Alan Gross Returns to Maryland (PHOTOS)
Alan Gross, a USAID subcontractor who lived in Potomac, was released from a Cuban prison on Dec. 17 as part of an agreement between the U.S. and Cuba.
Gross spent more than five years in a Cuba prison. He was arrested in December 2009. After arriving on American soil, Gross talked to reporters at a press conference where he asked everyone to respect his wishes for “complete and total privacy.”
“I’m incredibly blessed to finally have freedom,” Gross said.
Alan Gross arrives at Joint Base Andrews, Md., Dec. 17, 2014. Gross spent 5 years as a prisoner in Cuba. (Official White House Photo by Lawrence Jackson)
Lorna Virgili, president and CEO of the National Hispanic Communications Group, said this is just the beginning of diplomatic relations between the two countries.
Virgili, a Cuban native who emigrated to the U.S. when she was almost 15, said “It is great that Americans are coming home … but this was an exchange of spies, at the end of the day.”
Gross’s high school friend David Goldberg, owner of Union Hardware in Bethesda, said it “just a great day.”
Goldberg added that Gross has always been the type of person to want to help people. He hopes the community can do whatever they can to make him “feel so welcomed.”
“Whatever we can do as a community to show him that he was not abandoned as it appears,” Goldberg said.
Governor Martin O’Malley welcomed Gross to Maryland and wished him “joy with friends and family.”
Montgomery County Council President George Leventhal tweeted that Gross’ release was “Big news.”
Wow! Big news: my constituent Alan Gross has been released and President Obama is planning a reboot of relations with Cuba.
— George Leventhal (@georgeleventhal) December 17, 2014
Welcome home to Maryland, Alan Gross. Here’s wishing you boundless joy with your friends and family this holiday season. — Martin O’Malley (@GovernorOMalley) December 17, 2014
Photos courtesy of The White House
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