BY GAIL EPSTEIN NIEVES

 Cuban spymaster Gerardo Hernández, a convicted murderer in the United States but a patriot in his homeland, was sentenced to life in prison Wednesday after delivering a 40-minute diatribe condemning federal prosecutors, jurors, José Basulto, U.S. foreign policy and -- most of all -- the Cuban exile community.

 U.S. District Judge Joan Lenard found that despite provocations by Brothers to the Rescue, and despite the now-learned lessons of Sept. 11's terror attacks, Cuba's murder of four men by blowing their planes out of the sky was not a proportionate response to any perceived threat.

 Hernandez, the most culpable of the five spies, participated in the shoot-down planning and supervised other spies in their efforts to infiltrate U.S. military centers and to smear Cuban exile groups.

 ``I regret I have only one life to lose for my country,'' Hernandez ended his speech, quoting American patriot Nathan Hale.

 Relatives of the four dead men couldn't have agreed more. In emotional pleas, they asked the judge to impose the maximum of two life sentences.

 Hernandez ``spoke more eloquently more than anyone could as to why he deserves a life sentence,'' said Caroline Heck Miller, the lead prosecutor.

 McKenna said the life sentence was not unexpected.

 ``With big-league cases you get big-league sentences,'' he said, promising an appeal based on what he called insufficient evidence.

 Hernandez, a captain in the Cuban military who supervised other South Florida-based spies, faced two life sentences. He was convicted of conspiring to obtain national defense secrets from U.S. military bases and for participating in planning of the Brothers shoot-down by Cuban fighter jets.

 Lenard sentenced him to both life sentences and ruled they would run concurrently.

 Hernández, a career Cuban intelligence agent, exercised a quiet authority over the four other spies with whom he stood accused. The other men conferred with him
 regularly. They also were entertained by a series of sharp-tongued cartoons that Hernández -- a talented caricaturist -- drew to lampoon the prosecutors, witnesses and the evidence.

 The Cuban press spent the past several days preparing the nation for the worst.

 ``Judging by what happened [Tuesday] at the sentencing hearing against Gerardo Hernández, one cannot expect the least sign of benevolence from American justice,'' the Communist Party daily Granma said Wednesday in an article titled ``Mercilessness won't break the morale of Gerardo and his companions.''

 Evidence showed that Hernández came to Miami with orders to infiltrate the U.S. Southern Command and to discredit Cuban exile groups by manipulating the media and political institutions through smear campaigns and threats of violence.

 On the murder conspiracy charge, evidence showed that Hernandez received advance warning from Cuba that a ``provocation'' with Brothers to the Rescue was
 pre-planned during the time the shoot-down occurred. He relayed warnings to other Cuban spies not to fly with Brothers on those days.

 Fliers Carlos Costa, Armando Alejandre, Mario de la Peña and Pablo Morales perished in the shoot-down.

                                    © 2001