On February 15, Héctor Alejandro Cabrera will finally admit the charges against him; Despite this, in El Espinal, Oaxaca, they still believe that everything is a medical conspiracy.
The Oaxacan scientist who was accused of operating as a spy agent for the Russian government finally reached an agreement with the United States authorities. After spending two years in jail, Héctor Alejandro Cabrera will plead guilty before a court in Miami, Florida.
The story of the Mexican grabbed the spotlight after in March 2020 he pleaded “not guilty” to the charge of “acting as a foreign agent of another government.” Just a few weeks earlier he had been arrested on US soil after taking his daughter to Disneyland.
He had access to documents from the Department of State and the Florida Attorney General’s Office, which reveal that on February 15 he will make the change of guilty plea – that is, he will accept responsibility for the alleged facts.
“Hector Alejandro Cabrera Fuentes Plea Hearing Change Notice: Plea change is set for 2/15/2022 at 4:00 PM at the Miami Division in the James Lawrence King Building , 99 NE 4th Street, courtroom 11-1 on the 11th floor in front of Judge Donald M. Middlebrooks”, reads the document where visitors to the court are invited to review the rules to follow due to covid-19.
Dr. Héctor Alejandro Cabrera was arrested on February 16, 2020 at a location near the Miami airport. According to court documents, US government agents found photos of an FBI agent’s car license plates on their phones.
Since then, the United States put together an accusation against the Mexican scientist, whom they accused of being a “foreign agent” who was carrying out espionage work for Russian President Vladimir Putin in North American territory.
“The Grand Jury charges that from or about March 2019 through February 17, 2020, in Miami-Dade County, the Southern District of Florida, and elsewhere , the defendant, Héctor Alejandro Cabrera Fuentes, knowingly acted within the United States as an agent of a foreign government, specifically that of the Russian Federation, without prior notification to the Attorney General, as required by law, ”states the indictment dated on February 28, 2020.
The medical conspiracy
The document is there: it is number 42 of the complete file of the scientist from El Espinal, Oaxaca. And despite seeing on their phones the photograph that was sent to them with the file, neither his scientist friend José Manuel Castillejos nor his colleague, Dr. Hazael Toledo – until a few weeks ago mayor of the municipality – believe it to be true.
“He will plead guilty,” he tells her.
“Well, look, if he pleaded guilty… well, I don’t think so. What happens is that we have information that he beat many and my theory is always that he is a scientific prisoner. They don’t want many things to be known that he knows”, says Hazael Toledo to Media.
Former mayor Toledo believes that he was imprisoned because he definitely had new discoveries in genomic medicine, a branch of science that is capable of detecting future diseases. And it is that in his last conversation, Cabrera told him that he had good news about a project that involves this field of medicine. Later, he would find out that he was arrested by ending that call.
“Look, look, if you imagine that with genomic medicine you can cure diabetes and hit the industry in the tower, right? Then what are you going to do with diabetologists, because with a genetic treatment you can cure it or prevent it, So all the medical teams, the clinics, are a huge industry. You hit the pharmaceutical industry, ”explains Hazael Toledo, who now attends his medical office in El Espinal.
Toledo looks firm, raises his voice, releases a “no” that becomes sharp. Then he repeats three times that “it is not true”. He remembers that they were close friends, so he hopes that he would have told her something about his alleged guilt in the espionage charges. He never did. He insists that the last thing he told her was that his findings in genomic medicine were something world-wide that he couldn’t share over the phone.
“Several told him ‘don’t get involved there’, because you investigate what he has been through with genomic medicine researchers. They disappear and they are accused and they are not allowed to continue”, says Toledo.
Hazael Toledo does not lie: when doing an internet search, there are headlines like “Chinese scientist who created genetically modified babies sentenced to three years in prison”.
“They have him working on the vaccine”
Another of his scientific friends from El Espinal, José Manuel Castillejos, says that he is one of the few people authorized by Alejandro Cabrera to have communication through an email from the prison. They talk constantly over there.
“He needs me to tell him how we are around here and he always asks us to take great care of the covid. I tell him ‘compadre, give it a try, lots of encouragement’, and that soon we will be eating stew, which is his favorite food of his.”
He says that Cabrera feels good, he feels well accompanied. He also comments that his compadre had already told him about the change of guilt, although he does not understand technicalities. It’s been 15 days since he spoke with him and they still didn’t have a date for the hearing. Today there is: it will be in 15 days.
But José Manuel shares Hazael’s theories, although he has one of his own: persecution, covid and the vaccine.
“I also feel that there is a persecution, here talking with colleagues, out there (Héctor Cabrera) brought out something before this came out of Covid, he already knew that there was going to be a Covid boom and he published something on his Facebook, and I I think it’s something out there, that maybe it’s something related,” he says.
And he launches: “I have thought that they do not really have him in prison, but rather that they have him working on the covid vaccine, you see that the United States spends it only on that.”
Until now, the United States version is maintained that the Mexican scientist had another wife and two daughters in Singapore, where Cabrera traveled constantly for work.
In 2019 his wife and his two daughters traveled from Germany to Russia. When they tried to return to Germany Russian customs officials did not allow them to return. Justice Department documents say they believe he went to pressure the Mexican scientist, since from that day on he was contacted by a Russian agent, who told him that he could help his family.
Then came the espionage: Cabrera would have taken pictures of a vehicle owned by an agent of the United States government in a residential area of Miami. He got nervous, the FBI agent noticed and notified the authorities.
Since last October, the Florida judge had given him an ultimatum. He warned her that if she did not plead guilty to him before January 2022, her “qualification for plea bargaining” would be compromised, that is, she would not be able to lower the level of crime and, therefore, the years. in prison