

 But on cross-examination, the defense attorney for accused spy Hernández
 scoffed at the notion that Santos could have obtained anything important -- let
 alone national defense secrets, a key factor for proving espionage -- even if he had
 managed to get hired at SouthCom.

 Santos does not speak English. Before his arrest, he was working as a laborer at
 Goya Foods and the Miami Arena.

 Attorney Paul McKenna read jurors a report in which Hernández directed Santos
 to obtain ``public information'' about SouthCom. ``In fact, none of your handlers
 ever tasked you with getting national security information, did they?'' McKenna
 asked Santos.

 Santos responded that it was implicit that he was supposed to get information
 that could not be obtained ``by conventional means.''

 SERVING SENTENCES

 Santos and his wife are already serving prison sentences after pleading guilty to
 one count of conspiracy to act as a foreign agent.

 Their terms are likely to be cut short for their help testifying against Hernández,
 who prosecutors say conspired with the Cuban military to murder four Brothers to
 the Rescue fliers in 1996.

 McKenna cross-examined Santos about the plea agreement for a long time in an
 apparent bid to undermine his credibility. Under sentencing guidelines, Santos
 faced 60 months but prosecutors recommended he serve 48. U.S. District Judge
 Joan Lenard agreed.

 ``So these people here,'' McKenna said, naming prosecutors Caroline Heck Miller,
 John Kastrenakes, David Buckner and FBI Agent Al Alonso -- ``are all your friends
 that are helping you, correct?''

 ``They're not my friends,'' Santos responded through an interpreter. ``I met those
 people during the investigation of the case.''