Alan Gross
Secretary of State John Kerry on Tuesday called on the
Vatican to help secure the release of an American contractor who has been
jailed in Cuba for nearly five years.
"I raised the issue of Alan Gross and his captivity,
and we hope very much that there might be able to be assistance with respect to
that issue," Kerry said.
Gross, 64, was arrested in late 2009, after being accused of
smuggling sophisticated satellite and other telecommunications equipment to
Cuba's tiny Jewish community. Gross has said he was only trying to increase
internet access in Cuba.
But he was convicted by a Cuban court in March 2011 of
crimes "against the independence and territorial integrity of the
state" and sentenced to 15 years behind bars. Cuba deems the U.S.-backed
technological program subversive.
The arrest hampered a brief and historically unusual period
of detente in U.S.-Cuba relations after President Barack Obama took office and
promptly eased restrictions on travel and remittances to the island for
Cuban-Americans with family in Communist Cuba.
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