Fernando Armando Valdés Pérez, the Cuban-Guatemalan recently deported by the United States after being identified by authorities as a Cuban intelligence operative, 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 regime in Havana.
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 relationships that 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 an additional $1,000 in 2024, the latter through a company registered in his name, Sr. Valdes Cigars.
He also contributed 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.
The contributions gain particular relevance after the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) publicly identified Valdés as a Cuban intelligence asset who had the mission of infiltrating 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's alleged connections to Havana's intelligence, nor does it establish that the political donations were part of a spy operation.
A long infiltration into anti-Castro environments
Political contributions represent another example of the level of integration that Valdés managed to achieve in circles openly opposed to the Cuban regime.
U.S. authorities claim that the 61-year-old man, who had lived for years in Kendall, was an intelligence operative for Havana 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 Carriles, a veteran of the Bay of Pigs and former collaborator with the CIA, was for decades one of the main enemies of Fidel Castro's regime. Cuba and Venezuela linked him to the 1976 bombing of a Cubana de Aviación plane that resulted in 73 deaths, although Posada Carriles was never convicted of terrorism in the United States.
Valdés became one of his most trusted men. According to testimonies gathered by Gámez Torres, he even accompanied him to medical appointments, managed his medications, and hosted him for over a year in Guatemala.
Orlando González, a close friend of Posada Carriles and director of Rescate Jurídico, told the Miami Herald that Valdés had managed to infiltrate at a level that allowed him to move among exile organizations and connect with congressmen and senators.
Deported to Guatemala
Valdés was arrested on July 10 at Miami International Airport during a joint operation involving ICE, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency.
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 were for the intelligence services in Havana.
No criminal charges have been announced against him for espionage or for acting as an agent of a foreign government.
The case has shed new light on the ease with which Valdés managed to navigate through the Cuban exile community in Miami for years and to connect with figures who were politically on the opposite side of the regime he was allegedly working for, according to U.S. authorities.
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