Cuba Needs Friends This Holiday Season

Last Friday, December 3, marked the one year anniversary of Alan Gross' imprisonment in Cuba. At the time of his imprisonment, Gross was a subcontractor for DAI's civil society program in Cuba, funded by the United States Agency of International Development. It is now known that Gross was working with Cuba's small Jewish community, providing them with reading materials, access to information, possibly even internet access. During a week in which companies sold more than $1 billion on Cyber Monday, it is sad but true that the Cuban government's holiday wish list for its citizens excludes Wi-Fi access in homes, Kindles with global 3G or even the latest 4G smartphone with web-based gadgets.

Behind closed doors, Cuba has suggested a prisoner swap for Gross. Cuba will hand over Gross if the United States returns the "Cuban Five," a group of Cuban nationals who were convicted of espionage in the United States. Cuba admits the Five are intelligence officers who were, at minimum, gathering information for the Cuban government while living in the United States. The Obama administration denies that Gross was a spy and therefore refuses to discuss a prisoner swap. All of this, however, confuses the more fundamental issue.

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