Jimmy Carter to visit Jewish community in Cuba
By ANDREA RODRIGUEZ
Associated Press
HAVANA -- Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter is scheduled to meet with
Jewish leaders shortly after arriving in Cuba Monday, suggesting that
his visit will deal partly with the case of a U.S. contractor whose
conviction has further dented relations between Havana and Washington.
An agenda released Saturday by Cuba's Foreign Relations Ministry says
Carter is to visit a Jewish institution. The imprisoned contractor, Alan
Gross, had said he was trying to improve internet access for the small
Jewish community when he was arrested in December 2009.
The agenda indicates Carter also is scheduled to meet with Cuban
President Raul Castro as well as Roman Catholic Cardinal Jaime Ortega
before leaving on Wednesday.
The trip is under the auspices of the Carter Center, whose officials
have given only a general description of the motives for the visit,
saying the aim is to discuss economic policies and improve relations
between the U.S. and Cuba.
U.S. officials have made clear that the recent 15-year sentence imposed
on Gross is a stumbling block to any rapprochement.
Gross, 61, was working for Bethesda, Maryland-based Development
Alternatives, Inc. on a USAID-backed democracy-building project that
Cuba's government says is aimed at toppling its socialist system and
described him as a mercenary.
Gross's wife Judy E. Gross issued a statement on Saturday welcoming
Carter's mission.
"If he is able to help Alan in any way while he is there, we will be
extraordinarily grateful," she said in the emailed statement. "Our
family is desperate for Alan to return home, after nearly 16 months in
prison. We continue to hope and pray that the Cuban authorities will
release him immediately on humanitarian grounds."
Carter's 1971-1981 presidency coincided with the least-chilly period of
U.S.-Cuban relations since shortly after Fidel Castro led his rebels to
power in 1959.
There have been no diplomatic relations between the countries since the
1960s and the United States maintains economic and financial sanctions
on the island.
Carter visited Cuba in May 2002 on a six-day tour during which he met
with then-President Fidel Castro and criticized both Washington's
embargo and the lack of political plurality on the island.
http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/03/26/2135786/jimmy-carter-to-visit-jewish-community.html
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