Smitten while in Cuba? Better call the love detective before you commit

Smitten while in Cuba? Better call the love detective before you commit
BY NICK MIROFF THE WASHINGTON POST
04/24/2015 10:49 AM 04/24/2015 10:58 AM

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, California, and
Coral Gables, Florida. 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."

The work is not legal in Cuba. Alvarez's 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.

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 one's 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 don't 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
they're 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 woman's 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
don't fell love anymore. Don't lock for me."

Alvarez said his detectives are trying to catch a few fraudsters before
they can do that much damage. They offer a range of services for the
love-struck-but-skeptical.

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 partner's ex is
truly an ex.

Plenty of the relationships Alvarez's 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 Raúl Castro's 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 government's 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 they're merely filling the service gap
created years ago when Cuba's 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 when 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 day's 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
they've completed the surveillance work and filed their reports via
e-mail, they erase evidence of the job from their computers, Alejandro
explained.

"We know we're at risk of getting caught," he said. "But the job pays
well, it's relatively easy to do and it's 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 isn't legal here yet."

The detectives do plenty of more prosaic casework too, locating missing
heirs or long-lost relatives. A few wealthy foreign parents want their
teenagers watched while they're stumbling through Havana's 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 they're single, they're going
to find a lot of temptations."

Source: Smitten while in Cuba? Better call the love detective before you
commit | Miami Herald Miami Herald -
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/cuba/article19376418.html