Smitten with Cuba?

Better call the love

detective before you commit.

Cuban locals dance with tourists at Mi Conuco Cafeteria on the Malecn in Havana. Its
easy to fall in love under such circumstances. A firm will check out the object of your
affection there for a fee. (Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post)

By Nick Miroff April 23 at 8:11 PM

HAVANA As they begin to visit this long-forbidden island in greater and greater
numbers, it is only natural that some American travelers will fall in love with Cuba.
Others, with Cubans.
And when they do, a few may return home anguished by doubts about their budding
Cuban romances. Are they real? Or just scams to get off the island?
They need a love detective.
Fernando Alvarez does not advertise his services quite that way. He is a licensed
private eye, with offices in Beverly Hills, Calif., and Coral Gables, Fla. His
firm, Drakonx Investigations, claims to be the only one in the United States offering
high-level, professional sleuthing services in Cuba. Infidelity cases are its specialty.

A lot of foreigners go to Cuba and fall in love, but when they start looking into what it
will take to bring their girlfriend or boyfriend out of Cuba, they suspect things might not
be quite what they seem, Alvarez said. They hire us to check it out.
Fernando Alverez is shown in an office he rents in Coral Gables, Fla. (Sarah
L. Voisin/The Washington Post)

Fernando Alverez is shown in an office he

rents in Coral Gables, Fla. (Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post)
The work is not legal in Cuba. Alvarezs private detectives operate on the island at risk
of arrest. But for roughly $100 to $200 a day, they will conduct surveillance and
produce detailed reports and time-stamped photographs of their targets movements
and encounters. They will trail them to beach resorts and nightclubs, and even record
their restaurant conversations from a nearby table.
[Fear of immigration policy change triggers new wave of Cuban migrants]
With more and more tourists especially U.S. visitors streaming into Cuba,
demand for this type of service is blooming with every beach-born romance. An
amorous culture that is famously libertine and an economy that is famously
dysfunctional have left little stigma in Cuba to deceiving ones way off the island, even
if it means breaking foreign hearts to do it.
Some Cuban men even encourage their girlfriends to marry a foreigner in order to
eventually get them out, Alvarez said, speaking from his office in Florida.
Cautionary testimonials of fraud and deception are plentiful online, screaming with
warnings like NEVER MARRY A CUBANA. Victims dont fit a single profile, but older
foreign men and lonely middle-aged foreign women appear to be prime targets for the
beguilers.
Some are looking for a long-distance sugar daddy they can string along; others wait
until theyre out of Cuba to make their move, professing a sudden change of heart
before running off.
The problem is so bad in Canada which sends nearly 1 million tourists to Cuba
each year that immigration officials there have launched ad campaigns warning
tourists about marriages of convenience. A 2010 Canadian government report found
that as many as one-quarter of the 700 fiance visas issued each year to Cubans in

Havana were linked to such schemes.

In one widely publicized 2013 case, an Ontario womans would-be groom went
missing three days after stepping off the plane, taking all her money and leaving a
badly misspelled goodbye note on a napkin: Sorry I dont fell love anymore. Dont lock
for me.
Alvarez said his detectives are trying to catch a few of these fraudsters before they
can do that much damage. They offer a range of services for the love-struck-butskeptical.
Some clients are simply trying to determine whether their Cuban lover is two-timing.
Others are the wives of foreign businessmen who travel to Cuba, wanting to know
what other transactions their husbands may be engaged in. A few are looking for proof
that their Cuban partners ex is truly an ex.
Plenty of the relationships Alvarezs team investigates prove to be authentic, of course,
but he says a little extra certainty can save clients a great deal of financial and
emotional stress.
His investigators cope with anxieties of their own. Private detective services are not
among the 200 or so trades authorized by communist authorities as part of President
Ral Castros gradual opening to small-scale private enterprise. Alvarez said his team
is careful to steer clear of anything with criminal or political overtones to stay off the
governments radar.
As an added measure of security, they do not accept Cuban clients who contact them
from the island, wary of being trapped by undercover cops.
The private investigators say theyre merely filling the service gap created years ago
when Cubas state-run security company, SEPSA, stopped offering for-hire services.
Alvarez, who came to Miami from Cuba a decade ago, would not say if any of the
detectives he employs on the island are former or current Cuban intelligence agents or
police.
Two of his Cuban staffers agreed to meet a Washington Post reporter at a well-known
hotel in Havana to provide evidence of their work. They gave their names only as
Alejandro and Sheila, lowering their voices to a whisper whenever any hotel
employees walked by.
On a laptop were several case files with hundreds of annotated photos and audio
recordings of prior surveillance targets. Some images had confirmed clients worst
fears: a kiss at a doorway, a romantic embrace or lengthy hand-holding in the street.
Alejandro said the Cuban investigative team handled more than 200 cases last year,
ranging from a single days work to long-term surveillance. All of the photos we obtain
are taken in public places, he said. Our methods are in full compliance with Cuban
law.

Clients typically contact Alvarez in the United States first, and he assigns the cases to
the investigators in Cuba, who have no office. Once theyve completed the
surveillance work and filed their reports via e-mail, they erase evidence of the job from
their computers, Alejandro explained.
We know were at risk of getting caught, he said. But the job pays well, its relatively
easy to do and its always interesting.
Rates for their services vary depending on the job or the distance from Havana. In
some instances, the detectives need to check into expensive resorts as fake guests in
order to conduct surveillance on a subject trying to have an affair discreetly.
This kind of thing happens in every country, not just Cuba, Sheila said. The
difference is that this work isnt legal here yet.
The detectives do plenty of more prosaic casework too, locating missing heirs or longlost relatives. A few wealthy foreign parents want their teenagers watched while theyre
stumbling through Havanas club scene. Another growing segment of the business
caters to foreign investors eager to know whether their Cuban partners are flashing
wealth while claiming losses.
But Alvarez said the bulk of his cases are related to love.
Last year, about 400,000 visitors traveled from the United States to Cuba, including
nearly 100,000 trips by non-Cuban American travelers. That figure is expected to rise
rapidly as U.S. travel restrictions are eased.
Cubans are very warm and affectionate, Alvarez said. When more Americans start
to go there, especially if theyre single, theyre going to find a lot of temptations.

Nick Miroff is a Latin America correspondent for The Post, roaming from the U.S.Mexico borderlands to South Americas southern cone. He has been a staff writer
since 2006.
Posted by Thavam