Prosecutor's high-profile job targets crime, punishment

             By GERARDO REYES and FABIOLA SANTIAGO
             Herald Staff Writers

             The life of the assistant U.S. attorney prosecuting a group of Cuban exiles for
             allegedly trying to kill Fidel Castro has the makings of a script for high-drama
             television.

             Miguel Pereira, a deputy chief attorney for the U.S. Attorney's Office in San Juan,
             was a Washington-based Justice Department trial prosecutor who worked on
             terrorism and violent crime task forces. His wife, Marlin Hunter, is an FBI top gun.
             She takes over next week as second-in-command of the island's FBI office.

             ``Yeah, I catch them and he prosecutes them,'' Hunter joked Tuesday after learning
             her husband won an unprecedented indictment in the high-profile case involving
             seven Cuban Americans, including a director of the influential Cuban American
             National Foundation.

             A plump, bearded 52-year-old lawyer who takes strong stands but always seems to
             be in a good mood, Pereira is known among lawyers at the federal courthouse in San
             Juan as a straight-shooter who doesn't like to play dirty.

             ``He is a fair player,'' said Francisco Dolz, a San Juan criminal lawyer. ``He never
             does anything improper and doesn't allow anyone to boss him around. He's a real
             tough cookie.''

             ``He has the self-assurance of a pilot,'' said another lawyer friend.

             Pereira did not want to comment Tuesday beyond providing a few biographical
             details.

             The bulk of his career has been spent shuttling between Puerto Rico and
             Washington, where he moved after his wife was transferred to the FBI's
             recruitment office in Quantico, Va.

             Pereira has worked for the Justice Department for 10 years. In that time, he has
             served as a trial prosecutor and, most recently, was assigned to Attorney General
             Janet Reno's death penalty committee and anti-terrorism task forces.

             Recently he was summoned to Puerto Rico to prosecute several cases because of
             personnel shortages at the U.S. attorney's office there.

             After his return to the island a few weeks ago, Pereira was appointed deputy of the
             criminal division in charge of narcotics. Rumors abound that he may be appointed
             U.S. attorney, replacing Guillermo Gil.

             Gil, known for his strong and sometimes dictatorial temperament, has never been
             confirmed in his post as titular federal prosecutor. Several prosecutors have resigned
             from his office.

             Pereira had been working on the Cubans' case from Washington as part of his
             caseload within the Department of Justice's division of anti-terrorism and violent
             crimes. The case was handled at that level, Gil said, ``because was in the national
             interest.''

             Moving between the nation's capital and the island-commonwealth is nothing new
             for Pereira.

             He grew up in Puerto Rico and left for the United States in the mid-1960s after
             graduating from the University of Puerto Rico. He joined the Air Force and served
             in Vietnam as a medical evacuation helicopter pilot.

             In 1972, his helicopter was shot down while rescuing wounded soldiers in the jungle.
             Pereira was badly injured.

             Pereira, Dolz said, ``was rebuilt. [Doctors] had to put him together again.''
             Whenever Pereira talks about the experience he says he feels that day he was
             ``born again,'' Dolz said.

             Said Pereira's wife: ``It changes one's perspective forever, once you've had bullets
             sprayed at you and survived.''

             Pereira has two adult children from a previous marriage. Citing security reasons, the
             couple did not want to reveal further details about their life and work.

             ``Both of us are always concerned about each other,'' Hunter said.