Vol. 75/No. 31      September 5, 2011

Gross was arrested for distributing sophisticated satellite equipment in Cuba to counterrevolutionaries as part of U.S. operations to create a covert, high-speed network there.

He worked for Development Alternatives Inc. under the U.S. State Department’s USAID program, whose stated purpose is “furthering America’s foreign policy interests in expanding democracy and free markets.”

Development Alternatives paid Gross more than $500,000 for his work over a short period setting up connections for what the State Department claimed were “marginalized groups” in Cuba. Gross says these were primarily Jewish social organizations, a wholly unsubstantiated claim. When former President James Carter met with leaders of the Jewish community in Cuba in March he said, “They say they have complete freedom to worship and adequate internet communication with the outside world, and that they had no substantive contact with Alan Gross.”

Gross has received regular visits from his family and U.S. officials, Granma International reports. This stands in contrast to Washington’s treatment of the Cuban Five, Cuban revolutionaries imprisoned in the United States since 1998 on frame-up charges. The wives of Gerardo Hernández and René González—Adriana Pérez and Olga Salanueva respectively—have been denied U.S. visas to see their husbands.
 
 
Related articles:
Event in LA wins new support for Cuban Five
Cuban Five prisoner files for new hearing  
 
 
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