Cuba pol cool to talk of release, swap for US man
By ANDREA RODRIGUEZ
Associated Press
HAVANA -- The president of Cuba's parliament said Friday no one should
expect the island to unilaterally free an imprisoned American aid
contractor and threw cold water on hopes he could be swapped for five
Cuban agents held for more than a decade in the U.S.
Ricardo Alarcon's comments, similar to ones he has expressed in the
past, maintained Havana's firm line in a case that has been a thorn in
already prickly relations between the Cold War rivals. He spoke in
response to comments by a U.S. rabbi who recently visited prisoner Alan
Gross at a Cuban military hospital and said the Maryland man hoped for
such an exchange.
"They are different situations," Alarcon told journalists at a
convention on fighting corruption.
"I read the statement from Rabbi (David) Shneyer ... I think it is a
very measured, respectful statement expressing a legitimate humanitarian
concern that I understand." But, he said, "I don't think people should
expect unilateral gestures."
Gross, 62, has been behind bars for nearly two years since his arrest in
early December 2009, accused of illegally bringing communications
equipment into Cuba while on a USAID-funded democracy-building program.
Cuba's Communist government considers such programs tantamount to
efforts at regime change.
In March, Gross was sentenced to 15 years in prison for crimes against
the state. He maintains he was trying to help members of Cuba's tiny
Jewish community get online.
His imprisonment has put a damper on any likelihood of improved ties
between Cuba and the United States, which do not have formal diplomatic
relations and are divided by five decades of mutual suspicion and distrust.
Gross' case was raised earlier this week when Roberta S. Jacobson,
President Barack Obama's nominee to be assistant secretary of state for
Western Hemisphere affairs, appeared before the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee.
"We ... continue to seek the unconditional release of American citizen
Alan Gross, a dedicated development worker who has been unjustly
imprisoned in Cuba for nearly two years," Jacobson told the committee.
Family members have expressed concern for Gross' health and urged his
release on humanitarian grounds, but Alarcon's words suggest that is
unlikely to happen anytime soon.
Talk of possibly swapping Gross for one or more of the "Cuban Five"
agents imprisoned in the United States has similarly gone nowhere. One
of the men, Rene Gonzalez, was paroled last month but ordered to remain
in the U.S. while he serves three years of probation.
On Wednesday, the U.S. State Department said officials at the U.S.
Interests Section in Havana continue to have regular consular access to
Gross and visited him most recently on Nov. 3.
His wife, Judy Gross, has urged Americans to contact members of Congress
and write letters to newspapers pressing for her husband's return.
Associated Press writer Peter Orsi contributed to this report.
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