Castro's Son Duped Into Online Relationship With Miami Man

Ex-Leader's son bragged about easy access to money, hob-nobbing with celebs.

ByABC News
June 15, 2009, 8:38 PM

June 16, 2009— -- The man who duped Fidel Castro's son Antonio into thinking he was carrying on a six-month online virtual affair with a Colombian beauty told ABC News the young Castro bragged about his life of international travel, easy access to money and hob-nobbing with world leaders and celebrities.

Luis Dominguez, a 46-year-old Cuban activist from Miami, said that posing as "Claudia Valencia," a 20-something brunette beauty from Cartagena, Colombia, he engaged in an online flirtation with Antonio "Tony" Castro Soto del Valle.

"Claudia" and Castro exchanged e-mails, Internet chats, and at one point even used streaming live Web video to communicate.

During "Claudia" and Castro's Web romance, the dictator's son never shared details about his father, Fidel, or any Cuban intelligence secrets, but Dominguez said he was able to get glimpses of the life of luxuries and freedoms the Cuban leaders enjoy while the people of the island nation struggle.

"In a communist country, where everybody is supposed to be the same, obviously this guy is jumping all the rules," Dominguez told ABC News.

Dominguez said he got the idea for the ruse in 2006 during a trip to Cartagena, Colombia. Tony Castro was also in Colombia as the team physician for the Cuban national baseball team.

After the game, Dominguez said he saw "hundreds of girls taking pictures" with the dictator's son and Castro was "acting like a rock star."

"He was giving them his e-mail and phone number and inviting them to go out to a night club," Dominguez said.

After seeing the ex-dictator's son share his personal contact information with so many women, Dominguez said he decided to create a fictitious personality to flirt with and get information from Castro.

Dominguez, a Cuban-born Miami resident runs the blog Cubaaldescubierto.com, which features posts on Cuban security and military forces, as well as transcripts of some of the interactions between "Claudia Valencia" and Castro's son.

To gain his way into the life of Fidel's son, Dominguez said he created a woman he thought that Castro would find attractive -- "Claudia Valencia," a young beautiful brunette from Cartagena, who claimed to have met Antonio at the baseball game in 2006.