Alan Gross on Trial Today in Cuba

But the indictment is really against our irrational and repressive blockade policy toward Cuba.

Trial begins in Cuba Friday for a U.S. government contractor charged with "acts against the integrity and independence" of Cuba. Alan Gross faces a possible 20-year sentence if convicted. The 61-year-old Maryland native was working on a USAID-program that promotes democracy. His family, and U.S. and company officials, say he was bringing communications equipment to Cuba's Jewish community. Cuban Jewish groups deny it.

9&10 News - Michigan

I like that: USAID “promotes democracy.” American democracy for third world countries, to be precise. Do I need to spell out what that looks like? Including overthrowing third world governments.

Working for Development Alternatives Inc. (an agency known for landing hefty contracts off US foreign policy, especially in countries like Afghanistan and Iraq) will make it hard for Alan Gross to prove he was not aware of the risk involved in his illegal mission in Cuba.

[...]

Gross was allegedly caught distributing sophisticated communications equipment on a tourist visa.

Development Alternatives sent him to Cuba to “empower civil society” through a program financed by USAID, a main instrument of the US foreign policy agenda that has sought for over a half a century to put an end to the Cuban revolution.

[...]

Speculation abounds as to whether Gross might then be released for humanitarian reasons with political perks for Cuba, swapped for some or all of the Cuban Five members jailed in the US or imprisoned for possibly the rest of his life or until some future negotiations.

[...]

Cuban leaders have been increasingly pessimistic about the Obama presidency and have gone as far as to call its policy towards Cuba just a continuation of past administrations.

Havana Times

Every time I think of Cuba, I think of the coup on Hugo Chavez where anti-Chavez goons tried to storm the Cuban embassy in Caracas. A Cuban diplomat told them, “For forty years we have stood against the most powerful force on the planet and have not let them in. We will not let you in.”