Jackson ends Cuba trip without Gross meeting

Posted on Monday, 09.30.13

Jackson ends Cuba trip without Gross meeting
BY ANNE-MARIE GARCIA
ASSOCIATED PRESS

HAVANA -- The Rev. Jesse Jackson ended a four-day visit to Cuba on
Monday without getting to visit a U.S. government development
subcontractor who is serving a 15-year sentence in the Caribbean nation.

The civil rights activist said he had requested access to Alan Gross of
Maryland, but island authorities told him it couldn't be arranged in time.

"I certainly inquired about him. No American can come here in good
conscience and not ask about him," Jackson said. "I would hope we would
maintain our vigil in trying to gain his release."

Gross was arrested in 2009 while importing restricted communications
equipment as part of a U.S. government-funded democracy building
program. He was accused of spying and convicted of crimes under a
statute governing crimes against the state.

Gross says he was only setting up Internet networks for island Jewish
groups and posed no threat to Cuban sovereignty.

Jackson told reporters Monday that Gross had been visited recently by
U.S. diplomats.

Cuba, for its part, demands the return of four of its agents who are
still serving long prison terms in the United States. One of the "Cuban
Five" was paroled in 2011 and returned to the island earlier this year.

Jackson arrived in Havana on Friday for unrelated talks with emissaries
of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, about Kevin
Scott Sutay, a former U.S. soldier taken prisoner by the guerrillas as
he was hiking through Colombian jungle in June.

The FARC asked Jackson for help in arranging a handover, and he agreed.

However, Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos subsequently said only
the Red Cross would be allowed to secure Sutay's release and warned that
there would be no "media spectacle."

Jackson said he still intends to travel to Colombia in the coming days
in hopes of working out an agreement.

"The American is free, but he cannot be retrieved, so he indeed is not
free," Jackson said. "He's no longer being held by FARC. He's being held
by a lack of access."

Source: "HAVANA: Jackson ends Cuba trip without Gross meeting - Latest
News - MiamiHerald.com" -
http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/09/30/3661128/jackson-ends-cuba-trip-without.html#storylink=misearch