Why Five Years in Cuban Prison Sold Alan Gross on Obama Trip
- Former captive says Cuba is suffering under Castros, embargo
- Obama's upcoming visit first by sitting president since 1928
American aid worker Alan Gross, a former Cuban prisoner released on humanitarian grounds, pauses while speaking at a news conference in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2014.
Photographer: Andrew Harrer/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
It took five years, Pope Francis, President Barack Obama, and the exchange of three Cuban spies to get Alan Gross, gaunt and broken-toothed, out of a Havana prison.
But 15 months after his return to the U.S., and before Obama departs for a historic trip to the Communist nation on March 20, there may be no stronger advocate for fully restoring U.S. relations with the island nation and lifting a decades-old trade embargo.