Alan Gross

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Alan Gross (2014)

Alan Phillip Gross (born May 2, 1949 in Baltimore , Maryland ) is an American IT specialist, social worker and development worker . He was arrested in Cuba in December 2009 after he, himself a Jew , illegally distributed communications materials to Cuba's Jewish communities as a subcontractor of the US government's development organization USAID . In March 2011 he was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment for "acts against the independence and integrity of the national territory" of Cuba. On December 17, 2014, he was released early and was able to return home to the United States.

Career

Gross studied social work at the University of Maryland and Virginia Commonwealth University . He later worked as a development worker in over 50 countries around the world. In 2001 he founded his own company, the Joint Business Development Center (JBDC). This wants to bring the Internet to places where there was previously little or no access. His work has taken him to countries such as Iraq , Afghanistan , Armenia and Kuwait .

Arrest and trial

On December 3, 2009, Gross was arrested in Havana airport while leaving Cuba . According to his wife, he was in Cuba to "improve communication within the Jewish communities of Cuba and their internet access." In the same year, allegedly for the same reason, he had already entered Cuba four times on a tourist visa , which is a violation of Cuban entry regulations. His company, the JBDC is about the company Development Alternatives Inc. (DAI) sub contractor of the state US Agency for International Development (USAID). Among other things, he is said to have distributed satellite telephones , the importation of which into Cuba is prohibited without the corresponding state approval. The distribution of money and other materials originating from the US government or its representatives is also subject to penalties of three to eight years. According to the charges brought against him, he is said to have traveled to Cuba in 2004 to deliver a video camera and medicines to a leader of the Cuban Freemasons . He worked for the Cuban secret service and was a main witness for the prosecution in the later proceedings against Gross.

According to an AP report from February 2012, Gross is said to have appeared in Cuba not as a representative of a US government organization, but as a representative of a Jewish, humanitarian organization. He is also said to have smuggled devices into Cuba with the help of American Jews who carried individual parts in their hand luggage. Gross' reports to USAID indicate that he was aware of the risks and dangers associated with his activity in Cuba. In his report on his fourth trip, known as the final report, he summarizes his work as “ wireless networks set up in three communities that are used by 325 users ”. When he was arrested in Cuba in December 2009, he had a microchip with him that prevented satellite calls from being located. The chip is not available on the open market and is mainly used by the CIA and the US Department of Defense.

In March 2011 Gross was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment for “acts against the independence and integrity of the national territory” of Cuba . The sentence was upheld by Cuba's Supreme Court in August of the same year. According to the court, he was proven to have smuggled technical equipment into the country to set up internal networks. This activity was part of a US government program aimed at destabilizing Cuba and undermining the country's constitutional order.

Efforts to get a release

Immediately after the Supreme Court confirmed Gross' conviction, a White House spokesman criticized Gross' and demanded the "immediate and unconditional release" of Gross'. Since then, numerous diplomatic efforts have been made to obtain Gross' release or an exchange of prisoners. For example, New Mexico's ex-Governor Bill Richardson traveled to Cuba in September 2011 on a “private mission”. His offer was for the US to remove Cuba from the list of terrorist supportive states , which has included Cuba since the Reagan era. However, the benefits for Cuba would have been rather minor. All of the penalties specified there are also part of the US embargo against Cuba . An exchange against the Miami Five , who had been sentenced to long prison terms in the USA for espionage, was also under discussion. Richardson, however, had to return home empty-handed.

Later, Cuba's parliamentary speaker Ricardo Alarcón made it clear that Cuba would not unilaterally release Gross. According to anonymous sources, the Cuban government refused an offer by the US government to exchange Gross for René González , one of the Miami Five, who was released on October 7, 2011 but was banned from traveling for the three-year probation period as insufficient. At the end of October 2011, after hearing about the exchange of the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit for more than 1,000 imprisoned Palestinian prisoners , Gross himself reportedly expressed his wish to a US rabbi who had come from Washington on a detention visit to exchange for the five Cuban spies become.

Gross arrived in the United States on December 17, 2014

After his mother contracted life-threatening lung cancer in 2010, Gross applied for leave of absence for humanitarian reasons in order to be able to fulfill her last wish to see her again. René González, who was convicted of being a Cuban spy, received appropriate permission from the US government in 2012 to visit his terminally ill brother in Cuba. However, Gross was refused, his mother finally died in June 2014 at the age of 92.

On December 17, 2014, Gross was officially released for humanitarian reasons and was able to travel home to the USA immediately afterwards. In return, the United States released the last three remaining prisoners of the Miami Five . In addition to a long-term CIA agent in Cuba, 53 Cuban opponents of the regime are said to have been released. The exchange took place in connection with the agreement on the resumption of diplomatic relations between Cuba and the USA and the announcement of a realignment of Cuban policy by President Obama. This was preceded by 18-month secret negotiations, which Haitian President Michel Martelly , the Government of Canada and Pope Francis were involved in initiating and mediating .

Reviews of the Alan Gross case

In the opinion of the ex- US interest representative in Cuba, Wayne S. Smith , Gross is a victim of the US policy towards Cuba, which was continued under President Barack Obama , and its unfortunate and outdated programs to “promote democracy in Cuba”, which are supported by USAID The aim is to eliminate the current Cuban government. The Cuban-American political scientist Arturo López-Levy from the University of Denver , an expert on Cuban conditions and a Jew himself, emphasizes that Gross was not arrested for being Jewish or for helping the Jewish community to network better but because it was on the US government pay slip. However, this explains that he is just a harmless development aid worker.

Private life

Gross is married and has two grown daughters.

Web links

Commons : Alan Gross  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Americans and Cubans Still Mired in Distrust , New York Times of September 15, 2011 (English)
  2. ↑ a b Knut Henkel: Clinton's husband in Havana , taz-blogs from December 5, 2010
  3. ↑ On Import (Entry) - Articles and Products subject to Requirements ( Memento of December 6, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) , website of the Cuban Customs, via Internet Archive , accessed October 15, 2011 (Spanish)
  4. ↑ Sentencia judicial Cuba conocia laboratory de Alan Gross desde el 2004 in Café Fuerte of 16 January 2012 accessed 16 January 2012 (Spanish)
  5. ^ A b Associated Press : Desmond Butler: AP Impact: USAID contractor work in Cuba detailed. In: Bloomberg Businessweek. February 13, 2012, accessed February 17, 2012 .
  6. ^ A b Paul Berger: What Did Alan Gross Do in Cuba? Reports Show Accused Spy Knew the Risks He Was Taking. In: The Jewish Daily Forward. February 15, 2012, accessed February 17, 2012 .
  7. ^ Alan Gross and the "Cyberwar" ( Memento from September 20, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) , IPS News from March 14, 2011
  8. ↑ Tim Padgett: The Alan Gross Affair: The US and Cuba Begin Their Dysfunctional Diplomatic Dance , TIME Blogs of August 9, 2011 (English)
  9. ↑ People's Supreme Court upholds sentence handed down to Alan Phillip Gross ( memento of November 30, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) in: Granma International of August 8, 2011, accessed on December 30, 2011 (English)
  10. ↑ US citizen loses 40 kilos in Cuban custody , Welt Online from August 5, 2011
  11. ↑ Fernando Ravsberg: La salida humanitaria , Cartas desde Cuba, Blogs de BBC Mundo of September 22, 2011 (Spanish)
  12. ↑ AP Interview: Cuba official says no release for jailed American as humanitarian gesture ( Memento of March 5, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) , Associated Press of October 9, 2011 (English)
  13. ↑ Knut Henkel: Difficult Agent Exchange , taz.de, October 14, 2011
  14. ↑ David Shneyer: A report on my visit with Alan Gross ( Memento from December 17, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) in the blog Kehila Chadasha from November 2, 2011, accessed on November 8, 2011 (English)
  15. ↑ Juan O. Tamayo: Mother of US prisoner in Cuba Alan Gross dies at 92, in: Miami Herald of June 18, 2014, accessed on July 7, 2014 (English)
  16. ↑ Sebastian Fischer: USA and Cuba: An Enmity Retires , Spiegel Online from December 17, 2014
  17. ↑ Jacqueline Charles: Haiti's Martelly played role in Gross release, in: Miami Herald of December 17, 2014 (English)
  18. ↑ Marcus Pindur: The Cuba Blockade becomes fragile, in: Deutschlandradio Kultur from December 18, 2014
  19. ↑ Knut Henkel: Naive victim or accomplished US spy? , taz.de of February 7, 2011
personal data
SURNAME Gross, Alan
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gross, Alan Phillip
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American development worker, convicted in Cuba of endangering the state
DATE OF BIRTH May 2, 1949
PLACE OF BIRTH Baltimore , Maryland , USA