ALONGTHEMALECÓN: Going nowhere: The solitary walks of Alan Gross

Sarah Stephens is director of the Center for Democracy in the Americas, or CDA, a Washington, D.C., organization that opposes U.S. policy toward Cuba. She had been seeking permission to see Gross since authorities arrested him for bringing high-tech communications gear into Cuba as part of a U.S. Agency for International Development program.
“I think that it was important that we were granted a visit,” Stephens said in an interview. “It means something. It's not like he's about to be released, but I think we really have to take seriously the progress that can be made by non-official actors, people who care on both sides.”