WHEN longtime Cuban spy Gerardo Hernandez went free last week from a U.S. prison and flew to Havana for the first time in 16 years, he was unfazed to find his wife eight months’ pregnant.

    The mystery of that pregnancy emerged Monday, and it will go down in history books as one of the most bizarre subplots in the annals of U.S. diplomacy.

    It emerged that Hernandez already knew that his 44-year-old wife, Adriana Perez, was pregnant, and that he is the father, even though he was never physically close to her during his incarceration.

    The pregnancy came through artificial insemination, and it was a side deal that paved the way for the much larger and sweeping agreement Dec. 17, in which Cuba and the United States announced the renewal of diplomatic relations, broken more than half a century ago.

    Call it diplomacy via paternity. It came about through the office of U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat, who has campaigned for years to restore relations with Cuba.

    In 2010, Leahy began efforts to persuade Cuba to ease up on the harsh conditions imposed on a jailed American in Havana, Alan Gross, a subcontractor for the U.S. Agency for International Development.

    In seeking better conditions for Gross, Leahy’s office discovered that Hernandez’s wife back in Havana, who reportedly also is an intelligence officer, was hearing the ticking of her biological clock ever louder and was desperate to become pregnant.

    U.S. officials now say they facilitated the transfer of Hernandez’s sperm from the United States to the Cuban capital to help improve conditions for Gross, who regained his freedom Dec. 17 as well and is back in the United States. “We can confirm the United States facilitated Mrs. Hernandez’s request to have a baby with her husband,” said Patrick Rodenbush, a spokesman for the U.S. Justice Department.

    A U.S. government official, who was not authorized to speak for the record, confirmed that Perez was artificially inseminated.

    Hernandez, who was the top Cuban spy in a ring known as the Wasp Network, was shown on Cuban state television several times, starting with his arrival in Havana, caressing his wife’s very pregnant belly.

    Leahy recounted how the meeting unfolded. “In February last year, during one of our trips to Cuba, my wife, Marcelle, and I agreed to meet with Adriana (Perez de) Hernandez. She made a personal appeal to Marcelle. She was afraid that she would never have the chance to have a child,” said Leahy.

    NBC said Hernandez’s sperm was collected in the United States and flown to Havana, which the Cubans paid for. A first attempt at pregnancy failed, but a second try earlier this year succeeded.

    (SD-Agencies)