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02/27/13 - GlobalPost - Havana says US not allowing visits with 'Cuba Five'
member

[1]Cuba on Wednesday accused the [2]United States of unfairly denying its
consular officials access to one of the members of the "Cuban Five" group
convicted of espionage in the United States.

Cuban officials said in a statement that for several months they have been
denied permission to meet with Rene Gonzalez, 56, who is on probation in
the United States after serving a 13-year prison sentence for espionage.

"Since September of 2012, the Department of State has denied all requests
by the Cuban Interests Section in Washington to let Cuban diplomatic
officials visit Rene," the Foreign Ministry in Havana said in a statement.

Havana said the "deliberate and cruel decision also represents an
additional punishment that is added to the already strict conditions of
Rene's supervised release."

The foreign ministry statement also accused the United States of
"toughening the conditions of his supervised release, making it seem even
more as prison conditions, with the aim of continuing to punish him after
so many years of unfair and cruel treatment."

Gonzalez was arrested in 1998 along with the other members of the Cuban
Five -- Gerardo Hernandez, Ramon Labanino, Antonio Guerrero and Fernando
Gonzalez.

The five men were found guilty in 2001 of trying to infiltrate US military
installations in South Florida and were given long prison terms, ranging
from 15 years to life. Gonzalez was released from prison in October 2011.

Cuba has acknowledged that the men were intelligence agents, but says they
simply aimed to gather information on "terrorist" plots by Cuban
expatriates in Florida -- not to spy on the US government.

In March of last year, the United States allowed Gonzalez to visit Cuba for
two weeks to visit his ailing mother.

There has been talk of a possible swap for Gonzalez and the other Cuban
agents for US contractor Alan Gross, who is serving a 15-year prison
sentence in Cuba. But Washington has rejected a trade.

Gross, 63, was arrested in December 2009 for distributing laptops and
communications equipment to members of Cuba's small Jewish community under
a State Department contract. He was found guilty at the trial of "acts
against the independence or territorial integrity" of the communist-ruled
island, and sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Cuba has indicated that it is ready to negotiate Gross's release in
exchange for the release of five captured Cuban spies held in the United
States, but Washington has ruled this out.

rd/sg/jm


http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/afp/130227/havana-says-us-not-allowing-visits-cuba-five-member

References

Visible links 1. http://www.globalpost.com/internal/section-config/cuba 2.
http://www.globalpost.com/internal/section-config/united-states


Original Source / Fuente Original:
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/afp/130227/havana-says-us-not-allowing-visits-cuba-five-member