The deal to restore relations between the United States and Cuba was widely credited to the personal appeals of Pope Francis, but behind-the-scenes spy swapping came into play that required a deft hand to get around the appearance that three Cuban spies were being traded directly for longtime hostage Alan Gross.
The Pope acted to guarantee that both sides would live up to the their deals, reports
The New York Times, but Cuba wanted its three agents released before the country would release Gross.
So the White House came up with a new play: Trading the Cuban spies for an American intelligence officer who had been held in a Cuban jail for nearly 20 years, in hopes of avoiding the appearance of trading the spies directly for Gross.
Cuba wanted to make an even trade, but the United States said Gross, a contractor, had been wrongfully held and should not be traded for spies.
In all, the Gross negotiations took over a year and a half in meetings in Canada and the Vatican.
Meanwhile, Gross' health was fading, so the negotiations had to be wrapped up, as Secretary of State John Kerry warned that if Gross died, the talks would have been for nothing.
Obama's first move, said The Times, came in 2009, when he loosened Cuban-American's visiting rules. But the relationship between the countries worsened when Gross was arrested after bringing telecommunications equipment into Cuba later that year.
Cuba's negotiators had several demands during the talks, but one of the major ones was the release of the "Cuban Five," five officers convicted of spying and, in one case, murder.
Eventually, two of the members of the group were released on probation, with the United States hoping that would spur Cuba to release Gross on humanitarian charges.
But as the talks continued through 2012, it became clear that getting the other three back was one of Cuba's top priorities, and in fact, on Wednesday, when Castro spoke about the agreement, he called the three prisoners heroes.
The freed American intelligence officer is a Cuban national who was key to disrupting a ring of operatives in the United States, including members of the Cuban Five.
The officer, identified by a senior American official as Rolando Trujillo, is a former Cuban intelligence agent and had been in a Cuban prison since 1995.
And even as the swap occurred, the details were complicated this week.
Maryland Democratic Rep. Chris Van Hollen, who was part of the delegation picking up Gross, said the United States plane was not permitted to lift off until five minutes after the Cuban plane, carrying the three remaining Cuban spies, had landed on the island.
Meanwhile, the spy exchange has been roundly condemned by potential Republican presidential candidates Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio, and even potential candidate
Hillary Clinton, who has said it is one of her regrets as secretary of state that she was not able to secure Gross' release, did not agree with trading spies for his freedom.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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