For more than a half century the Castro dictatorship has put new American Presidents to the test. Those who fail invite trouble. Think of JFK and the Bay of Pigs, or Jimmy Carter and the election-year Mariel boatlift.
Now Fidel is testing President Obama by playing hostage politics with an American aid worker.
Alan P. Gross of Potomac, Maryland was working as a contractor on the island for the U.S. Agency for International Development when he was arrested by state security on December 4. Two months later he still hasn't been formally charged with a crime, but Cuba claims he is a U.S. intelligence agent and won't release him. Last week Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez announced that Mr. Gross had committed "serious crimes" and is "under investigation."
Mr. Gross's real offense seems to have been trying to help Cubans communicate with the outside world. In particular, he had been aiding the island's small Jewish community in using the Internet to contact Jews abroad.
The staying power of Castro is in part explained by the dangerous, shark-infested sea that has kept the population physically isolated. But the dawn of cyberspace has let Cubans learn more about the outside world—for example, that 90 miles away milk for children is not a luxury. Yoani Sánchez, a 32-year-old Cuban mother who chronicles her daily struggles on her "Generation Y" blog, has achieved international notice.
The State Department says Mr. Gross hasn't signed a privacy waiver so it cannot speak publicly about his case. But it is no secret that Castro wants USAID's Cuba "democracy program," which Mr. Gross was part of, closed down. Sources in Washington say Fidel and brother Raúl want this as a quid-pro-quo for Mr. Gross's release.
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