At Cuban spy Antonio Guerrero's sentencing hearing in 2001, federal prosecutors pushed for the maximum life sentence, pointing to his resolute lack of remorse and his self-proclaimed loyalty to the Cuban regime.

What a difference eight years -- and a new U.S. administration -- make.

Advancing arguments sounding more political than legal, assistant U.S. attorney Caroline Heck Miller on Tuesday urged a Miami federal judge to reduce Guerrero's life sentence to just 20 years, in keeping with an agreement reached between the government and defense.

Heck Miller said the reduced sentence would show ``the fairness of the United States' judicial system'' to the rest of the world -- contrary to Cuba's very active public relations campaign to the contrary.

But U.S. District Judge Joan Lenard didn't buy it, sentencing Guerrero, 50, to nearly 22 years for espionage conspiracy and taking Heck Miller to task for singing such a different tune.

In 2001, the judge pointed out, Guerrero's ``conduct posed a serious threat to the national security of the United States'' in the eyes of the government.

By now advocating for 20 years -- below the statutory sentencing guidelines -- ``How does that not strain your credibility?'' the judge asked Heck Miller.

In late 2001, Lenard gave Miami-born Guerrero, who got a job at the Boca Chica Naval Air Station in Key West, the maximum life sentence for conspiring with four co-defendants to obtain top secret information for the government of Fidel Castro.

But an appeals court in Atlanta threw out Guerrero's sentence last year, ruling it was excessive because Guerrero didn't actually gather and send any classified materials to his handlers in Havana.

At Tuesday's hearing, Lenard defended her reasoning for the life sentence, saying that although Guerrero did not obtain state secrets from the air base, ``the evidence did indicate that he very much wanted to.''

She noted that, among other acts, he made a ``mental blueprint'' of a Boca Chica building that was to house top secret materials.

Guerrero, arrested in 1998 with other members of Cuba's ``Wasp'' spy network, will still serve another 11 years to complete his revised sentence.

The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals also ordered Lenard to redo her sentences for two other defendants convicted with Guerrero: Ramón Labañino, who also received a life sentence for the espionage conspiracy, and Fernando González, who got 19 years for acting as an agent of the Cuban government.

The resentencings of those two defendants have been postponed because of a dispute over espionage damage assessments. No date has been set.

The 11-year-old case has been mired in controversy because the Wasp spy network was linked to the Cuban government's 1996 shoot-down of two Brothers to the Rescue planes over international waters. Four pilots for the Brothers to the Rescue -- which flew missions searching for rafters in the Florida Straits -- were killed in the shoot-down.

The appellate court upheld the sole murder-conspiracy conviction and life sentence of spymaster Gerardo Hernández, who was most directly implicated in the shoot-down.

All five men have been turned into national heroes in Cuba, which has waged a prominent international campaign portraying them as victims of a biased judicial system who were prosecuted for trying to protect Cuba from Miami-based exile extremists.

Relatives of three of the Brothers' victims came to Tuesday's hearing believing that Guerrero would be sentenced to 20 years. They left pleased that Lenard imposed a tougher term. The judge followed the sentencing guidelines, which ranged from 22 to 27 years.

``It makes me proud of the U.S. justice system,'' said Maggie Khuly, a Miami architect whose brother, Armando Alejandre Jr., was killed in the shoot-down. ``She's looking out for us in a specific way that's different from the prosecution, but it's valid.''

``It shows that the judge took her own stand,'' said Mirta Mendez, the sister of another victim, Carlos Costa. His parents also attended the sentencing.

Miriam de la Peña, the mother of another victim, Mario M. de la Peña, criticized Guerrero for not apologizing for his crime. ``I'm sorry he shows no remorse for trying to endanger our national security,'' she said.

Guerrero's lawyer, Leonard Weinglass, implored the judge to impose the 20-year sentence, addressing not only Guerrero's character development but also to the strained politics of the case.

``The court is sentencing an individual -- not a country,'' Weinglass said, without mentioning Cuba by name.

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