• Submitted by: manso
• Politics and Government
• 04 / 01 / 2011

---

AFP. Friday, April 01, 2011. HAVANA, Cuba (AFP) — Cuban revolutionary icon Fidel Castro praised Jimmy Carter for being "brave" in focusing on US-Cuban issues yesterday, even as the ex-US president failed to win the freedom of a US contractor jailed on the island.

Carter is "the only one, in my opinion, who is brave and serious enough to deal with issues of relations of his country with Cuba", Castro wrote in an opinion piece that ran in state-run media.

Carter's three-day trip was a private visit at Havana's invitation, aimed at improving US-Cuban relations. He is the only sitting or former US president to meet with the communist leadership in its 52-year rule, and the mission carried considerable political weight.

Carter, 86, held a six-hour marathon meeting with Fidel Castro, 84, who is retired but remains influential, and his brother, President Raul Castro, on Wednesday.

Carter also met US State Department contractor Alan Gross, held in Cuba since late 2009 and sentenced on state security charges this month to 15 years in prison, and called for the "innocent" man's release.

Before leaving the island, Carter said on local television that he hoped US President Barack Obama would pardon five Cubans jailed in the United States for espionage.

In the article, Fidel Castro described Carter as "a friend" who "did what he could" to ease US-Cuban relations during his 1977-1981 presidency.

Castro wrote that he reiterated his "respect and appreciation" for Carter's gesture, as he had done when the former US president visited the island in 2002.

"We are disappointed that (Carter) did not come back with Mr Gross," State Department spokesman Mark Toner said in Washington on Wednesday. "But we're disappointed to a larger extent because we believe he should have been released long ago."

Source: //www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/