HELLO, HAVANA! Obama Speaks On Relations With Cuba, Release Of Alan Gross : Obama Announces Breakthrough In U.S., Cuba Policy... Most Significant Shift Since 1960 Embargo... U.S. To Open Embassy In Havana... Normalized Banking, Trade Ties... Raul Castro Welcomes Renewal Of Relations... Pope Played Instrumental Role... Cuba Releases American Alan Gross After 5 Years In Prison... 3 Cubans Jailed In U.S. To Be Freed In Exchange For Unidentified 'Intelligence Asset'... Senator: 'Vindicates Brutal Behavior Of Cuban Government'... Rubio Blasts Deal...

 Posted: 12/17/2014 11:07 am EST 
President Barack Obama spoke Wednesday on U.S. relations with Cuba, hours after American Alan Gross was released from a Cuban prison, where he'd been for five years.

Gross was accompanied back to the U.S. by Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) and Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.). The Cuban government had detained Gross for setting up satellite Internet access as a subcontractor for the U.S. Agency for International Development, and charged him with violating the country's "territorial integrity."

"Today, Alan returned home, reunited with his family at long last," Obama said in remarks delivered from the White House. Three Cubans who had been jailed in the U.S. for spying, along with a U.S. intelligence source who had been jailed in Cuba for more than 20 years, were also released on Wednesday. Obama said that U.S. source was released "separately" from Gross.

Several lawmakers were quick to criticize the release of the Cuban spies, including Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.).

“Trading Mr. Gross for three convicted criminals sets an extremely dangerous precedent," Menendez said in a statement. "It invites dictatorial and rogue regimes to use Americans serving overseas as bargaining chips."

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) also criticized the spies' release, saying during an interview on Fox News that it "sets a very dangerous precedent," and calling the normalization of relations with Cuba "absurd." more