LatinNews Daily - 21 October 2010

Cuba: On 18 October the US State Department revealed that the US Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, Arturo Valenzuela, met Cuba's foreign minister, Bruno Rodrí­guez, on the margins of the recent UN General Assembly (13-29 September). These are the highest ranking government officials from both sides to have met since US President Barack Obama took office in January 2009. According to Philip Crowley, spokesperson for the State Department, the meeting was exclusively about the release of Alan Gross, an American government contractor arrested by the Cubans in December 2009 on suspicion of spying and since then imprisoned in Havana. The US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton publicly requested his release in June. Gross, a USAID subcontractor, was arrested in Cuba where he was distributing portable computers, mobile phones and other technological equipment to the Cuban-Jewish community. He has not been charged, but Cuban authorities accuse him of espionage on the grounds that he was distributing illegal satellite equipment to what it claims are local dissident groups. On 19 October at a press conference with Hispanic media, President Obama stated that he would take only further steps to establish closer relations with Cuba if Cuba demonstrates that it is “serious" about adopting measures that will increase freedom. Obama added that although the recent release of political prisoners was “positive," he had not seen “the complete results of the promises" made by the Castro regime.