BY GAIL EPSTEIN NIEVES
gepstein@herald.com

A former Cuban intelligence agent on Monday identified two more defendants in the Cuban spy trial as his ``handlers'' and said both of them directed him to get a job at the Southern Command's Miami headquarters so he could snoop for the Cuban government.

The testimony of acknowledged ex-agent Joseph Santos, 40, was the first to link accused spies Ramón Lavaniño and Fernando González with in-the-trenches intelligence activity. On Friday, Santos similarly implicated co-defendant Gerardo Hernández.

The trial's opening weeks focused on documentary and physical evidence against the five accused spies. With Santos, jurors are hearing firsthand accounts about the inner workings of Cuba's intelligence apparatus, from spy recruitment to training to work assignments.

In the case of Santos and his wife, Amarylis -- also a Cuban agent -- their achievements were far less illustrious than their assignments, according to testimony.

Santos said he successfully completed a research project on the Southern Command while its new headquarters were being built in Miami's Doral section in early 1997.

He and his wife took photographs of all the surrounding buildings, between Northwest 87th and 99th avenues and 25th and 40th streets, ``to provide a pretty clear idea to anyone'' what the area looked like.

Santos said he gave the report to his handler Lavaniño, an ``illegal agent'' or ranking Cuban intelligence operative who also went by the name Luis Medina.

But more importantly, Lavaniño told the Santos couple that their ``supreme task'' was to get jobs at the Pentagon's SouthCom headquarters, which directs U.S. military operations in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Accused spy González -- who also went by the name Rubén Campa -- gave them the same task, Santos testified. ``Penetrating'' SouthCom was a high priority set by Cuba's intelligence chiefs, according to Havana-to-Miami directives seized by the FBI and read to jurors Monday.

MISSION FAILED

The Santos failed at that assignment. They were too busy trying to make a legitimate living and never found a place to apply for a job, Santos said.

But on cross-examination, the defense attorney for accused spy Hernández scoffed at the notion that Santos could have obtained anything important -- let alone national defense secrets, a key factor for proving espionage -- even if he had managed to get hired at SouthCom.

Santos does not speak English. Before his arrest, he was working as a laborer at Goya Foods and the Miami Arena.

Attorney Paul McKenna read jurors a report in which Hernández directed Santos to obtain ``public information'' about SouthCom. ``In fact, none of your handlers ever tasked you with getting national security information, did they?'' McKenna asked Santos.

Santos responded that it was implicit that he was supposed to get information that could not be obtained ``by conventional means.''

SERVING SENTENCES

Santos and his wife are already serving prison sentences after pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy to act as a foreign agent.

Their terms are likely to be cut short for their help testifying against Hernández, who prosecutors say conspired with the Cuban military to murder four Brothers to the Rescue fliers in 1996.

McKenna cross-examined Santos about the plea agreement for a long time in an apparent bid to undermine his credibility. Under sentencing guidelines, Santos faced 60 months but prosecutors recommended he serve 48. U.S. District Judge Joan Lenard agreed.

``So these people here,'' McKenna said, naming prosecutors Caroline Heck Miller, John Kastrenakes, David Buckner and FBI Agent Al Alonso -- ``are all your friends that are helping you, correct?''

``They're not my friends,'' Santos responded through an interpreter. ``I met those people during the investigation of the case.''