VOA News – U.S. President Barack Obama announced a major shift in U.S. relations with Cuba on Wednesday, after the country’s communist leaders released Alan Gross, an American who had been imprisoned there for five years.
Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro, in simultaneous speeches from Washington and Havana, said they had exchanged American and Cuban prisoners each had held for years. They will also open a path to increased economic and travel ties between the two countries, ending more than a half-century of diplomatic isolation borne in the Cold War.
“Isolation has not worked. It’s time for a new approach,” Obama said, in explaining the move toward normalizing relations. “I believe this contact will do more to empower the Cuban people.”
In lauding the move, Castro said, “We have decided to re-establish diplomatic relations” with the U.S.
He said, “This decision by President Barack Obama deserves respect and recognition by our people,” but he also called for a complete end to the U.S. economic blockade.
The two leaders talked by phone for more than 45 minutes on Tuesday, the first substantive presidential contact between the U.S. and Cuba since 1961.
Gross’ release
Later Wednesday, Gross made a short statement in Washington. He said he had learned of his impending release on Tuesday. He said he was happy to be home and that he was thankful for all those who worked for his release.
Obama said Gross and a man described as “one of the most important (U.S.) intelligence agents” were exchanged for three Cuban intelligence operatives who had spent more than a decade in U.S. prisons.
Talks for Gross’ release lasted about a year, with the Vatican playing a significant role, Democratic Senator Dick Durbin said Wednesday.
Both Obama and Castro thanked Pope Francis, the first Latin American pontiff, in starting a dialogue between the two countries.
The Vatican replied on Wednesday that, in recent months, Francis had written letters to both leaders, inviting them to “resolve humanitarian questions of common interest, including the situation of certain prisoners, in order to initiate a new phase in relations” between the two countries.
