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TMCNet: Richardson urging Cuba to free U.S. contractor

[August 26, 2010]

Richardson urging Cuba to free U.S. contractor

Washington, Aug 26, 2010 (EFE via COMTEX) -- New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, currently on a trade mission to Cuba, confirmed Thursday that he is trying to convince Havana that releasing a U.S. contractor held since last December would be "another good step" toward improved ties with the United States.

In a telephone interview with CNN from the Cuban capital, Richardson said that he will work "very hard" on Thursday, the last day of his visit, to try and secure the release of Alan Gross.

"My objective is very clear: See if I can get Gross out, or make it easier for somebody else to do it," the governor said.

Richardson, the son of a U.S. father and Mexican mother, speaks fluent Spanish and met in 1996 with Fidel Castro to negotiate the release of three political prisoners.

Gross, 60, works for a Maryland company hired by the U.S. Agency for International Development to promote democracy in communist Cuba.

He was arrested last December for distributing laptop computers, mobile phones and other communications equipment to groups opposed to the Cuban government, according to Havana, which has yet to bring any formal charges against the contractor.

Richardson said that on this occasion "there are no plans" for him to meet with the now-retired Fidel Castro, but he revealed that he raised the matter of Gross's release in a conversation with Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez.

The U.S. State Department has admitted having asked Richardson to pressure Havana to "immediately" free Gross.

Cuba told Richardson that Gross is in a hospital in Havana and that he is receiving "good (medical) treatment." The Democratic governor reiterated, just as he had done on Tuesday in an interview with MSNBC, that U.S.-Cuba relations have improved in the past year.

Richardson said that he perceived a "better atmosphere" in Cuba after the release, so far, of 26 political prisoners.

The Cuban government will soon have released 32 political prisoners of a total of 52 announced in July, all of whom are members of the so-called opposition "Group of 75" and were thrown in prison in March 2003.

The Obama administration, meanwhile, is evaluating relaxing the travel, academic, religious and cultural restrictions on the island, the governor said.

President Barack Obama has sought to improve relations with Cuba with measures such as the lifting of restrictions on Cuban-Americans' travel and remittances to the communist-ruled island and the possible resumption of direct mail service.

The president says, however, that he will not consider ending the 48-year-old economic embargo against Cuba in the absence of democratic reforms by the government in Havana. EFE cae/bp

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