Jailed contractor Alan Gross asked the U.S. government to sign a “non-belligerency pact” with Cuba as a first step toward negotiating his release, according to a Cuba specialist who met with the American development worker. Peter Kornbluh, a Cuba expert at the National Security Archives, a nonprofit research center in Washington, D.C., met with Gross [...]
October roundup
The U.S. Agency for International Development awarded a three-year, $4.3 million Cuba grant to the New America Foundation. That triggered some mild controversy because the foundation also operates the U.S.-Cuba Policy Initiative, aimed at promoting engagement with Cuba. News of the grant surprised Anya Landau French, director of the U.S.-Cuba Policy Initiative. She wrote: What [...]
July roundup
Cuban dissident leader Oswaldo Payá and activist Harold Cepero were killed in a car crash in eastern Cuba on July 22. They were traveling with two foreign supporters – Jens Aron Modig, 27, of Sweden, and Angel Carromero, 27, of Spain. Modig told Cuban authorities he traveled to the island to deliver 4,000 euros – [...]
February roundup
Alan Gross smuggled a special SIM card into Cuba to try to prevent Cuban authorities from detecting satellite phone transmissions, the Associated Press reported on Feb. 12. The AP’s Desmond Butler wrote: Piece by piece, in backpacks and carry-on bags, American aid contractor Alan Gross made sure laptops, smartphones, hard drives and networking equipment were [...]
January roundup
Supporters and foes of USAID’s Cuba programs continued in January debating the efficiency of the agency’s democracy-promotion efforts. On Jan. 16, CaféFuerte published a sentencing document that has new details of Cuba’s case against American subcontractor Alan Gross. (Download 15 MB document here). The document shows that Cuban spies began tracking Gross in mid-2004 when [...]
September roundup
Former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson journeyed to Havana in early September, saying he was on a mission to secure the release of jailed American subcontractor Alan Gross. He told the Associated Press that he had promised Judy Gross that he would see her husband in jail. But then he called Gross “an American hostage,” [...]