The Cuban government may have asked a Florida International University couple to recruit South Florida youths for their alleged spying on the exile community, but law-enforcement officials say no evidence shows the husband-and-wife team actually did any recruiting.

By NOAH BIERMAN AND JAY WEAVER

The most provocative piece of this week's federal case against a pair of Florida International University employees claims the Cuban government directed the couple to recruit young Americans to spy for Fidel Castro.

But three U.S. government sources say they have no evidence Elsa and Carlos M. Alvarez accomplished that part of their mission. The husband and wife confessed last summer that they were asked to become recruiters, but their known help to Castro was limited to collecting information about exile groups, the sources said.

Moreover, the indictment against the FIU couple does not accuse them of any recruiting activity despite widespread speculation among exile leaders and some media reports.

As an academic, Carlos Alvarez had many opportunities to travel legally to Cuba, with and without FIU affiliation. Sometimes Alvarez brought young people; sometimes he did not.

''There was never any kind of recruitment,'' said Uvi Shabbel, a 42-year-old Pembroke Pines resident who went on an exchange trip with Alvarez in 2000.

Shabbel said she was among six FIU graduates then in their 30s who went to Cuba on a two-week trip Alvarez organized with Puentes Cubanos (Cuban Bridges), that paired young American professionals with their counterparts in Cuba.

Shabbel's mother, FIU researcher Uva de Aragón, was also an organizer, as was Cuban Bridges founder Silvia Wilhelm.

The Ford Foundation paid the bill and FIU sponsored the visa, Shabbel said.

''The purpose was to kind of put us in a room at the University of Havana to talk about what are our similarities and what are our differences,'' said Shabbel, who was born in the United States to Cuban parents.

Shabbel said the program linked people with similar jobs so they could compare their lifestyles more closely. Shabbel, a teacher, linked with a Cuban teacher.

She called the experience -- which also included touring Old Havana and other popular sites -- life-changing because she could see and touch her ancestral homeland for the first time and better understand her identity. Alvarez moderated the discussions and helped students translate for each other if they had trouble expressing their ideas, Shabbel said. Outside the classroom, the Cuban students were more candid about the many ironies they faced living on the restrictive and impoverished island, she said.

LOW PROFILE

Wilhelm, of Cuban Bridges, said Monday that Alvarez traveled several times with her group. But many like Wilhelm, who favor reconciliation with Cuba, were quiet about Alvarez on Tuesday as hard-liners leveled criticism on Miami's Cuban radio shows.

FIU President Modesto ''Mitch'' Maidique was also keeping a low profile. A long-time friend of the Alvarez family, he attended the couple's bond hearing Monday, but has not granted interviews.

FIU officials are scouring travel records to determine how many times Alvarez, 61, traveled to Cuba with the school. FIU's main Cuba think tank -- the Cuban Research Institute -- lists Alvarez on five Cuba trips between 1993 and 2003 under its license. None of those trips included students, according to Damián Fernández, the institute's director.

Alvarez, a professor since 1974, may also have traveled with FIU's education department, where he has tenure. Carlos' wife Elsa Alvarez, 55, is a counselor in the school's psychological services department. Prosecutors say they have no evidence she has been to Cuba since 1991. The Alvarezes -- in jail without bond since Friday -- are now on paid leave from their FIU jobs. The university has hired former U.S. attorney Roberto Martinez to deal with the ramifications of the Alvarez case.

U.S. Treasury Department guidelines allow researchers to travel to Cuba without special licenses. All they have to do is sign an affidavit with the airline or travel agency before each trip.

TRIPS WERE `PRETEXT'

Federal agents say all of Alvarez's trips were covers for his life as a spy. For these post-1991 ''exchange trips,'' certain ''handlers'' from Cuban intelligence served as tour guides, Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian Frazier said at Monday's bond hearing.

Frazier called the trips a ''pretext'' for exchanging information about South Florida's exile community with Castro intelligence agents. Most of the alleged spying was on exile political leaders -- the Brothers to the Rescue, the Cuban American National Foundation and other anti-Castro groups in Miami.

No U.S. government or military information was sent to Cuban officials, law-enforcement officials said.

According to law-enforcement officials, no other suspects are expected to be indicted along with the FIU couple. They are charged on one count of failing to register as foreign agents with the U.S. government, which carries up to 10 years in prison.

Miami Herald staff writer Alfonso Chardy contributed to this report.