Workers stand outside the Miami Herald building after they were told to evacuate when an armed man entered the newspaper's building. Police later arrested Jose Varela, 50, who carried a knife and a black plastic toy gun that resembled a real semiautomatic weapon, police said. He was charged with three counts of aggravated assault with a firearm.

Miami ? Decrying what he described to police as ethics issues at Miami’s daily newspapers, a cartoonist armed with a toy gun Friday barricaded himself inside the newsroom of El Nuevo Herald, sparking a tense 3 1/2 hour standoff before surrendering peacefully.

Wearing a black polo shirt with “FBI” printed on the back, Jose Varela walked into The Miami Herald’s building Friday morning, gave a Cohiba cigar to the lobby security guard and took the elevator to the sixth-floor newsroom.

There, Varela brandished a hunting knife and what appeared to be a submachine gun.

When he could not find executive editor Humberto Castello, Varela – a freelancer – declared himself editor.

“He said, ‘I know I’m going to die today. All I have is 30 rounds in the clip. I would suggest you bring in Humberto Castello,”‘ recalled Gus Perez, the building’s director of facilities and operations.

Hours later, after speaking with a Miami police negotiator, Varela was brought down in handcuffs. No one was injured.

Detectives later charged Varela, 50, with three counts of aggravated assault. He confessed, police said.

Police did not reveal exactly what Varela told detectives. The department did say Varela was disgruntled with El Nuevo Herald and The Miami Herald about “ethics” and other issues – but did not cite specifics.

“It was Varela’s moral view that a light should be shined on some of those issues,” said Miami Detective Delrish Moss, a spokesman.

El Nuevo Herald is a Spanish-language newspaper published by The Miami Herald Media Co. Its newsroom is on the sixth floor of the main Herald building in downtown Miami.

In sometimes disjointed conversations with El Nuevo Herald reporter Rui Ferreira on Friday, Varela said he wanted to reveal conflicts of interest at the newspapers and demanded the resignations of Castello and Miami Herald Executive Editor Tom Fiedler.