Cuba Will Put U.S. Citizen in the Accused Bench

Cuba will sit in the accused bench the United States contractor Alan Gross, whose arrest in 2009 frustrated a brief honeymoon with Barack Obama’s government and threatens to excite a half-century old feud between the United States and the communist island.

Gross, 61 years old, faces a sentence of 20 years in prison for “acts against the independence or the territorial integrity of the State,” in a process of unpredictable duration and whose oral hearing commences this Friday at Havana’s Provincial Tribunal, according to an official communication released a week ago.

Washington, which demands Gross’ immediate liberation and considers his detention “a major obstacle” to advancing dialogue with Cuba, reacted to the official announcement by asking for a “fair trial.”

“We hope he receives a fair trial and is permitted to return home,” said Philip Crowley, spokesperson of the Department of State.

United States consular functionaries, Gross’ family and lawyer may attend to the trial. A spokesperson for the Section of the United States’ Interest in Havana (SINA) told the AFP that the case will be managed with “total privacy.”

Gross was detained in Havana on Dec. 3, 2009, because, according to the president himself, Raul Castro, he distributed “sophisticated mediums of communication” to opponents, acting as a “secret agent” for the United States.

Washington recognizes him as an employee of the company Development Alternatives (DAI) — subcontracted by the Department of State — which helped Cuban Jews communicate with the outside, giving them cell phones and computers; but that small community denies having had contact with him.

In a video provided by Cuban state security, appearing on the Internet as a “filtration,” an expert assures that its goal was to “create a technological platform outside of Cuban authorities’ control,” as part of a Washington strategy to “articulate a virtual web of mercenaries.”

In another filtration, but this time from WikiLeaks, a SINA analysis bet in 2009 that the “rebelliousness” and “appeal” of the Cuban young would renovate the lines of an “aged” opposition “disconnected” from the island’s reality.

La Habana considers political opponents and protesting bloggers “mercenaries” at the service of the United States.

Cuba and the United States, lacking diplomatic relations since 1961, experienced a truce shortly after the U.S. president lifted in April 2009 the flight and shipping restrictions on U.S. Cubans, imposed in 2004 by his predecessor George W. Bush.

The two countries began talks on migrations — which they’ve been holding since 1994 but were suspended since 2003 — but Gross’ detention ended the honeymoon and the rhetoric of confrontation once again became heated.

In negotiations, Cuba demands the lifting of the embargo that Washington has maintained since 1962 and democratic and economic openness in the U.S., as well as the liberation of the politically imprisoned.

Havana also asks to be removed from the list of countries that promote terrorism, that forces opposed to Cuba cease to be funded and that the five Cuban agents imprisoned in the United States since 1999 under espionage charges be liberated.

But Washington rejected a few months ago an eventual exchange of the five Cubans for Gross.