THEJEWISHDAILY: “Embargo Hampers Gross Freedom Talks”, por Arturo López-Levy (Inglés)

To understand the reason that Alan Gross, an American citizen, has been languishing in a Cuban jail for the past two years, it is instructive to listen to an exchange that took place recently at a hearing of the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee.
Rep. David Rivera (R-Fla.) demanded that Wendy Sherman, undersecretary of state for political affairs, reveal whether the United States has in any way tried to work with Havana to secure Gross’s release. He hoped we hadn’t.
Rivera told her, “It is outrageous that we would be negotiating with a terrorist regime to release an American hostage.”
In principle, this policy is right: Nations should not give in to the demands of terrorists. But none of this has anything to do with Gross or with Cuba.
Rivera’s references to terrorism and to Gross as a hostage are a manipulation. Cuba’s presence on the list of state sponsors of terrorism is a sham. The last three State Department reports written to justify Cuba’s inclusion on the list read more like arguments for taking it off. The State Department has not recorded a single terrorist action sponsored by or promoted by Cuba in two decades. Even the governments of Spain and Colombia, the supposed targets of Cuban-sponsored terror, do not support Cuba’s inclusion on the list.