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U.S. Shouldn't Hand Cuba an Alan Gross-for-Spies Deal
(Washington Post) Editorial - Alan Gross this week began his fourth year in a Cuban military prison. Gross, now 63, was arrested on Dec. 3, 2009, after he delivered satellite telephones to members of Cuba's tiny Jewish community. He had been hired to provide the equipment by the U.S. Agency for International Development; the aim was to help Cuban Jews connect to the Internet. In 2011, Gross was convicted of crimes against the state and sentenced to 15 years in prison. Cuban president Raul Castro has repeatedly turned down proposals to release him. The Castro government says it wants to repair relations with the U.S., win the lifting of what remains of the U.S. trade embargo and attract investment from American companies. So why keep Gross in prison? The answer is that Cuba wants to swap its prisoner for five Cuban spies who were arrested in Florida in 1998. There is no equivalence between Gross and the five prisoners. President Obama should consider new steps to punish the Castro regime for the continued imprisonment of Gross, and the administration should do more to raise his case in international forums. Better relations between Cuba and the U.S. must be conditioned on real steps toward democratization by Havana. But until Gross is released, they ought to get worse.