U.S. Calls on Cuba to Free American Held Since 2009 as Spy
U.S. Calls on Cuba to Free American Held Since 2009 as Spy
Cuba's continued imprisonment of U.S. citizen Alan Gross threatens the chance of improved relations between the two countries, points out AS/COA's Christopher Sabatini.
Mexico City — After five years of behind-the-scenes talks, entreaties from high-profile emissaries and statements from two governments, each blaming the other for intransigence, it still comes down to this: Alan P. Gross, an American government contractor, remains imprisoned in Cuba on espionage charges.
As relatives and supporters described Mr. Gross, 65, as being in declining health and growing suicidal over the lack of progress in his case, the White House on Wednesday marked the fifth year of his detention with a statement making clear that “the Cuban government’s release of Alan on humanitarian grounds would remove an impediment to more constructive relations between the United States and Cuba.”
Mr. Gross was detained Dec. 3, 2009, for sneaking in communications equipment that would allow unfettered Internet access, as part of a United States Agency for International Development program aimed at fostering democracy...
Others wonder if Cuba really wants better relations or more American visitors, if the result could be a threat to the tight control that the government maintains across society. But its ailing economy — and the fact that its chief benefactor, Venezuela, is in political and economic distress — may provide motivation for a thaw in relations with the United States.
“Cuba does not make it easy,” said Christopher Sabatini, a Cuba scholar at the Americas Society, which has sent the administration a legal analysis on how it could loosen restrictions on Cuba trade. But, he added, “as politically painful and as much a humanitarian issue as the Alan Gross case is, we are allowing a policy that failed to be held hostage by a government that won’t change.”
