BY GAIL EPSTEIN NIEVES
gepstein@herald.com

Avoiding eye contact with his former associates, an acknowledged former Cuban intelligence agent gave jurors a quick training course in spying Friday.

He was the first witness to testify about personal in-the-field involvement with any of the five accused spies on trial.

Joseph Santos, 40, looked toward the defendants only once when he identified accused spy Gerardo Hernandez. Santos said Hernandez was a Miami-based Cuban ``illegal officer,'' or ranking intelligence agent, who in 1995 assigned Santos and his wife, Amarylis, their primary mission: to infiltrate the Southern Command.

Prosecutors contend that Havana was intent on penetrating the Pentagon's Southern Command headquarters, which directs U.S. military operations in Latin America and the Caribbean. Southcom announced its move to Miami from Panama in March 1995.

Santos and his wife are already serving prison terms 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 Hernandez, who prosecutors say conspired with the Cuban military to murder four Brothers to the Rescue fliers in 1996.

Santos was born in New Jersey to Cuban parents who later returned to Cuba. He became a university professor in electrical engineering and was recruited by the Directorate of Intelligence in April 1984, he said. His wife joined later.

In 1986, he began ``basic training to work as an intelligence agent'' in Santa Clara. As his agent name, he chose Mario. His wife chose the name Julia. She was sentenced to 42 months in prison.

Testifying through an interpreter, Santos said he was trained in all aspects of intelligence gathering, from how to penetrate an organization to how to photograph documents and handle them without leaving fingerprints.

He also learned techniques for countersurveillance, recruitment, creating microdots, interpreting Morse code shortwave radio broadcasts, running computer encryption programs and how to pass findings to his fellow agents.

The most sought-after morsels? ``Any information that might be classified, restricted or secret,'' he said.

A frequent recruitment technique, especially overseas? Not telling the whole truth: ``Quite often the fact that they're working for Cuba is omitted,'' he said.

Santos said agents were given a ``communications plan'' that designated permanent meeting places for different scenarios they might encounter. If he somehow lost contact with his handler, for instance, he was to go to the Driftwood Motel at 17121 Collins Ave. in Miami Beach and an intelligence officer would meet him.

Santos' testimony was no surprise to the defense. His entire training history was outlined on computer disks that the FBI seized during their investigation of the spy ring. The contents fill three huge volumes that have been provided to jurors.

In November 1995, Santos said, he was introduced to Hernandez during a meeting at the Pollo Tropical at Northwest 57th Avenue and Seventh Street.

Hernandez -- who used a different name -- directed the Santoses to conduct research comparing FedEx, United Parcel Service and U.S. Postal Service because Cuba's intelligence headquarters was looking for new ways to transport its agents' encrypted computer diskettes.

But Hernandez told the couple that their main mission was to penetrate the Southern Command by getting jobs there. They failed at that assignment, though at their sentencing hearing, prosecutors said the couple filed at least one ``detailed'' report on the Southcom headquarters complex in western Miami-Dade County.

Prosecutors have said the Santoses were among the least culpable of 14 people indicted in 1998 after a major counterintelligence investigation into the so-called Cuban Wasp Network, La Red Avispa.