Nor­mal­ize rela­tions with Cuba As appeared in the Mil­wau­kee Jour­nal Sen­tinel, Dec. 6, 2012:

The Jour­nal Sentinel’s recent report on the deci­sion of a for­mer United States gov­ern­ment con­tract agent to sue the U.S. gov­ern­ment over his con­tin­ued impris­on­ment in Cuba high­lights the chal­lenge and oppor­tu­nity that Pres­i­dent Barack Obama has to turn around over 50 years of failed U.S. pol­icy toward our Caribbean neigh­bor (Nov. 29).

Alan Gross was repeat­edly sent to Cuba under one of our government’s pro­grams to sup­pos­edly fos­ter U.S.-style democ­racy there and was given a 15-year sen­tence for attempt­ing to dis­trib­ute satel­lite tele­phone tech­nol­ogy, which is gen­er­ally restricted to U.S. gov­ern­ment intel­li­gence and other agents.

So far, the U.S. has demanded his release while reject­ing Cuba’s offers to sit down and nego­ti­ate mutual con­cerns. This includes the refusal so far for Obama to par­don and release the Cuban Five, most of whom are in their 15th year of impris­on­ment in the U.S., based on their con­vic­tion in Miami for attempt­ing to mon­i­tor the actions of extrem­ists in the Cuban-American com­mu­nity there with a his­tory of ter­ror­ist acts against Cuba.

On Nov. 6, Obama won at least half of the Cuban-American vote in Miami/Dade and some 60% of the Latino vote in Florida. He now has the oppor­tu­nity to work toward nor­mal­ized rela­tions with Cuba, to restore the right of U.S. cit­i­zens to travel there and for mutu­ally ben­e­fi­cial trade, since it is still ille­gal for any U.S. sup­plier to sell even a ham­mer or a bag of cement to any Cuban national, as Cuba tries to rebuild after Hur­ri­cane Sandy’s mas­sive destruc­tion in its sec­ond largest city.

That would be one change we can believe in.

Art Heitzer Mil­wau­kee

The original Journal Sentinel Article, as it appeared on Thursday, November 29, 2012. It may also be downloaded here: Alan Gross JS Article 2012-12-07 (4)

Read more about Alan Gross’ case here:

US rabbi says jailed American in good health – CBS News, November 28, 2012

American jailed in Cuba wants US to sign ‘non-belligerency pact’ to speed release – NBC News, Dec 2, 2012

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