UPDATE:
Never before in my lifetime have I heard a Cuban leader utter these words: “The President of the United States of America, president Obama deserves respect.”

Both president Obama and Cuban leader Raoul Castro thanked Pope Francis for key diplomacy behind the scenes.

At 12:12 as the statements were read simultaneously in Havana and in Washington, the church bells began to toll in Cuba for this historic moment!

The Cuban president Castro also released a number of political prisoners. Perhaps Obama could move to close down not the prison, but the entire US base at Guantánamo Bay and return the land to the Cuban people.

US-Cuba diplomacy breakthrough: Pope Francis led secret Vatican talks between Barack Obama and Raul Castro

Pope Francis and the Vatican have reportedly played an important role in facilitating secret talks between the United States and Cuba to lead to a thaw in relations after decades of estrangement and embargo.

Over 18 months, a deal was negotiated between Havana and Washington during meetings in Canada, encouraged by Pope Francis who sent personal letters to Barack Obama and Raul Castro. The Vatican then held the final talks this fall.

Obama and Castro agreed in a 45-minute telephone call to put aside major differences and normalise new relations. That represented the first communication at the presidential level with Cuba since the Cuban revolution.

Miami exiles pressure U.S. to loosen policy on Cuba | June 2014 |

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Cuba has released USAID subcontractor Alan Gross from prison on humanitarian grounds.

○ AP sources: US, Cuba seek to normalize relations
○ Obama ready to overhaul Cuba relations in wake of Alan Gross release

History in the making after prisoner swap.

More below the fold …

Time for Obama to get Alan Gross out of prison

As USAID subcontractor Alan Gross begins his sixth year of incarceration in Cuba, the Obama administration continues to resist the one obvious way to win his freedom — a humanitarian exchange for three Cuban spies
who have been in U.S. jails for over 16 years.

“There’s no equivalency,” Secretary of State John Kerry insisted last April. “We’re not going to trade as if its spy for spy.” A Department of State spokesperson reiterated that position again this week on the fifth
anniversary of Gross’ arrest.

With Alan Gross’ life at stake, as well as the ability of the White House to advance U.S. interests in better relations with Cuba, President Obama should reconsider this self-defeating position.

To be sure, the missions of Alan Gross and the so-called “Cuban Five” (now three, since two were released after completing their sentences)were not equivalent. The Cubans were intelligence agents, part of an espionage network that targeted Homestead Air Force Base and Cuban-American exile groups that Cuba suspected of orchestrating a wave of terrorist bombings in Havana tourist hotels.

Miami Activists Close Year with Meeting for the Five

HAVANA, Cuba, Dec 15 (acn) Activists with the Miami-based Martiana Alliance Coalition close their 2014 agenda with a meeting on Sunday, December 14 to demand the release of Gerardo Hernandez, Ramón Labañino and Antonio Guerrero, three of the five Cuban anti-terrorist fighters, who are still held in US prisons.

Main points during the activity included the current situation of the three Cubans jailed in the United States, the possibility of a prisoner swap between them and USAID contractor Alan Gross, who is serving a 15-year prison sentence in Cuba for subversive activity. This issue is on the table in the United States since it was addressed by an editorial on The New York Times last November 2 as a moral obligation of the Obama administration in the case of Gross, the news release explains.