Spooks October 15, 2022
The colors are changing with the season in my neighborhood. The tricolor nationalism of September has been replaced by the floral hues of marigold and cempasúchil, the orange flowers of Dia de los Muertos. The raggedy Tiliche-scarecrows have been joined on sidewalks by mannequins of Catrina skeletons in dazzling dresses. In these waning weeks of the rainy season, the tourists are coming to shop and celebrate a holiday they discovered watching Coco. Or worse, James Bond’s Spectre, when shameless Catrinas once danced past Bellas Artes—sin respeto—as if it were Mardi Gras.
Speaking of spooks, Oaxaca evidently has one of its own, although there are still many here who, struck with disbelief, defend Dr. Hector Cabrera-Fuentes, a bio-molecular researcher with ample scientific credentials and at least two wives:
“(Hector) Cabrera-Fuentes’ journey began from humble origins in the small town of El Espinal, known for its spicy stew estofado oaxaqueño and colorful flowered clothing during holidays. He rose to become an internationally prominent doctor before becoming entangled in the espionage scandal.” [Alfonzo Galinda, Oaxaca Post]
“Truthfully, it was very, very sad,” said Juan Alpuche, a marine biologist at Universidad Autonoma Benito Juarez in Oaxaca who collaborated frequently with Cabrera Fuentes. “Dr. Fuentes is still a pillar of science in Oaxaca. . . . He is still greatly admired in the community.” [El Pais]
In 2020, Cabrera-Fuentes and his Mexican wife were arrested on holiday in Miami for spying on an FBI agent on behalf of the Russian government. The wife was said to be gobsmacked by the news her husband had a second family in Russia, conceived while a graduate student in Moscow, although reliable Mexican sources report being less surprised by the bigamy than his conceivable usefulness as an agent of state. Regardless, once the Russians had leverage on the promiscuous young doctor, they pressured him to do their bidding. For merely taking a few pictures of a federal license plate, his Russian wife’s unstated immigration problems would be fixed; and for a subsequent plea of guilty in a Florida court, he was sentenced to four years in prison. He still faces two messy divorces. This is not the stuff of James Bond. Or is it?
At the time of his arrest, Dr. Cabrera-Fuentes, an otherwise amiable cardiovascular specialist, was also working for the Mexican government in a most discrete matter of geopolitical importance. According to El Universal and El Pais, AMLO personally met with him in 2019 to discuss diplomatic fundraising for the Trans-Isthmus Rail, yet another infrastructure project of the Morena-Party President, but one that could be a game-changer in Atlantic-Pacific transportation. The leader of Mexico reportedly asked all this of a 37-year-old physician who had only recently completed his postdoctoral fellowships in molecular technique.
The Americans are afraid of what cartels might do with such a transportation hub within Mexican borders, while the Chinese are naturally interested in any plan to upset the hegemony of the Panama Canal corridor. During the years leading up to his arrest, our Oaxaqueño Hector, “the man with the plan” and maybe even another wife, was living well in Singapore, allegedly talking to China, clandestinely, apparently subsidized by both Russian and Mexican payrolls.
Now I can finally start to imagine Cabrera-Fuentes as Bond, living a double or triple life over many continents, chasing those Catrina-masked villains atop Veracruzano freight train cars and through tropical canals, acting for king and country and perhaps a silent third party. Yet none of this high-stakes intrigue fits the profile of a man so well known in Oaxaca and, indeed, the greater scientific community. None of it makes sense to anyone who knows Hector Cabrera-Fuentes, except the part about getting lovers pregnant. Meanwhile, a forthright reckoning by the major world powers involved in this ongoing scandal is nowhere in sight. That, as always, is the spooky part.