BY SARA OLKON

 It wasn't just Miami exile groups that posed a safety threat to the Latin Grammys, according to academy head Michael Greene. He said he also feared the work of Cuban leader Fidel Castro's agent provocateurs.

 ``[Castro] could have very easily sent thugs in to turn what could have been a peaceful protest into something -- all he's got to do is get five people with rocks and batteries and it suddenly erupts,'' the president and CEO of the national and Latin recording academies, told The Herald.

 In a subsequent interview, Greene explained that he had been told ``a hundred times'' that Cuban agents might whip up the demonstrators.

 ``All I was doing was repeating what city officials told me,'' he said.

 The idea of "spies among us'' comes during a year when five agents from Havana were convicted of espionage. During the highly charged trial, evidence was introduced that showed FBI agents had intercepted messages from Cuba asking its agents to stir up trouble among exile groups.

 Officials at the Cuban Interests Section in Washington, D.C., could not be reached.

 In other interviews, Greene has focused on the possible behavior of Miami's Cuban exiles as the principal reason for moving the show from Miami to Los Angeles.

 ``We want this to be the greatest, most wonderful experience and celebration for all of [the nominees] in their lives,'' Greene said in an interview with the Hollywood
 Reporter published Tuesday. ``And what it was turning into, especially with the reneging on the security zone, was [that] we were being set up to basically be a political platform for Cuban dissidents.''

 Before the show was pulled, Miami police said they had provided a plan to ferret out ``provokers.''

 In light of the timing, Pedro Freyre, an attorney and Cuban-American activist, called Greene's take about Castro ``thugs'' disingenuous.

 ``At this stage in the game to come up with that one rings a little hollow,'' Freyre said. ``I think having pulled the plug at this late a date, they are coming up with every conceivable reason for not doing it here.

 ``Could you have an agent provocateur in the crowd? Yes, you could. We are not paranoid. There are plenty of people in Miami who take their direction from Havana.''

 Lisandro Pérez, a sociologist at Florida International University, was dubious of the theory.

 ``I think there are plenty of people who make themselves look bad,'' he said. ``I think this notion of blaming Castro for everything here is the easy way out. When someone steps out of line, throws a battery or something, then it's Fidel.''

 Herald staff writer Jordan Levin contributed to this report.

                                    © 2001