Flurry of Questions on Couple's Arrest

Associate professor Carlos Alvarez wouldn't be coming in any time soon. He and his wife are in federal lockup, accused of working for more than two decades as Cuban secret agents.

Many here who know Alvarez, 61, a longtime and well-regarded member of the faculty, said they had a hard time comprehending the charges against him and his wife, Elsa, 55, who is a part-time employee at the university.

"This man is a highly respected man. He's a good-to-the-bone man," said Joan T. Wynne, a professor in FIU's College of Education whose office is catty-corner to Alvarez's. "The students raved about him, and how much he taught them."

The Alvarezes have been charged with acting as agents of a foreign power without registering with the U.S. government, as required by law.

After they were ordered held without bond by a federal magistrate judge on Monday, Wynne took over one of Alvarez's classes on cross-cultural studies.

The students, she said, were full of questions about what had happened to their professor -- and as bewildered as she was.

"What happens when someone you know, a good person, gets put in jail for such a nebulous charge?" Wynne asked. Three years ago, she said, she arrived here from Georgia State University and quickly took a shine to Alvarez.

"I found him to be a broad-minded, open-minded scholar," she said. "Beyond that, he was a profoundly sensitive man, a very gentle soul. One of those people you instantly like."

According to an indictment unsealed Monday, the Alvarezes sent information about the Cuban American community and officials of the U.S. government and FBI to Cuba's spy agency, using shortwave radios, coded messages and computer-encrypted files. U.S. Atty. R. Alexander Acosta said the couple had acknowledged those activities.

They were being held at the Miami Federal Detention Center, awaiting a Jan. 19 arraignment. If convicted, they could face prison sentences of up to 10 years and be fined $250,000.

"From the beginning, the one shared emotion has been shock," said Mark Riordan, a university spokesman. "We're a busy, large institution, with nearly 38,000 students, and we normally don't get this kind of scrutiny."

The university's main campus, which is near Miami International Airport, is primarily a commuter school.