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'US GOT ISOLATED TRYING TO ISOLATE CUBA' - RENE GONZALEZ OF THE CUBAN FIVE
Published time: December 18, 2014 23:43
http://on.rt.com/er8crp
Reuters/Enrique De La Osa
A step of reconciliation with Cuba was inevitable, as the US was
becoming increasingly isolated in its failed attempts to isolate Cuba
while their competitors were building closer ties with the island,
Cuban intelligence agent Rene Gonzalez told RT.
Gonzalez was arrested in 1998 with four other members of the Wasp
Network, secretly deployed by Cuba in Miami to monitor the expat
community. After spending 13 years behind bars on charges of espionage,
he was released in 2011, and has now been reunited with three other
members of the group, exchanged this week for US intelligence agent
Alan Gross, and another unnamed spy.
READ MORE: Obama announces US will establish embassy in Cuba,
lift sanctions
"I found the returnees in good spirits and happy," Gonzalez told RT,
refusing to be drawn on the particulars of the surprise prisoner
exchange, which came alongside news that Washington was to open an
embassy in Havana, and "normalize" relations with Cuba
"In terms of its attitude towards Cuba the United States gradually
found itself in isolation, while their goal was to isolate Cuba,"
Gonzalez said.
Rene Gonzalez (screenshot from RT video)
But not only the world community was changing its attitude towards
Cuba and demanding similar policy change from Washington, but business
circles within the US itself did not want to miss opportunities to
their competitors, Gonzalez believes.
"They saw their economic competitors increasingly converging with Cuba
while they could not do that. In the end, this process has led to a
lot of people, those who are in power, coming to a conclusion that
the situation in the relations between Cuba and the United States
cannot remain the same."
Lifting an embargo will take time but the first step has already been
made and there is no turning back, believes Gonzalez, choosing to focus
on events that eventually "will bring happiness to millions"besides
the four families already reunited with their loved ones.
Alan Gross embraces an entourage of family and friends who were
awaiting his return from five years of captivity in Cuba to Joint
Base Andrews, Maryland, December 17, 2014. (Reuters/Master Sgt. Kevin
Wallace/U.S. Air Force)
"All four of them worked for their government in another country,
protecting national interests. I don't care who got paid what,
or what they did [during their intelligence work]. I want to think
about the four families that will be happy at New Year's. I even
prefer thinking of Alan Gross being reunited with his, as well as my
comrades," explained Gonzalez.
"The five of us set an aim for ourselves - to come out better people
than we went in, and we have achieved it... All the burdens of the
trial, and all the mud-slinging from the US has not broken us,"
he said. "Now they can share their joy and happiness, and thus help
make Cuba a place we all want it to be."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z--Yhxh0kuY
Published time: December 18, 2014 23:43
http://on.rt.com/er8crp
Reuters/Enrique De La Osa
A step of reconciliation with Cuba was inevitable, as the US was
becoming increasingly isolated in its failed attempts to isolate Cuba
while their competitors were building closer ties with the island,
Cuban intelligence agent Rene Gonzalez told RT.
Gonzalez was arrested in 1998 with four other members of the Wasp
Network, secretly deployed by Cuba in Miami to monitor the expat
community. After spending 13 years behind bars on charges of espionage,
he was released in 2011, and has now been reunited with three other
members of the group, exchanged this week for US intelligence agent
Alan Gross, and another unnamed spy.
READ MORE: Obama announces US will establish embassy in Cuba,
lift sanctions
"I found the returnees in good spirits and happy," Gonzalez told RT,
refusing to be drawn on the particulars of the surprise prisoner
exchange, which came alongside news that Washington was to open an
embassy in Havana, and "normalize" relations with Cuba
"In terms of its attitude towards Cuba the United States gradually
found itself in isolation, while their goal was to isolate Cuba,"
Gonzalez said.
Rene Gonzalez (screenshot from RT video)
But not only the world community was changing its attitude towards
Cuba and demanding similar policy change from Washington, but business
circles within the US itself did not want to miss opportunities to
their competitors, Gonzalez believes.
"They saw their economic competitors increasingly converging with Cuba
while they could not do that. In the end, this process has led to a
lot of people, those who are in power, coming to a conclusion that
the situation in the relations between Cuba and the United States
cannot remain the same."
Lifting an embargo will take time but the first step has already been
made and there is no turning back, believes Gonzalez, choosing to focus
on events that eventually "will bring happiness to millions"besides
the four families already reunited with their loved ones.
Alan Gross embraces an entourage of family and friends who were
awaiting his return from five years of captivity in Cuba to Joint
Base Andrews, Maryland, December 17, 2014. (Reuters/Master Sgt. Kevin
Wallace/U.S. Air Force)
"All four of them worked for their government in another country,
protecting national interests. I don't care who got paid what,
or what they did [during their intelligence work]. I want to think
about the four families that will be happy at New Year's. I even
prefer thinking of Alan Gross being reunited with his, as well as my
comrades," explained Gonzalez.
"The five of us set an aim for ourselves - to come out better people
than we went in, and we have achieved it... All the burdens of the
trial, and all the mud-slinging from the US has not broken us,"
he said. "Now they can share their joy and happiness, and thus help
make Cuba a place we all want it to be."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z--Yhxh0kuY