Last Cuban Prisoner on 5 Years and Captors' Abuse

During his five years in a Cuban prison, Bethesda resident Alan Gross railed against the American government that seemed unable to free him, but he never gave up, and neither did his wife.

Gross, 66, told his story of confinement Sunday night to CBS Evening News anchor Scott Pelley on “60 Minutes.” The aid worker was imprisoned in Cuba for five years for allegations of spying before his release in a prisoner swap nearly a year ago.

His crime? Setting up Internet connections at Jewish synagogues in the Community country. After four trips without hassle, Gross was arrested in 2009.

He told “60 Minutes” that Cuban officials “threatened to hang me. They threatened to pull out my fingernails. They said I’d never see the light of day. I had to do three things in order to survive, three things every day. I thought about my family that survived the Holocaust. I exercised religiously every day. And I found something every day to laugh at.”

He denied he spied for the U.S., saying the Cuban officials who searched his bags during each of his five trips into the country knew what his equipment was for.

»See the full “60 Minutes” interview with Alan Gross here.

When asked by Pelley how quickly he thought he would be released Gross said he assumed he would be sent back to the U.S. within a week or two.

But that quickly changed to frustration.

“I said to myself, “’Where the hell are they?’ I didn’t have any idea I’d be there for five years,” Gross said.

His wife, Judy, held weekly rallies in front of the unofficial Cuban embassy in Washington, D.C., and at the White House to galvanize political efforts to send her husband home. During his absence, she lost the couple’s home, unable to pay all of their bills.

Release After 5 Years

ABC News reports Gross’ release was arranged in a humanitarian prisoner exchange announced by President Obama in December 2014 at the White House. The agreement was reached following more than a year of secret back channel talks at the highest levels of both governments that also included diplomacy by Pope Francis.

Before his release, Gross’ attorney described him as nearly toothless, barely able to walk because of arthritis and blind in one eye. He was kept in a small room at a military hospital 24 hours a day with two other Cuban political prisoners.

To secure Gross’ release, the United States released three Cuban agents convicted of spying on anti-Castro groups in Miami. That led to renewed diplomatic relations between the two countries after more than 50 years, with Secretary of State John Kerry visiting Cuba earlier this year.

Gross, 66, was in prison in Cuba from December 2009 to December 2014 after he went to the island nation as a subcontractor for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). He was sentenced to 15 years in prison for bringing computer equipment to Cuba illegally, part of a program to bring Internet connectivity to the country’s Jewish population.

In those five years, Gross lost his mother, the vision in his right eye and 100 pounds, according to a letter to President Barack Obama signed by 300 rabbis.

In November 2012, Gross and his wife, Judy Gross, filed a lawsuit against the U.S. government and the contractor, Development Alternatives, based out of Bethesda. Last year, a federal appeals court in Washington upheld the decision of the district court that the U.S. government was not liable since the incident took place outside the country, Reuters reported.

Background on Time in Cuba

Gross, a contractor for the U.S. Agency for International Development, was arrested in Cuba in December 2009 for distributing Internet and communications materials on behalf of the agency.

In April 2014 he staged a brief hunger strike to protest both his imprisonment by Cuba and U.S. inaction on his case, Patch earlier reported. His mother, Evelyn Gross, then 92, had persuaded her son to end the campaign.

An Associated Press story carried by NBC News says that Evelyn Gross died of lung cancer in November 2014 in Plano, Texas. Her son was not allowed to return for her funeral despite the urging of U.S. officials. Alan Gross called his mother regularly from prison, the AP reports, and he had previously asked to visit his ill mother before she died. Gross promised to return to prison in Cuba if he were allowed to visit his mother, but Cuban officials refused.

Maryland’s Congressional delegation highlighted the issue during Gross’ time in prison, from bringing congressional resolutions to the floor to directly speaking with Cuban President Raul Castro. But despite these efforts, Gross remained in prison as his health deteriorated, his case entangled in the larger U.S-Cuba debate.

Congress Criticizes Aid Program

A U.S. government plan to create a Twitter-like platform in Cuba was dumb and may have endangered Gross’ life and others around the world, Sen. Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat, said at a Congressional hearing in April 2014.

The USAID social media program was intended to popularize a Cuban version of Twitter known as ZunZuneo among youths to spark political conversations and dissent. Its existence from 2010 to 2012 was revealed by the Associated Press.

Leahy called the Twitter program “cockamamie” and “dumb in its inception.”

Gross’s lawyer, Scott Gilbert, said USAID’s actions put his client at greater risk.

“Once Alan was arrested, it is shocking that USAID would imperil his safety even further by running a covert operation in Cuba,” said Gilbert in April 2014. “USAID has made one absurdly bad decision after another. Running this program is contrary to everything we have been told by high-level representatives of the Obama Administration about USAID’s activities in Cuba.”

»Screenshot of former USAID contractor Alan Gross of Bethesda from “60 Minutes;” and pictured with his wife, Judy Gross, photo special to Patch