U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said it has deported a Kendall man holding dual citizenship from Cuba and Guatemala following an investigation that revealed he fraudulently obtained lawful permanent resident status while concealing ties for decades as a spy for the Cuban government.
Fernando Armando Valdes Perez, 61, of Kendall, was arrested July 10 at Miami International Airport. He was returned to Cuba on Aug. 7, ICE officials reported Thursday.
Federal investigators said they determined that Valdes was a "Cuban intelligence asset" tasked with infiltrating and reporting on Cuban exile and dissident communities in Latin America and the United States as early as the mid-1990s.
In South Florida, Valdes gained the trust and confidence of the late anti-Castro dissident Luis Posada Carriles and remained in close proximity to other well-known Cuban and Cuban American figures.
Posada Carriles — a former CIA operative and militant Cuban exile — was accused of organizing a string of 1997 Havana hotel bombings and a 1976 Cuban airline bombing that killed 73 people. He died of throat cancer in 2018.
According to federal authorities, Valdes knowingly and willfully concealed his true position and affiliation with the Cuban regime when he applied for and obtained lawful permanent resident status, deliberately deceiving U.S. 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 Enforcement and Removal Operations Miami Field Office Director Matthew Elliston.
