Rev. Jesse Jackson arrived in Havana, Cuba on Friday in hopes to improve U.S. relations with the caribbean nation and visit American prisoner Alan Gross.
Gross, 64, was sentenced to 15-years in prison for installing internet networks for the island’s Jewish groups, which Cuba considered to be “acts against the independence or the territorial integrity of the state.”
Rev. Jackson who is being hosted by the Roman Catholic Church stated, “the church is concerned about peace…and Cuba’s relations with the United States and the rest of the Caribbean. I hope we can facilitate that.” Rev. Jackson has visited Cuba several times in the past, has met with former President Fidel Castro and wrote an open letter back in 2011 to President Raul Castro requesting the release of the American prisoner on “humanitarian grounds.”
The civil rights leader has visited Yugoslavia, Syria and Iraq to free U.S. prisoners.
