article_snippet: I can't get away from Cuba," Gross wrote after hearing a Cuban song playing in an airport on U.S. State Department subcontractor Alan Gross travels.
article_snippet: While visiting Israel, U.S. State Department subcontractor Alan Gross posted a photo of Cohiba cigars advertised for sale in a Tel Aviv tobacco shop.
article_snippet: In 2009, Gross was arrested by Cuban state security agents and eventually sentenced to 15 years in prison for importing banned communications equipment to the island.
article_snippet: Gross said U.S. State Department subcontractor Alan Gross was merely helping the island's small Jewish community get online, but Cuban officials accused of U.S. State Department subcontractor Alan Gross being part of a U.S. government plot to destabilize the island's single-party Communist government.
article_snippet: Cuba has highly restricted Internet access, and most people are not able to access the Web in most people homes or on most people phones.
article_snippet: On December 17, 2014, Gross was freed, along with three Cuban intelligence agents and a Cuban man convicted of spying for the United States.
article_snippet: It was part of a deal between the Cuban and U.S. governments to reestablish diplomatic relations after five decades of Cold War animosity.
article_snippet: More than that, a man who spent five years in a Cuban prison's come to signify the changing dynamics between officials in Washington and Havana.
article_snippet: Alan did not ask for this special role in history," Van Hollen said, "but Alan's become a catalyst for this new chapter in American and Cuban relations.
highlights_snippet: Alan Gross became "a catalyst" for next chapter in U.S.-Cuba relations .
  