The Mexican scientist Héctor Alejandro Cabrera Fuentes is close to regaining his freedom. The researcher was sentenced for espionage in the United States to four years in prison in June 2022 for acting as a foreign agent in the service of the Russian government. The 38-year-old biochemist has been detained in Florida since 2020 and has already served his sentence, as verified by EL PAÍS in the US prison registry, where it appears that the release date is scheduled for this Sunday. Cabrera Fuentes, however, will not be released yet because he must complete immigration procedures to be deported, which could delay his return to his country of origin for a few weeks, according to Ronald Gainor, his lawyer.
Cabrera Fuentes’ life changed completely on February 17, 2020, when he was arrested at the Miami airport. Before taking a flight to Mexico City, the young investigator confessed to FBI agents that he had been pressured by the Kremlin to become an informant, as well as to follow and photograph an FBI agent in the United States. He was to complete that mission while passing through Florida. The Russian secret services asked him to locate the target’s car, obtain his license plate number, and note the location of the vehicle.
The confession cut short a promising career in the fields of Cardiology and Neuroscience. Cabrera Fuentes was born in El Espinal, a small town in the State of Oaxaca, one of the poorest states in Mexico. In 2004 he won a scholarship and went to the Russian city of Voronezh to study at the university, without knowing a word of Russian and at a time when xenophobic attacks were frequent. In fact, he was assaulted on one occasion. After a difficult start, he moved to Kazan to finish his studies in Microbiology, the discipline he had been passionate about since he was a child. In Russia, he also did his master’s degree and received the prize for the best thesis from the then president Dmitri Medvedev. He graduated with PhD honors from the University of Giessen in Germany and worked in Asia, before his arrest he had a tenure at Duke University Medical School and the National University of Singapore.
The news caused a stir in El Espinal, where Cabrera Fuentes is remembered as a hero for his academic achievements and as a scientist committed to his people. He had a philanthropic organization to bring young people closer to science, gave scholarships out of his own pocket and financed trips abroad for groups of boys interested in his work. He often sought practical applications of his research to improve living conditions in his homeland, he created a prototype house after the earthquakes that hit Oaxaca in 2017 and regenerative treatments to benefit the health of the inhabitants. . After his arrest, friends and family members pointed out that the vast majority of academics who had supported his work ended up turning their backs on him.
The judicial file in the United States indicates that Cabrera Fuentes and his wife slipped into a housing estate to take pictures of the car that they asked him to follow, but was discovered by security guards. That was what precipitated his questioning at Miami Airport. The US agents also discovered photographs of the car that his wife had sent him via WhatsApp and that were in the deleted files folder on her phone. The couple were interviewed in separate rooms until the investigator confessed and asked his wife to continue her trip to Mexico while he stayed in Florida to solve the mess, according to his acquaintances.
The progress of the investigations revealed that Cabrera Fuentes had a second wife and two daughters in Russia. He married her while he was studying in Kazan, unknown to anyone in Mexico. That second family lived in Germany, but had returned to their native country to resolve immigration and administrative procedures, and then they were not allowed to leave Russian territory again. The scientist was contacted by an official of the Government of Vladimir Putin, who promised him to unlock the problem that his relatives had in exchange for him carrying out intelligence tasks. The researcher began collaborating with Moscow in 2018.
Cabrera Fuentes initially pleaded not guilty but pleaded guilty early last year, threatening to face false statement charges and harsher punishment if a jury finds him guilty. “We all make mistakes in life and this is the biggest of mine,” he said during the sentencing hearing in June 2022. The scientist expressed his remorse in a Miami court and received the punishment alone, asking his relatives not to go to court. “This tragic experience taught me that freedom and family are the most important thing you have,” he declared. He was transferred to the Jesup federal prison in southern Georgia, according to prison records.
The case was affected by the covid-19 pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, as well as by statements by senior US military commanders who warned that Mexico was the largest center of operations for Russian espionage abroad. In the midst of a geopolitical entanglement, his lawyers and relatives have defended that he was a man trapped by circumstances. “We have always been and will continue to feel proud,” said Héctor Cabrera, his father, in a letter addressed to the court. “I ask God that you continue to fly and pursue what you love, that you continue to contribute your knowledge to humanity,” wrote Lucila Fuentes, his mother, on his part.
“He’s a natural leader, but he trusts people too much,” said Victor Serebruany, a professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins University. “It is clear that his international exposure made him vulnerable to being taken advantage of and used by bad guys,” he added. Other court documents confirmed that the scientist behaved well behind bars and that he spent his time doing maintenance work, although details about his time in prison are scarce.
The negotiation with the Prosecutor’s Office contemplates a period of three years of supervised release, as well as a deportation by mutual agreement. Sources close to the case told EL PAÍS that the procedures to complete their return to Mexico depend on the immigration officer who handles their case and that the waiting time usually varies. His lawyer pointed out that he did not plan to give statements to the press when he is released from prison. After more than three years of comings and goings, his people want to turn the page. The espionage story that trapped an entire town in Oaxaca seems to have come to an end.
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