Fernando Armando Valdés Pérez, the Cuban-Guatemalan recently deported by the United States after being identified by authorities as an asset of Cuban intelligence, made electoral donations for years to Republican congress members María Elvira Salazar and Mario Díaz-Balart, two of the most critical Cuban-American politicians against the Havana regime.
The contributions appear in records from the Federal Election Commission (FEC) cited in an investigation by journalist Nora Gámez Torres for the Miami Herald, which reveals new details about the activities and connections Valdés maintained during his years in South Florida.
According to those records, Valdés contributed $2,900 to María Elvira Salazar's re-election campaign in 2022 and another $1,000 in 2024, the latter through a company registered in his name, Sr. Valdes Cigars.
He also made contributions to the campaigns of Mario Díaz-Balart: $1,000 in 2018 and another $2,000 in 2024.
In total, the amounts mentioned by the Miami Herald add up to 6,900 dollars.
The contributions are now particularly significant after the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) publicly identified Valdés as an asset of Cuban intelligence who had the mission to infiltrate exile organizations since at least the 1990s.
Both Salazar and Díaz-Balart represent districts in South Florida and have maintained a strong opposition to the Cuban regime.
The report does not provide any evidence suggesting that Salazar or Díaz-Balart were aware of Valdés' alleged connections to Havana's intelligence, nor does it establish that the political donations were part of a spying operation.
A long infiltration into anti-Castro environments
Political contributions are another example of the level of integration that Valdés managed to achieve within circles that were openly opposed to the Cuban regime.
U.S. authorities claim that the 61-year-old man, who had lived in Kendall for years, was an operative of Havana's intelligence tasked with infiltrating among Cuban exiles.
One of his greatest successes may have been getting close to Luis Posada Carriles, one of the most well-known and controversial figures of the anti-Castro exile community.
Posada, a veteran of the Bay of Pigs and a former collaborator with the CIA, was for decades one of the main enemies of Fidel Castro's regime. Cuba and Venezuela connected him to the 1976 attack on a Cubana de Aviación plane that left 73 dead, although Posada was never convicted of terrorism in the United States.
Valdés succeeded in becoming one of his most trusted men. According to testimonies collected by Gámez Torres, he even accompanied him to medical appointments, took care of his medications, and housed him for over a year in Guatemala.
Orlando González, close friend of Posada and director of Rescate Jurídico, assured Miami Herald that Valdés had managed to infiltrate to a level that allowed him to move among exile organizations and engage with congressmen and senators.
Deported to Guatemala
Valdés was arrested on July 10 at Miami International Airport during a joint operation by ICE, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
U.S. authorities determined that he had fraudulently obtained permanent residency by concealing his ties to Cuban intelligence.
He was finally deported to Guatemala on August 7th.
ICE has not publicly detailed what information Valdés may have obtained during his years in the United States, whom he may have reported to, nor what his specific activities for the intelligence services of Havana were.
No criminal charges have been announced against him for espionage or for acting as an agent of a foreign government.
The case now sheds new light on how easily Valdés managed to navigate the Cuban exile community in Miami for years and engage with figures who stood on the polar opposite of the political spectrum from the regime for which, according to U.S. authorities, he worked.
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