HAVANA (Reuters) – The head of the U.S. Council of Churches visited jailed contractor Alan Gross on Wednesday as part of the latest push by prominent Americans to obtain his release and improve relations with the communist-run country.
Gross received a 15-year prison sentence in March for crimes against Cuban state security for smuggling illegal satellite communications equipment into Cuba.
He was under contract with a U.S. company involved in a semi-covert democracy-building program, but says the equipment was only destined to connect local Jewish groups to Internet.
“Two of us visited Alan. We had a very good conversation and he was in good spirits,” the Rev. Michael Kinnamon, general secretary of the National Council of Churches, told reporters.
Kinnamon said he was worried about the U.S. contractor’s health. Gross has lost nearly 100 pounds (45 kg) since being picked up as he prepared to leave Havana on December 3, 2009, and suffers from
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