Former President Jimmy Carter met with religious leaders in Cuba on Monday as he began a trip to discuss economic policies and ways to improve Washington-Havana relations, which are even more tense than usual over the imprisonment of a U.S. contractor on the island.
Carter met in the afternoon with leaders of Cuba's Jewish community but did not say whether he mentioned the case of Alan Gross, who was arrested in December 2009 while working on a USAID-backed democracy-building project he said was meant to help improve internet access for that community.
Cuba says such USAID programs are aimed at overthrowing the government of President Raul Castro.
Emerging from Havana's Temple Beth Shalom, in dark slacks and a white guayabera shirt, Carter did not take questions from reporters, but said there would be a news conference on Wednesday.
Adela Dworin, president of the temple and Cuba's largest Jewish organization, the Jewish Community House, said the Gross case did not come up during Carter's visit and their conversation focused on the Jewish community in Cuba.
"We did not talk about politics," Dworin said.
Jewish leaders here have denied dealing with Gross, who was working for Bethesda, Maryland-based Development Alternatives Inc.
He was convicted and sentenced to 15 years in prison earlier this month for crimes against the state for the illegal importation of telecommunications equipment into the country.
Carter later met for about an hour with Roman Catholic Cardinal Jaime Ortega, who helped broker a deal under which Cuba recently freed the last 52 of 75 dissidents who were arrested in a 2003 crackdown and given lengthy prison sentences on charges such as treason. The government considers dissidents to be common criminals financed by the United States.
Many of those freed
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