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Carter: Freeing US Contractor Not Part of Cuba Mission

VOA News March 29, 2011

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter says he is not in Cuba to seek the release of an American contractor who was jailed recently for crimes against the state.

Mr. Carter told reporters Tuesday in Havana that he spoke with Cuban officials about the case of Alan Gross, who started serving a 15-year sentence earlier this month for bringing communications equipment into the country. But Mr. Carter said he was not in Cuba to "take him out of the country."

The former president, who is on a three-day, private visit to Cuba, said his goal is to help improve relations between the two countries. He made his remarks ahead of a scheduled meeting with President Raul Castro.

Gross was arrested in Cuba in December 2009. The contractor has said he was just trying to improve Internet access for the island's small Jewish community. The case has held up progress in relations between the two longtime ideological foes.

Mr. Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, have been in Havana since Monday. He has met with members of Cuba's Jewish community, as well as with Roman Catholic Cardinal Jaime Ortega, who has helped secure the release of some of the country's political prisoners.

Mr. Carter is on his second visit to Cuba. His foundation, the Carter Center, says the invitation to Cuba came from the government in Havana. He is scheduled to meet Wednesday with dissident blogger Yoani Sanchez.

Mr. Carter traveled to Cuba in 2002, the year he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, and met with then-President Fidel Castro. Mr. Carter is the most senior political figure to visit the communist-led island since 1959, when Fidel Castro took power. His younger brother, Raul Castro, formally became president in 2008.