(Vatican Radio) US Legislators who visited Cuba for talks with President Raul Castro,
are back home without jailed compatriot Alan Gross. The seven strong delegation led
by Senator Patrick Leahy, met with senior Cuban officials and President Raul Castro,
discussing how relations, fractured more than half a century ago, can be healed. Like
other high profile visitors including former President Jimmy Carter and New Mexico
Governor Bill Ricardson, they came and left without Alan Gross. Sixty three year old
Gross was convicted by Cuban Authorties of bringing in internet communications equipment
for the Island's Jewish community, as part of a USAID program.
A Cuban court
ruled this was illegal, and he's now serving a a 15 year jail term. Cuba wants five
of its agents freed from US jails, and the other constraints of the US legal system.
Senator Leahy, who's visited Cuba before to push this issue, confirmed a meeting
with Gross this time, predicting that: "I hope the day will come soon when he can
be home."
Alan Gross who's lost an enormous amount of weight since being jailed
in 2009, is being held at a military hospital. Listen to James Blears report