MEXICO CITY - A Mexican microbiologist accused of spying for Russia in Miami is considered a benefactor in his native Oaxaca state, the mayor of his hometown said Wednesday, and he holds positions with at least two prominent universities.
Mayor Hazael Matus said scientist Hector Alejandro Cabrera has helped set up science projects in his hometown of El Espinal and had been considered a contender for a Nobel Prize in medicine; Cabrera was known for his work on cardiac treatments and was hoping to produce an ointment to help heal wounds in diabetics in his home state.
``It is very strange for this to happen because he is a very altruistic person with a lot of social conscience. He helped people and all this seems strange,`` Matus said. ``We don't know what happened, but I bet it is a confusion or an attack for scientific reasons. He may have discovered something that upset some people or some business interests.''
U.S. authorities said Tuesday that Cabrera had been hired by a Russian government official to locate the vehicle of a U.S. government source in the Miami area and inform the Russian of its location. The U.S. government source, who might be better described as an informant, was not identified.
It was also unclear why a Mexican scientist based in Singapore might have been chosen for such a mission.
Two wives
But U.S. authorities revealed in an indictment that Cabrera had a Mexican wife and simultaneously also had another Russian wife.
The Russian wife had traveled back to her home country in March to arrange some documents, but was then prevented by Russian authorities from leaving the country, in what may have been part of an effort by the Russians to pressure Cabrera into working for them.
Cabrera was arrested and charged with acting within the United States on behalf of a foreign government — in this case, Russia — without notifying the U.S. attorney general, and conspiracy to do the same, according to the Justice Department. A pretrial detention hearing was set for Friday in U.S. Magistrate Court in Miami and arraignment for March 3 in the same court.
Cabrera is listed as an associate professor at the medical school jointly run by Duke University and the National University of Singapore.
He also was appointed director in 2018 of the FEMSA Biotechnology Center at the Monterrey Institute of Technology in northern Mexico, which said he earned doctorates in molecular microbiology in Russia and molecular cardiology in Germany.
Matus, the mayor, described Cabrera as a hometown boy who made good, going abroad to study for his graduate degrees.
But he said Cabrera never forgot his hometown of 9,500 and helped organize the scientific community to assist in rebuilding houses in El Espinal after a magnitude 8.1 quake hit on September 7, 2017, and a 6.1 temblor struck two weeks later. The town has a large Zapotec indigenous community.
Development meetings set
Cabrera had been scheduled to attend meetings in Mexico on Monday about a series of research centers that he was helping to establish in El Espinal as part of the government's huge Trans-Isthmus development project, which is meant to upgrade rail links between the Pacific and Gulf of Mexico through Mexico's narrow Isthmus of Tehuantepec. The $430 million project is one of the infrastructure priorities of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.
Cabrera was a leading promoter of El Espinal's role in the project, helping recruit Mexican universities and government agencies to set up research centers on medicine, seismology, logistics and other topics there.
According to the Justice Department, a Russian government official recruited Cabrera in 2019. The Russian official later directed him to rent a specific property in Miami-Dade County, Florida, but not in his own name, the Justice Department said.
Cabrera traveled twice to Moscow to meet with the official, the Justice Department said, and during the second meeting he received a physical description of the U.S. government source's vehicle. The Russian official told Cabrera to locate the car, obtain the source's vehicle license plate number, and note the physical location of the source's vehicle with the goal of providing that information in April or May.
The Justice Department said Cabrera, having traveled from Mexico City to Miami on February 13, attracted the attention of a security guard where the U.S. government source resided because his rental car entered the premises while tailgating another vehicle.
According to the indictment, Cabrera asked his Mexican wife, who accompanied him, to take a photo of the source's vehicle and license plate — a step taken for convenience even though the Russian official had told him not to take a photo — just to write the number down.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection stopped Cabrera and his wife when they appeared at Miami's airport Sunday night to return to Mexico City. Cabrera admitted to law enforcement officers that he was directed by a Russian government official to conduct the operation, the Justice Department said.