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Bernard Leon Barker | Watergate burglar, 92

Bernard Leon Barker, 92, one of the five Watergate burglars whose break-in led to America's biggest political scandal, died Friday in suburban Miami.

Bernard Leon Barker, 92, one of the five Watergate burglars whose break-in led to America's biggest political scandal, died Friday in suburban Miami.

The Cuban-born former CIA operative, who also participated in the Bay of Pigs invasion, appeared to have died from complications of lung cancer. He also had from heart problems.

Mr. Barker was one of five men who broke into the Watergate building in Washington on June 17, 1972. A piece of tape used by the burglars to cover the latch to a stairwell door was noticed by a security guard, setting in motion events that would topple Richard M. Nixon's presidency.

Mr. Barker and three of the others were recruited in Miami by CIA agent E. Howard Hunt, with whom they had worked a decade earlier in the Bay of Pigs invasion. The fifth burglar was a security consultant for Nixon's campaign. They were trying to plant a wiretap to gather information on Nixon's Democratic opponent in the presidential election, George McGovern.

Mr. Barker said he had no regrets about the break-in. He served a little more than a year in prison for his role and later worked for the City of Miami.

The Watergate affair made Mr. Barker well-known in Miami's anti-Castro Cuban community, where he remained steadfast in his own dislike of the dictator over the years, said his daughter, Marielena Harding.

- AP