Cuban's wife said she kept quiet for months, but now she's famous

                   By TRACEY EATON / The Dallas Morning News

                   HAVANA – At first, Elisabet Palmeiro thought her husband was cheating on her. He
                   couldn't explain his long absences from home. And she began to question whether
                   he still loved her.

                   Then she found out the truth: Ramón Labañino was a spy for Fidel Castro. He and
                   other members of the Wasp Network were sent to South Florida to try to
                   penetrate anti-Castro exile groups.

                   The FBI broke up the spy ring in 1998, sending Mr. Labañino, 39, and four others
                   to prison.

                   Ms. Palmeiro, 38, was left alone to give birth to their youngest daughter, Lizbeth,
                   and care for their other two children. For months she couldn't tell even her closest
                   friends that the man arrested in Florida wasn't Luís Medina, the alias he used, but
                   her husband, Ramón.

                   "It was very sad and very hard," she said.

                   Now all of Cuba knows the true identity of Ramón Labañino, who is serving a life
                   sentence at a federal prison in Beaumont, Texas. His image – and that of four
                   other convicted Cuban spies – appears on posters and billboards all over the
                   island.

                   State-run media sends out a daily barrage of information about the so-called
                   Cuban Five, and the agents and their relatives have become household names.

                   "They ask me, 'Are you the wife of the Cuban Five?' and I tell them, 'No, I'm the
                   wife of just one of them, Ramón,' " Ms. Palmeiro joked.

                   She said her husband is in good spirits and considers himself a political prisoner,
                   not a criminal.

                   U.S. prison officials allow Ms. Palmeiro to visit twice a year.

                   Getting a visa to enter the United States can be difficult, Ms. Palmeiro and other
                   spies' relatives say. Adriana Pérez O'Connor, the wife of Gerardo Hernández, and
                   Olga Salanueva, wife of René Gonzalez, have not seen their husbands in five
                   years. The United States recently denied their visa applications for the third time.

                   Still, several of the agents' family members said they have faith in the American
                   justice system. Said Ms. Palmeiro: "Justice will prevail. The truth will be known."