U.S. senators and Raul discuss Gross

From The Associated Press

HAVANA (AP) — A senior U.S. senator met with imprisoned American Alan Gross and discussed the man’s case in a long sit-down with Cuban President Raul Castro, but told The Associated Press on Friday that Gross was not likely to be released any time soon.

Sen. Patrick Leahy, a Democrat from Vermont, said he saw Gross on Thursday afternoon at a Havana military prison. He and Sen. Richard Shelby, a Republican from Alabama, later met for 2 1/2 hours with Castro and offered to take Gross back to the United States on their plane.

“You can imagine how far that went,” Leahy said in a phone interview. He added that “we have a long way to go” to win Gross’s release.

The Maryland native is serving a 15-year jail term for spiriting satellite and other communications equipment onto the island while on a USAID-funded democracy-building program. Cuba considers the programs an attempt to destabilize the government, and Gross was convicted of crimes against the state, not espionage.

The Gross affair has chilled relations between the U.S. and Cuba and short-circuited any chance of rapprochement since President Barack Obama took office.

Leahy said Castro agreed that Gross “was no spy.” Gross spoke virtually no Spanish and traveled to Cuba five times under his own name before his arrest in December 2009.

The talks with Castro and the senators was the first high-level meeting between the Cold War enemies since former President Jimmy Carter dined with Castro during a visit to the island in April 2010. Leahy, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee and a senator since 1975, said the late-night meeting with Castro was cordial and open.

The senator said Castro brought up the case of five Cuban agents sentenced to long jail terms in the United States, including one who was released last year but has not been allowed to return to Cuba while he serves out three years probation.

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