Americans press Castro to free U.S. contractor
Senators say they told Cuban president that jailed Alan Gross is not a spy
HAVANA – Cuban President Raul Castro met two visiting U.S. senators who told AFP on Friday that they pressed the case of jailed American Alan Gross and told the communist leader that the imprisoned contractor was not a spy.
Democrat Patrick Leahy and Republican Richard Shelby arrived Thursday and talked with Castro for more than two hours.
Gross, from Maryland, is serving a 15-year prison term for taking satellite and other communications equipment to Cuba while on a U.s.-funded democracy building program. Gross was arrested in December 2009 and convicted in early 2011 of committing crimes against the state.
“I told him he was not a spy,” but there was “nothing concrete,” Leahy told AFP by telephone, referring to his talks with the Cuban leader about Gross.
“We spoke for two hours about many subjects and the ways of improving the relations between the United States and Cuba. For the sake of both countries, the world is going to change,” Leahy added.
The United States does not maintain full diplomatic relations with Cuba, the only one- party Communist regime in the Americas, and any such visits mark rare contacts between senior U.S. lawmakers and top Cuban officials.
Leahy, however, said he had no authority from President Barack Obama to negotiate on the Gross case, alluding to the chances of an exchange that would see the American released in return for Cubans held in the United States.
State Department spokesperson Mark Toner repeated that the United States has been “quite clear” that it would not free the Cubans in return for Gross, whose supporters say that he is in uncertain health.
Toner called again for Cuba to free Gross, but also said that the administration did not send any message to Leahy.
“We’re certainly, as we’ve said many times, going to use every opportunity and every appropriate channel that we have to press the Cuban government for Mr. Gross’s release,” Toner told reporters in Washington.
The United States in 1998 arrested five Cubans who were later sentenced to lengthy prison terms.
One of the Cubans, Rene Gonzalez, was freed last year after serving 13 years on spy charges and has been in an undisclosed location since leaving a Florida prison.
The55-year-oldcubanmust remain on US soil for three years as part of a “supervised release” program – a requirement that has infuriated Havana, which considers Gonzalez a national hero.
Gross’s arrest and conviction cooled what was seen as an opportunity to improve ties between Cuba and United States following Obama taking office in 2009.
Cuban state media said Friday that Castro had discussed matters of mutual interest with the visiting U.S. senators.