Cuban intelligence agent who spied on exiles and dissidents for decades is deported

Washington deported Fernando Armando Valdés Pérez, a 61-year-old Cuban and Guatemalan citizen whom U.S. authorities identified as an intelligence operative for the Havana regime tasked for decades with infiltrating Cuban exiles and dissidents.

The information was disclosed in a statement from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The agency itself confirmed on Sept. 3 that Valdés Pérez had fraudulently obtained U.S. permanent residency after concealing his ties to the Cuban regime.

According to the federal investigation, Valdés Pérez was tasked with infiltrating and gathering information on communities of Cuban exiles and dissidents in Latin America and the United States since at least the mid-1990s.

The man resided in Kendall, Fla., in Miami-Dade County, and was arrested on July 10 at Miami International Airport during an immigration enforcement operation involving ICE, the Miami FBI, and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

He gained the trust of prominent figures in the Cuban exile community

ICE also stated that Valdés Pérez managed to gain the trust of the late Luis Posada Carriles and maintained close ties with other well-known figures in the Cuban and Cuban-American community in South Florida until the time of his arrest.

Additional reporting by The Miami Herald and Martí Noticias indicated that Valdés Pérez became very close to Posada Carriles's inner circle and even organized his last birthday celebration in 2018. Some members of the exile community, however, had expressed suspicions about him for years.

Cuban activist Orlando González told Martí Noticias that he met Valdés Pérez while Posada Carriles and other Cubans were being held in Panama in 2000. González recalled that even then, he was struck by the ease with which Valdés gained access to high-ranking Panamanian officials and security contacts.

ICE: He deliberately concealed ties to Havana

U.S. authorities maintain that Valdés Pérez knowingly and deliberately concealed his true position and his ties to the Cuban regime when he applied for permanent residency, thereby deceiving immigration authorities.

"Individuals who conceal ties to foreign intelligence services and exploit our immigration system pose a serious threat to the integrity of that system and to our national security," said Matthew Elliston, director of ICE's Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) office in Miami.

Following his arrest, the Cuban national was placed in deportation proceedings and removed from the United States on Aug. 7, although the official ICE statement does not specify the country to which he was sent. Valdés Pérez also holds Guatemalan citizenship.

The case was made public this week, nearly a month after the deportation took place.

The case has also come to light at a time when U.S. authorities have intensified immigration actions against foreigners accused of having ties to repressive Latin American governments or intelligence apparatuses. Days earlier, ICE had reported the deportation of former Venezuelan military officer Rafael José Quero Silva.