Castro meets US senators

Saturday, February 25, 2012

HAVANA, Cuba (AFP) — Cuban President Raul Castro met two visiting US senators who told AFP yesterday 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 US-funded democracy building programme. 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 US 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 US.

Washington last month rejected the idea of freeing Cuban nationals as part of a deal for Gross, saying the jailed American was not a spy.

The US 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.

The 55-year-old Cuban must remain on US soil for three years as part of a "supervised release" programme — 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 the US following Obama taking office in 2009.

Cuban state media said yesterday that Castro had discussed matters of mutual interest with the visiting US senators.