Alan Gross promueve el acercamiento a Cuba en evento en Miami

todos los pueblos y grupos etnicos tienen lados oscuros y el pueblo judio no es una excepcion. luego de los brutales maltratos que sufrio el subcontratista norteamericano alan gross al que incluso se le impidio visitar a su madre en el lecho de muerte, el mal judio muestra su oreja peluda y se suma a la caterva de agentes de influencias del regimen cubano en eeuu, para promover los viajes y el acercamiento incondicional al feudo de biran. el new pac cuba y el engage cuba [recientemente elogiado por cubadebate] son presididos por james williams [der.].

alan gross habla en la presentacion del new cuba pac/ foto; james williams

---------------- 

¿Gross en Cuba?

La constitución del “New Cuba PAC” y “Engage Cuba” ha sido observada de cerca por Frank Calzón, director ejecutivo del Centro para una Cuba Libre, que aboga por mantener las sanciones hasta que el gobierno cubano no se comprometa a mejorar la situación de derechos humanos.

“Esta no es la primera vez que alguien hace un PAC para recaudar dinero con el fin de promover los viajes a Cuba. Tenemos que esperar y ver”, dijo Calzón, que llamó la atención de que el PAC y el grupo de cabildeo compartieran una misma dirección.

Pero Calzón sí se mostró sorprendido de la participación de Gross en este esfuerzo político.

“Creo que sería mucho mejor y tendría más sentido, si Gross dedicara su tiempo, no a abogar por más viajes a Cuba –cuando sabemos que el gobierno cubano se quedará con la mayoría de los dividendos– y sí a demandar al mundo que no olvide que hay otros presos políticos en Cuba, que como a él, se le negaron sus derechos fundamentales”, agregó.

Pero Gilbert, opinó de modo diametralmente distinto.

“Alan Gross no está haciendo lobby para el gobierno cubano. Alan Gross cree, como yo, que el embargo no es bueno para el pueblo de Estados Unidos, los cubanoamericanos o las empresas americanas. También cree que no es bueno para el pueblo de Cuba”.

“Él y yo, y la mayoría de las personas racionales, creen que el embargo debe terminar, la Ley Helms-Burton debe derogarse y que el aumento del comercio y los viajes entre EEUU y Cuba será bueno para los pueblos de ambos países”.

Calzón también trajo a colación el deteriorado estado físico de Gross cuando fue liberado en diciembre. “¿Qué le sucedió a toda su dentadura? ¿El gobierno cubano no le dio atención médica mientras estaba encarcelado? Solo mira las fotos de los espías cubanos. ¿Alguno de ellos aparece sin dientes? Eso en sí mismo es una tremenda declaración”.

Según su abogado, Gross se ha sometido a chequeos de salud. Su visión “es buena” y está usando “unas gafas especiales que lo ayudan a ver mejor. Está trabajando con un dentista para la reconstrucción de su dentadura. Ahora tiene dientes temporales. Todavía tiene problemas con las caderas, por los cinco años en los que estuvo básicamente en una sola habitación”.

“Él ha subido algo de peso, está comiendo bien y está simplemente disfrutando de su libertad. Le encanta caminar y disfrutar de las cosas que damos por sentado. Para Alan estas experiencias siguen siendo muy apreciadas”, comentó Gilbert.

Read more here: http://www.elnuevoherald.com/noticias/mundo/america-latina/cuba-es/article20305149.html#storylink=cpy

Mas en El Nuevo Herald >>

NYT: Bergdahl Deal Weighed Heavily on US-Cuba Prisoner Swap Talks

cubaconfidential

by Chris Simmons

via Newsmax.com

The secret talks to free Alan Gross from Cuba were complicated by the release of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl in return for five Taliban commanders, The New York Times reports.

Bergdahl, who had been held prisoner in Afghanistan for nearly five years, had just been released for the detainees at Guantanamo Bay when two White House officials, Benjamin Rhodes and Ricardo Zuniga, traveled to Ottawa, Canada, for negotiations with their Cuban counterparts. The Cubans were able to point to Bergdahl’s release as the precedent for the Obama administration to approve a Gross exchange deal for three Cuban agents held in the United States, a senior administration official told the Times.

The Cubans were in a hurry to have the prisoner swap approved by the White House because Gross’s mother Evelyn was dying of cancer, and they feared her death (she died June 18) would result in a then-distraught Gross killing himself and thus wiping out their main bargaining chip.

Gross was working for a subcontractor of U.S. Agency for International Development in 2009 when he was arrested and sentenced to 15 years in prison. As a contractor, he was installing internet access for the island's small Jewish community that bypassed Cuba's restrictions.

But Bergdahl’s freedom added a new wrinkle to the talks with the Cubans to get Gross out, especially in light of allegations that the soldier had deserted his outpost in a remote area of Afghanistan, according to the newspaper.

Bergdahl’s release in exchange for the Taliban terrorists caused a firestorm in Congress, with Republicans in particular taking aim at President Barack Obama’s deal. And the uproar led the White House to demand that any arrangement to free Gross and the Cuban spies would have to be more than a simple prisoner swap.

“We made the point, ‘This shows you how controversial swaps are. This is something we are only willing to consider in the context of an appropriate exchange,’ ” a senior official told the Times. “The important thing was not to see the swap as the end, but the gateway to the policy changes.”

Eventually, the deal included the controversial resumption of diplomatic relations between the two countries after 53 years of enmity, as well as the release of 53 Cuban political prisoners and an ex-Cuban intelligence officer, Rolando Sarraff Trujillo, who had worked for the CIA.

Article continues here:  Bergdahl >>

U.S. Pays $3.2 Million to American Alan Gross Held Five Years by Cuba

NBC News.com

The U.S. government made a $3.2 million payment to Alan Gross, the American citizen freed by Cuba after five years in prison, a spokesperson for the U.S. Agency for International Development confirmed.

Gross was working as a contractor for USAID through a company called Development Alternatives Inc. (DAI) when he was detained in Cuba in 2009. According to his family, Gross was working to expand Internet access for Cuba's small Jewish community. In 2011 he was convicted of undermining Cuba and sentenced to fifteen years in prison. He was freed last week simultaneous to a prisoner swap and the announcement by President Obama that the U.S. would seek to normalize relations with Cuba.

The $3.2-million payment came as settlement of a larger contractual claim for $7 million filed by DAI against USAID for incurred expenses related to the arrest and incarceration of Gross. The settlement was finalized on Monday.

"The settlement avoids the cost, delay and risks of further proceedings, and does not constitute an admission of liability by either party," USAID said in a statement.

Alan Gross habla por primera vez en libertad

AmericaTeVeCanal41

Cuban-Americans React to Expected Changes

NBC News.com

By Suzanne Gamboa

There has been swift reaction following news of the release of American contractor Alan Gross after five years imprisonment in Cuba and the expected announcements on changes to hardline U.S. policy towards Cuba that the administration on Tuesday decreed had not been working.

Senator Robert Menendez, (D-NJ), one of two Cuban American U.S. senators, has been an outspoken opponent of the Castro government and has not advocated for lifting the economic embargo against Cuba, in place since 1960.

"This is a moment of profound relief for Alan Gross and his family. Mr. Gross' physical and mental health has declined severely as a result of his five-year imprisonment under difficult conditions. He should have been released immediately and unconditionally five years ago," said Menendez in a statement. "He committed no crime and was simply working to provide Internet access to Cuba's small Jewish community. His imprisonment was cruel and arbitrary, but consistent with the behavior of the Cuban regime."

Menendez blasted the news that the U.S. was releasing three members of the "Cuban 5" who had been imprisoned in the U.S. after conspiracy and spying convictions. Senior administration officials said on the condition of anonymity that the Cubans' release was in exchange for a swap for a U.S. intelligence asset whom they did not identify by name, but whom they said had been imprisoned in Cuba for 20 years and was responsible for important intelligence prosecutions, including of the Cuban 5 and Ana Belén Montes, a former U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency analyst who had spied for Cuba. The administration said Gross' release was released on humanitarian grounds by Cuba.

"President Obama's actions have vindicated the brutal behavior of the Cuban government. There is no equivalence between an international aid worker and convicted spies who were found guilty of conspiracy to commit espionage against our nation. One spy was also convicted of conspiracy to murder for his role in the 1996 tragedy in which the Cuban military shot down two U.S. civilian planes, killing several American citizens. My heart goes out to the American families that lost love ones on that fateful day," Menendez stated.

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida, criticized the announced policy changes and said on his Twitter accounty he plans "to make every effort to block this dangerous & desperate attempt by (Obama) to burnish his legacy at the Cuban people's expense"

Although Obama can make some of the changes, such as starting talks about an opening an embassy in Havana, can be done administratively, Congress has to change laws on things such as travel rules and lifting the embargo.

Though some Cuban-Americans share Menendez's more hardline stance against the Cuban government, Wednesday's news follows what has been increasingly evolving attitudes towards Cuba.

"This does not need to be a relationship that is frozen in time," a senior administration official told reporters in a conference call Tuesday morning.

As news trickled out, groups such as #CubaNow that had implored Cuban-Americans during election season to vote "to protect their right to travel to Cuba to see their families sending a strong message to politicians who continue to cling to failed hardline policies."

"It is well within the President's authority to improve our ability to support the Cuban people, including the growing class of independent entrepreneurs and to bolster civil society on the island," said Ric Herrero, president of #CubaNow.

Ramon Saul Sanchez, a Miami-based human rights activist and president of Democracy Movement has been active in the Cuban-American community for 45 years, undergoing five hunger strikes, but he has never supported the U.S. embargo on Cuba. He is open to changes in Cuba if the island reciprocates and allows political descent and allows people like him to travel to his homeland.

Speaking before the president's announcement on Cuba changes, Sanchez said:

"The changes that may be introduced represent a large question mark to the Cuban population. They may also present an opportunity for change in Cuba. A closed society can only be changed when you are able to have people to people contact … And also provide them with communications."

In Florida, a major battleground state in U.S. politics, discussions of lifting or easing the embargo and softening relations toward Cuba have always been treacherous.

A Florida International University poll during the summer showed slightly over half of Miami-area Cuban Americans favored lifting the U.S. embargo against Cuba, as well as lifting travel restrictions and establishing diplomatic relations, NBC News reported. It's results came admid other surveys showing similar thawing of hardened views towards Cuba, particularly among younger and more recently arrived Cubans.

However, more than two thirds of Cuban Americans felt the country should remain on a list of four countries designated as state sponsors of terrorism.

Herrero's group had run a television ad in October featuring Cuban-American families divided between Cuba and the U.S. who told how 2009 changes in travel restrictions allowed them to reunite with family. Before 2009, Cuban-Americans could only travel to Cuba once every three years and faced tougher restrictions on sending money home to family in Cuba.

BREAKING NEWS: Cuba libero a Alan Gross

no se conocen aun los detalles de la negociacion entre la administracion obama y el regimen de raul castro, pero el subcontratista norteamericano alan gross condenado a 15 anos de privacion de libertad, de los cuales habia cumplido mas de 5, fue liberado y ya se encuentra viajando hacia los eeuu.

la jugada estaba cantada. solo esperar a conocer la pieza que entrega obama en la transaccion [los 3 espias cubanos presos y/o la liberacion de las restricciones comerciales, turismo norteamericano a la isla, etc???].
de acuerdo con la AP  eeuu liberara a los 3 espias cubanos presos y se esperan declaraciones de obama y raul castro sobre el acuerdo y el futuro de las relaciones entre ambos paises.

Bill Clinton: Gross detention imperils U.S.-Cuba relations

The Miami Herald

Former President Bill Clinton said the United States could be “well on its way” to ending the Cuban embargo if the island would release USAID subcontractor Alan Gross.

In an interview with the Miami Herald on Thursday, Clinton said that his wife, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had come out in favor of ending the half-century embargo in her recently released book about her four years at the State Department.

“I think we would be well on our way to doing it if they released Alan Gross,” he said of the contractor who has served five years of a 15-year sentence. “It is really foolish to allow what is clearly a questionable incarceration to imperil the whole future of US-Cuban relations, but that’s not my call to make.”

The former president made the comments at the “Future of the Americas” summit that his foundation is hosting Thursday at the University of Miami.

The meeting has brought together business, non-profit and political leaders from around the region to plot the coming decades in the hemisphere.

The meeting aims to produce specific goals and actions that will direct the 2015 summit in Panama.

The event also falls on the 20th anniversary of the first Summit of the Americas that was held in Miami and brought together regional leaders.

As he inaugurated Thursday’s event, Clinton recalled the “heady” days 20 years ago when leaders believed they could lift the region out of poverty through free trade and promoting democracy.

Today much of that promise is fulfilled, Clinton said. The region’s economy is booming and millions have emerged from poverty, even as problems of inequality and gender disparity remain.

There were also unforeseen challenges in the last decades.

“The climate change problem is much more severe than we thought 20 years ago,” he said, “and it’s bearing down on us.”

The meeting aims to bring in high-level thinkers to talk about energy, infrastructure, the environment, healthcare, vocational training, agriculture and chronic disease, among other topics.

Among the attendees are Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, Carlos Slim, the world’s second-richest man and the founder of the Carlos Slim Foundation; Inter American Development Bank President Luis Alberto Moreno; and Susan Fonseca, the founder and CEO of Woman@TheFrontier.

Clinton said the results of Thursday’s session would feed into the discussions of the next Summit in Panama and aim to be specific and actionable.

“We are here to complement not complicate the coming Summit of the Americas,” Clinton said.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/article4427163.html#storylink=cpy

Discurso del metodo: "el negro vs el chino"

jardines que es una persona inteligente aunque se queda cortisimo en el empleo de un sistema conceptual cuyo deficit critica en otros, se despista tomando como tema principal un intento de taxonomia de la disidencia-oposicion y arremte en su 1ra parte contra el infeliz politraumatizado de campos.

lo que no estan viendo la eminencias, es que el bout "el negro vs el chino" ya esta por los rounds de campeonato [del 9no al 12mo] con el suicida de gross y los 3 espias comodamente instalados en el ring side.

entonces es pura logica aristotelica o en todo caso cartesiana:

• proposicion 1: ley codificada del congreso que el negro respeta
• proposicion 2: acciones ejecutivas del niche que no violan la ley codificada [codificacion por demas que es superflua porque en cuba no hay presos politicos sino terroristas; no hay partidos politicos de oposicion sino grupusculos de mercenarios y, el pais es un modelo de proceso democratico electoral porque no postula el partido sino el pueblo directamente, en un proceso que supera a la antigua democracia ateniense]
• proposicion 3: el negro convierte al judio en el anti bin laden y lo salva a cualquier precio y se acabaron las excusas para el desmerengamiento paulatino de eso que denominan embargo-bloqueo [comercial ante todo aunque se elevarian los rangos diplomaticos] como ha afirmado la propia wh.

si hubiera tenido alguna duda, esta se hubiera despejado porque el pataleo ya empezo con uno de los artifices de la codificacion; el lincoln, que sera cualquier cosa menos idiota y es una persona bien astuta y hasta sagaz, quien acaba de afirmar publicamente que no cree que el niche puede violar la ley de forma tan burda. despues que lei detenidamente varios ensayos mayores y estudios sobre el negro y las relaciones de poder en el inside del partido democrata y particularmente con el clan clinton, llegue a la conviccion que el iman de la wh cree efectivamente que es un mesias y que despues de el, si fuera necesario, el diluvio.  
------------------
The Economist se pronuncia al respecto en el dia de hoy evaluando igualmente esta posibilidad.

Alan Gross a Jailed American in Cuba loses appeal in case vs. U.S. government

Reuters

(Reuters) - A federal appeals court in Washington on Friday rejected a lawsuit filed against the U.S. government by an American contractor imprisoned in Cuba who says he was not warned about the risks of working on the communist-controlled island.

Alan Gross and his wife Judy filed the $60 million lawsuit in November 2012 for gross negligence against the U.S. government and Development Alternatives Inc, a Bethesda, Maryland, contractor.

Gross settled with DAI for undisclosed terms in 2013, and a U.S. district court rejected his claim against the government.

The appeals court panel on Friday upheld the district court’s finding that the U.S. government has sovereign immunity because damage to Gross occurred outside the country.

The lawsuit said Gross, 65, should have received better information and training for his job of increasing Internet access and the flow of communications. Gross was working for DAI under a contract with the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Gross has been jailed in Cuba since December 2009. He is serving a 15-year sentence for providing Internet gear to Jewish Cubans under a U.S. program that Cuba views as subversive.

The United States says Gross was merely helping the local population get connected as part of a democracy-building project.

Information is tightly controlled on the Caribbean island, Internet use is limited, and visitors are not allowed to carry satellite technology.

A spokeswoman for one of Gross’ lawyers declined to comment.

Because of Gross' detention, tensions have mounted in already troubled U.S.-Cuban relations.

Gross has threatened to end his life if he is not released before his next birthday in May, his wife and lawyer say.

The three-judge panel said the Supreme Court had previously held that the so-called foreign country exception “bars all claims based on any injury suffered in a foreign country, regardless of where the tortious act or omission occurred.”

The judges suggested that any sense of injustice that the law did not cover people sent to foreign countries at the behest of the United States was a "policy argument ... better directed to Congress."

(Reporting by David Adams in Miami and Daniel Trotta in Havana; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn)

From The White House: On Alan Gross

capitolhillcubans

From The White House's Press Briefing with Press Secretary, Josh Earnest:

Q. Recently, there have been editorials in The New York Times about cooperation with Cuba. Is the President, in the last two years, more open to starting a dialogue with Cuba -- perhaps a prisoner exchange involving the prisoners here in the United States and Alan Gross in Cuba?

MR. EARNEST: Well, as a general matter, Jim, let me just say that the United States believes that Mr. Gross should be released immediately; that his detention is certainly not appropriate, it’s not justified, and it’s time for him to be reunited with his family here at home. He is, after all, a development worker, and it’s time for him to come home.

We have also indicated that his continued detention is an obstacle in the relationship between the United States and Cuba and certainly would interfere with any effort along the lines of what you’re talking about.

So the President has been pretty clear that it’s -- as he said in the past, that it’s worth reconsidering our policy as it relates to Cuba, reflecting, however, the significant concerns the United States retains about their human rights record, their failure to observe basic human rights, as it relates to not just the illegitimate detention of Mr. Gross, but as it relates to the basic rights to free speech and political expression of the people of Cuba. And we continue to have concerns about that.

But again, I think the bottom line here is that Cuba’s failure to release Mr. Gross is hurting the relationship between the United States and Cuba.

Q. And is the United States open to any negotiations with Cuba about Mr. Gross and whether or not the three Miami -- the three people in Miami who are being held -- in Florida, I should say, not Miami -- who are Cuban -- is there any negotiations there? Are they open to any negotiations?

MR. EARNEST: Well, Jim, I don’t have any negotiations to talk about from here other than to say that both publicly and privately the United States has been clear that Mr. Gross should be released.

The New York Times Rests Our Case

capitolhillcubans

There's an old saying in Spanish: "por la boca muere el pez" ("fish die through their mouths").

Over the last two weeks, The New York Times' newest editorial writer, Ernesto Londoño, has (obsessively) written a half-dozen editorials and commentaries on U.S. policy towards Cuba.

As we've documented, these have been full of glaring contradictions, misrepresentations and omissions.

The more Londoño writes, the more desperate and shameless (and clearly uneducated) his attacks.

And today, he drove off the policy cliff.

He's penned an editorial calling for President Obama to commute the sentences of three Cuban spies (part of the "Wasp Network"), duly convicted by a federal jury in the United States, and exchange them for an American development worker, who was taken hostage by the Castro dictatorship precisely as a tool of coercion.

Like his previous editorials, which have been praised by Fidel Castro himself, today's piece is already being circulated by Cuba's embassies worldwide and the regime's state security bloggers (cyber-warriors).

After all, it's not every day that a major American newspaper echoes the ransom demands (and talking points) of a brutal, anti-American, totalitarian dictatorship. Not to mention, one considered a "state-sponsor of terrorism" by the U.S. government.

The good news is that serious policymakers know this is a highly irresponsible proposition, which would set a very dangerous precedent. It has also left quite evident the agenda and resounding inexperience of its author.

Londoño -- on behalf of The New York Times' Editorial Board -- argues that the United States should succumb to Castro's coercion, mainly for two reasons:

1. Because a unilateral and unconditional rapprochement with Castro's dictatorship merits it.

Of course, he omits that the American development worker, Alan Gross, was taken hostage just a few months after Obama's first attempt at a unilateral and unconditional rapprochement with Castro's dictatorship in 2009.

Thus, this rationale is utterly senseless (at best).

More >>

Alan Gross dice adiós a su familia

martinoticias

El abogado de Alan Gross, aseguró este lunes que su cliente no puede soportar mucho más tiempo la vida en prisión y que se ha despedido de su esposa y una hija.
  
Alan Gross fue arrestado en Cuba en 2009, mientras visitaba la isla y lleva tras las rejas 1705 días. Su abogado dijo en un comunicado que su cliente se "ha rendido" y le dijo que "la vida en la cárcel no es una vida digna de vivirse". Gross había dicho que su cumpleaños 65 en mayo sería el último que celebraría en La Habana  "de una manera u otra".
  
Se despidió de su esposa e hija menor durante una visita reciente. Gross, que vivía en Maryland, previamente había dicho a sus dos hijas que no lo visitaran en prisión.
  
Gross ha dejado de hacer ejercicio y su salud no es buena, dijo Gilbert, quien planea visitar a su cliente esta semana. Tiene muchos padecimientos en las caderas y ha perdido casi toda la visión del ojo derecho. Gilbert agregó que "el deterioro emocional (de Gross) ha sido severo", particularmente tras la muerte en junio de su madre, que tenía 92 años.
  
Hablaban frecuentemente por teléfono y cuando Gross estuvo nueve días en huelga de hambre en abril, fue su madre quien lo persuadió de interrumpirla. Gross había pedido autorización al gobierno cubano para regresar a Estados Unidos para el funeral de su madre, pero la solicitud fue rechazada.
  
Judy Gross, su esposa, dijo el lunes en un comunicado que nunca ha visto a su esposo en tan malas condiciones durante el tiempo que ha pasado en prisión y escribió que "su decisión de despedirse de nosotros fue muy dolorosa".
  
Gross también se ha negado a ver a funcionarios de la Oficina de Intereses de Estados Unidos en La Habana, que hace las veces de embajada porque los dos países no tienen relaciones diplomáticas formales.
  
En el momento que Gross fue arrestado trabajaba como contratista de la Agencia de Estados Unidos para el Desarrollo Internacional (USAID), que promueve la democracia en la isla. Cuba considera los programas de la USAID intentos ilegales de socavar el gobierno y Gross fue enjuiciado y sentenciado a 15 años de prisión.
  
También el lunes, el abogado de Gross dio a conocer una carta que un grupo de 300 rabinos envió al presidente Barack Obama exhortándolo a tomar medidas para asegurar la liberación de Gross, quien además de ser judío trabajaba con la pequeña comunidad judía en la isla para mejorar su acceso a internet cuando fue arrestado.

En profunda depresión, Alan Gross se niega a recibir visitas en la prisión en Cuba

Café Fuerte

Alan Gross (centro) junto a su esposa Judy Gross y el abogado Scott Gilbert durante una visita a la cárcel a finales del 2013. Foto: Cortesía familia Gross

Por Wilfredo Cancio Isla

El contratista estadounidense Alan Gross, condenado a 15 años de prisión en Cuba, ha perdido la visión de su ojo derecho y se niega a recibir a la mayoría de los visitantes, a causa de su profundo estado depresivo.

“La situación de Alan es grave”, dijo el abogado Scott Gilbert en declaraciones a CaféFuerte. “Los gobiernos de Estados Unidos y Cuba tienen que resolver esta sotuación muy pronto o Alan morirá en la cárcel”.

Gilbert explicó que Gross, de 65 años, perdió ya la visión de su ojo derecho y sus caderas están en un nivel de deterioro tan avanzado que no le ha sido posible hacer ningún tipo de ejercicio en los últimos dos meses.

“Recientemente ha sufrido mucho pensando en el fallecimiento de su madre, imposibilitado de verla antes de morir o estar con su familia en ese momento de dolor”, dijo Gilbert. “Debido a su estado emocional ha dejado de recibir a la mayoría de los visitantes”.

Evelyn Gross, la madre del contratista, falleció  a los 92 años el pasado 18 de junio en Texas, víctima de cáncer. A pesar de las peticiones familiares al gobierno de Raúl Castro para que se le permitiera asistir al funeral, las autoridades cubanas rechazaron la solicitud.

Scott Gilbert, abogado de Gross.

El 2 de abril. el contratista inició una huelga de hambre que suspendió 11 días después a petición de su anciana madre. El ayuno tenía como propósito protestar por la falta de solución a su caso.

A finales de junio, Gilbert y Judy Gross, esposa de Alan, lo visitaron en su celda del Hospital Militar “Carlos J. Finlay”, en La Habana, donde se encuentra confinado. Durante esa visita, la familia Gross reveló que el contratista estadounidense había perdido las esperanzas de regresar a su país y tenía intenciones de poner fin a su vida.

Gilbert afirma que la situación se ha agravado y responsabilizó tanto a La Habana como a Washington por un eventual desenlace trágico del caso.

El gobierno cubano afirma que está dispuesto a buscar una “salida humanitaria” al caso, pero negociando la posibilidad de un canje que involucre a Gross y los tres agentes cubanos presos en cárceles de Estados Unidos. Washington ha rechazado la opción alegando que se trata de casos diferentes.

Negociando con Raúl Castro

Recientemente se conoció que los empresarios Elon Musk y Shervin Pishevar, dos poderosos magnates del mundo de las nuevas tecnologías y fieles partidarios del presidente Barack Obama, acompañaron al actor Sean Penn a La Habana a comienzos del pasado año con el propósito de negociar infructuosamente la liberación de Gross con las altas esferas del gobierno cubano.

Gilbert dijo que no tenía conocimiento de esa negociación ni de sus resultados.

El tema de Gross se ha convertido en la manzana de la discordia entre Cuba y Estados Unidos, imposibilitando a la administración Obama un mayor avance en las relaciones bilaterales.

Gross cumplirá cinco años de arresto en Cuba el próximo 3 de diciembre. El contratista fue detenido en un hotel habanero en vísperas de retornar a Estados Unidos, luego de facilitar tecnología para mejor acceso a internet a miembros de la comunidad judía de la isla.

Un tribunal cubano lo juzgó y condenó en marzo del 2001 bajo acusaciones de vulnerar la seguridad nacional.

Gross sufre tendencias suicidas, según denuncian su mujer y su abogado

MADRID, 25 Jun. (EUROPA PRESS) -

   El ex contratista estadounidense Alan Gross tiene tendencias suicidas, según han alertado este miércoles su mujer y su abogado en un comunicado tras visitarle en la cárcel de La Habana donde cumple una condena de 15 años por introducir equipos de comunicación por satélite en la isla caribeña.

   "Estoy muy preocupada por que Alan haga algo drástico, ahora que su madre ha muerto. Estoy muy preocupada porque cada día está más deprimido. Ambos gobiernos deben saber que está planeando acabar con su vida para acabar con esta agonía", ha dicho Judy Gross.

   Por ello, ha instado al presidente estadounidense, Barack Obama, a "hacer todo lo que esté en su mano para acabar con esta pesadilla y traer a Alan a Casa desde Cuba", según ha informado la cadena norteamericana NBC.

   "Si podemos negociar con cinco miembros de los talibán para traer a casa a un soldado estadounidense, seguro que podemos encontrar un camino a seguir para traer a casa a un ciudadano estadounidense de una prisión cubana", ha apuntado.

   De esta forma, se ha referido al caso del sargento Bowe Bergdahl, que fue liberado el pasado 31 de mayo por los talibán después de cinco años de secuestro en Afganistán a cambio de la excarcelación de cinco insurgentes que estaban en la prisión militar de Guantánamo.

Mas >>

Internet Foils Disinformation Operation Regarding Funeral For Mother of Alan Gross

cubaconfidential

By Chris Simmons

Cuba’s once world-class propaganda operations suffered another self-inflicted blow late yesterday, this time by expelled Spy Josefina Vidal, who continues to serve undercover as director of the US Division within Cuba’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Vidal issued a press release claiming Havana is unable to award Gross a humanitarian visa for the funeral because “…neither the Cuban penitentiary system nor the US penitentiary system provide the possibility for inmates to travel abroad, no matter the reason…”

Before crafting this poorly conceived propaganda piece, Mrs. Vidal and her DI brethren should have searched the internet, where they would have found this Associated Press story on convicted Wasp Network spy Rene Gonzalez from April 12, 2013:  Judge approves Cuban spy visit home.

Is it really possible that the DI can’t even pull off a simple disinformation mission anymore without tripping over itself? Unbelievable! Ironically, readers will also note that the AP story is proudly displayed on the website by the National Committee to Free the Five.

Alan Gross' Mother dies

Reuters

(Reuters) - The mother of a U.S. aid contractor jailed in Cuba died on Wednesday, adding to the despondency of a prisoner whose case has strained U.S.-Cuba relations and prompted him to vow not to complete another year of his 15-year term, his lawyer's office said.
U.S. Agency for International Development subcontractor Alan Gross, 65, was convicted for illegally attempting to establish Internet service on the island and ended an 8-day hunger strike in April at the urging of his mother.
Evelyn Gross, 92, died in Plano, Texas, after a long battle with lung cancer, a statement from his lawyers said.
Her death is the latest blow to Gross and is likely to renew supporters' calls for his release.
"Evelyn Gross’s last wish was to see her son before she died. Cuban officials refused to give Alan a humanitarian furlough to visit his mother, despite repeated pleas and the certainty that she was dying," the statement said.
Alan Gross was arrested in 2009 while trying to establish an online network for Jews in Havana as a USAID subcontractor. It was his fifth trip to Cuba.
In 2011, a Cuban court sentenced him to 15 years in prison for illegally providing Internet equipment and service to Cuban Jewish groups under a U.S. program promoting political change that the Cuban government considers subversive.
Cuba has blamed the United States for Gross's incarceration and repeatedly offered to enter into talks without preconditions.
Previously, Cuba sought to link talks on Gross to the cases of three Cuban agents serving long prison terms in the United States for spying on Cuban exile groups in Florida. But the United States has rejected any trade of the Cuban agents for Gross, and no formal talks have taken place.
"This is a devastating blow for Alan and our family," Gross's wife, Judy Gross, said in the statement. "I am extremely worried that now Alan will give up all hope of ever coming home and do something drastic. Surely, there must be something President Obama can do to secure Alan's immediate release."
(Reporting by Daniel Trotta; Editing by David Adams and Susan Heavey)

An American Hostage in Communist Cuba

USA Survival

Humberto Fontova, the author of two excellent books on Castro's support in Hollywood and the American media, discusses Alan Gross, the American hostage in Cuba; the "Cuban Five;" the JFK Assassination, and more.

Cuba agent: US-Afghan prisoner swap a precedent

The Washington Post

HAVANA — A Cuban intelligence agent who spent years in jail in the United States says the exchange of five Taliban detainees for a U.S. Army sergeant held captive in Afghanistan could set a precedent for a similar swap with Cuba.

Fernando Gonzalez returned to the island in February after serving 15 years behind bars.

Gonzalez said Monday that the only thing needed is political will by the Obama administration to negotiate a swap of U.S. government subcontractor Alan Gross for three Cuban agents still imprisoned in the United States.

Gross was arrested in Cuba in 2009 while working to set up hard-to-detect Internet networks on the island as part of a U.S. government development contract. He was sentenced to 15 years.

Alan Gross pretende volver este año a EEUU vivo o muerto, según su abogado

notimerica

LA HABANA, 23 Abr. (Reuters/EP) -

   El contratista estadounidense Alan Gross, condenado en Cuba por vender equipos de telecomunicaciones, pretende regresar a su país de origen este año, ya sea vivo o muerto, según ha alertado este miércoles su abogado, Scott Gilbert.

   "Alan dijo inequívocamente que cumplirá 65 años el próximo 2 de mayo y que será el último cumpleaños que celebra en La Habana", ha dicho el representante legal en declaraciones realizadas a varios periodistas.

   Gilbert ha insistido en que el estado de salud de Gross es delicado. "No está bien. Cinco años de reclusión le están costando. Ha perdido parte de la visión del ojo derecho, le falta un diente y cojea por problemas en sus caderas. Ha perdido unos 50 kilos", ha relatado.

   El abogado, que está en La Habana para abordar el caso de su cliente con las autoridades cubanas, ha vuelto a exigir una mayor implicación del Gobierno de Barack Obama para solucionar la situación en la que se encuentra Gross.

CASO GROSS

   Gross fue detenido en diciembre de 2009 en La Habana cuando estaba trabajando para la USAID con el fin de facilitar el acceso a Internet a la comunidad judía en Cuba introduciendo equipos de comunicación satelital, prohibidos en la isla caribeña.

   Tras permanecer dos años en prisión preventiva, en marzo de2011 fue condenado a 15 años de cárcel por llevar a cabo "actos contra la independencia o la integridad del Estado cubano".

   Desde entonces, Estados Unidos ha solicitado insistentemente a Cuba que libere a Gross por razones humanitarias, ya que, según argumenta, se encuentra gravemente enfermo. "Creo que no sobrevivirá a esta terrible experiencia", ha dicho su mujer, Judy.

   Las autoridades cubanas han rechazado estas acusaciones, aseverando que el estado de salud del contratista estadounidense es "normal" y que "realiza regularmente intensos ejercicios físicos" para mantenerse en forma.

HUELGA DE HAMBRE

   En este contexto, Gross llevó a cabo una huelga de hambre de nueve días que, según aclaró en un comunicado difundido por Gilbert, inició "por el trato al que está sometido por los gobiernos" de Washington y La Habana.

   "Estoy ayunando para objetar las falsedades y la inacción de ambos gobiernos, no sólo en relación a su responsabilidad compartida por mi detención arbitraria, sino también por la falta de cualquier esfuerzo razonable o válido para resolver la situación", dijo.

   Además, indicó que el intento de Estados Unidos de crear, a través de su Agencia para el Desarrollo Internacional (USAID), una red social parecida a Twitter para favorecer la comunicación entre los cubanos, "ha sido la gota que colmó el vaso".

   Gross consideró que el hecho de que la USAID haya admitido la autoría de este proyecto pone en riesgo su vida, ya que, de acuerdo con fuentes citadas por la prensa estadounidense, el objetivo real de esta red social sería derrocar al Gobierno de Raúl Castro.

POSIBLE CANJE

   Las posibilidad del diálogo bilateral permanece en el aire, principalmente, porque La Habana pretende llevar a la mesa de negociaciones el caso de los cinco agentes de los servicios de Inteligencia detenidos en 1998 en el país norteamericano y condenados en 2001 por espionaje, para proponer un canje de presos.

   'Los cinco' son considerados unos héroes en Cuba porque se les atribuye la infiltración en redes terroristas cubano-estadounidenses para evitar atentados en la isla caribeña, sin embargo, en Estados Unidos son considerados espías que pretendían atentar en suelo norteamericano.

   El caso Gross puso fin a un breve periodo de distensión en las relaciones bilaterales, propiciado por la llegada a la Casa Blanca de Barack Obama, que flexibilizó el embargo comercial impuesto a la isla desde hace más de medio siglo al permitir que los cubano-estadounidenses puedan viajar libremente y enviar remesas a su país.

Alan Gross, an American imprisoned in Cuba ends hunger strike

Newsday

WASHINGTON - (AP) -- An American imprisoned in Cuba for more than four years after illegally working to set up Internet access on the island suspended his hunger strike Friday after more than a week.

Alan Gross, 64, had eaten his last solid meal April 2 and said in a statement that he was fasting to protest his treatment by the U.S. and Cuban governments. In a statement released through his lawyer, Gross said he suspended his fast Friday because his 91-year-old mother asked him to stop. Gross, who lived in Maryland before his arrest, said he was suspending his "protest fast" but "there will be further protests to come."

"There will be no cause for further intense protest when both governments show more concern for human beings and less malice and derision toward each other," the statement said.

Gross was arrested in Cuba in 2009 while working in the Communist-run country to set up Internet access, which bypassed local restrictions and monitoring. At the time, Gross was working as a subcontractor for the U.S. government's U.S. Agency for International Development, which promotes democracy on the island. Cuba considers USAID's programs illegal attempts by the U.S. to undermine its government, and Gross was tried and sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Gross' hunger strike was in part prompted by an Associated Press story published last week that revealed that USAID secretly created a "Cuban Twitter" communications network to stir unrest on the island. The social media network, called ZunZuneo, was publicly launched shortly after Gross was arrested. It reached tens of thousands of subscribers before being shut down in 2012 when a government grant ended.

Gross' lawyer, Scott Gilbert, had said that learning about the ZunZuneo story was the "final straw" that prompted Gross' hunger strike.