Published Saturday, February 19, 2000, in the Miami Herald
Faget's father was a brutal Batista official
Don Bohning. Herald Staff Writer
The arrest of immigration official Mariano Faget recalls another controversial period of the Cold War: the final years of Fulgencio Batista's regime in Cuba when the Bureau for the Repression of Communist Activities gained a reputation for brutality in its fight against pro-Castro rebels.
The bureau, known as BRAC, was headed by Faget's father, also Mariano. The elder Faget had first gained fame as a Nazi hunter during Batista's first turn at power, 1940 to 1944, when he was chief of Cuba's Office of Investigation of Enemy Activities (OIEA), a counter-espionage unit that targeted
Nazi and Fascist agents.
When Batista returned to power in 1952, Faget was promoted to colonel. He was placed in charge of the BRAC when it was created in 1954. After Fidel Castro took power in 1959, Bohemia magazine published the identities -- obtained from the bureau's files -- of CIA agents working in Havana.
British author Hugh Thomas, in his exhaustive book Cuba Or the Pursuit of Freedom, writes that U.S. Ambassador Arthur Gardner regarded himself as ``the father of the BRAC.'' Thomas also says that Allen Dulles, CIA chief at the time, told him that in its later stages ``most of the money'' meant
for BRAC ``never reached the proper destination.''
Jay Mallin, an American journalist working in Cuba at the time, Friday described the BRAC essentially as window-dressing for the Americans and ``Batista's effort to show that he was anti-Communist.''
FBI CONGRATULATIONS
The late FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover was impressed enough with Faget's work to send his congratulations for his investigation of communist activities.
But the elder Faget's most notable achievement came earlier, during his Nazi hunting days of the 1940s when he was credited with tracking down Heinz August Luning, a German spy in Havana reporting on ship movements. His reports were blamed for the sinking of several U.S. and Cuban ships by
German submarines. Luning was arrested and executed by firing squad.
The BRAC was apparently less successful and more controversial.
Marcelo Fernandez, a Cuban-born political analyst, educator and historian living in Washington, D.C., said Friday that Faget had had to flee Cuba ahead of Castro's troops on Jan. 1, 1959.
``He [Faget] was one of the first to leave Cuba,'' said Fernandez. ``He knew that he was a marked man.''
His successor at BRAC, a Lt. Castano, was captured and executed, said Fernandez, who said he saw Faget in 1961 at Opa-locka airport, then being utilized by U.S. agencies questioning arriving Cuban refugees. He said Faget was working for the INS.
`WELL CONNECTED'
Fernandez recalled Faget as more sophisticated and intelligent than many of the police and was ``very well connected with the CIA and FBI.''
Another side of the elder Faget is described by Carlos Franqui, a former Castro propagandist who defected in the 1970s.
Franqui, a member of Castro's July 26 Movement, was captured by the BRAC in 1957.
He described the elder Faget as ``a technician of torture. A scientist of the North American school: continuous blows on the head, leaving no marks, but producing tremendous pain and tension. To my inveterately poor memory was added in those days an almost total unconscious amnesia. . . . ''
According to a May 29, 1972, obituary, the elder Faget was born Sept. 9. 1904, in Holguin, Cuba. He later studied at St. John's College in New York. Returning to Cuba, he was employed in several sugar mills before starting a police career with the Interior Ministry police in 1931.
FBI: Official in INS spied for Cuba
He had access to sensitive files
By Elaine De Valle, Fabiola Santiago And Marika Lynch. edevalle@herald.com
A high-ranking Miami official with the Immigration and Naturalization Service was arrested by FBI agents Thursday for allegedly spying for the Cuban government.
Mariano Faget, 54, a 34-year veteran, is acting district deputy director for examinations. He holds a ``secret'' security clearance at INS, according to a statement by the FBI.
That access could have jeopardized supporters of Cubans seeking asylum in this country or Nicaraguan contras fighting against the Sandinista regime, said Perry Rivkind, INS' Miami director from 1983 to 1989.
Faget's arrest comes on the heels of the convictions of three of 10 Cuban spies arrested in South Florida in September 1998 on charges they were running a spy ring that targeted U.S. military installations and Cuban exile groups. Four other spies have been indicted but not arrested.
But FBI spokesman Terry Nelson told the Orlando Sentinel Faget's arrest was unrelated to that case.
Faget supervised adjudication and naturalization decisions, including granting of permanent residence status and political asylum.
``Due to his position, Faget had access to classified and sensitive INS files relating to confidential law enforcement sources and Cuban defectors,'' the statement said. ``Through sophisticated technical and physical surveillance techniques, the investigation revealed Faget making unauthorized
contacts with Cuban intelligence officers in Miami and other cities in the United States.''
Rivkind said he was curious to know when Faget allegedly began spying. When the contras and their supporters were traveling to Central America, ``that would have been very dangerous to them if someone was able to keep track of them and send that information down there,'' he said.
For asylum seekers from Cuba, Faget's access could have endangered friends and associates on the island. People seeking asylum have to name people who can verify whether they were persecuted.
``He would have had access to all those people,'' Rivkind said. ``When you apply for asylum, these are secret and sensitive files. If he were dealing with people who were supposed to remain with some anonymity and he had top clearance access, then he would know where they were.''
Faget was being held Thursday at the Federal Detention Center in downtown Miami and was scheduled to appear at 2 p.m. today in U.S. District Court for the initial appearance hearing.
Late Thursday, FBI agents were still searching his home at 10056 SW 117th Ct. The white, two-story house is in a cul-de-sac in the Amaretto subdivision and Miami-Dade Police had cordoned off the area Thursday night.
SOMETHING AMISS
Neighbor Chris Vallenilla noticed something amiss when his mother came home at 7:30 p.m. and told him there were FBI agents outside. Chris, 15, saw the news and recognized his neighbor, Faget. He said the family is quiet.
``I've seen them around. They're not the social type,'' he said.
Rivkind echoed that description.
``You never got to know him well. Cold. That's the word. He was like a blank. The six years he was with me, I never got to know him, which was unusual. But I found him to be a gentleman. Very polite but very distant.''
Though the arrest was made in conjunction with INS District Director Robert Wallis, the agency's top spokesmen in Washington, Maria Cardona and Russ Bergeron, said they did not have specifics about the case. They could not determine from their homes late Thursday how long Faget had worked for
the agency or how much he was paid. But according to a story that ran in El Nuevo Herald in 1996, he has been working for the INS for at least 34 years.
Bergeron said Faget will be placed on administrative leave.
NEWS CONFERENCE
The INS and FBI will have a news conference this morning at FBI headquarters.
In the 1996 story, Faget was named the highest-ranking Hispanic INS officer in the South Florida district. He was quoted for his efforts in shortening the line at the agency's main headquarters at Biscayne Boulevard and 79th Street, where more than 100 people would often wait to apply for
status, work permits and the reopening of their cases. He also said his job was to improve the image of the agency in South Florida.
Faget, who was born in Havana, waited in those lines with his father at the beginning of 1960, when they went to INS to claim political asylum. He became a citizen Nov. 22, 1963 -- the same day that President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas.
``I remember that many people started crying and there was even a person who got up and said they were going to change their name to John,'' he was quoted as saying in the article. "I laughed because I thought it was a joke to see how much we loved this country and its president.''
The announcement of his arrest was made by Hector M. Pesquera, special agent in charge of the Miami FBI office, Wallis and Alan Hazen, special agent in charge of Miami's Office of Inspector General. Their statement said Faget was arrested for the federal violation of the Espionage Act and making
false statements.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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