HAVANA, Feb 28 (Reuters) – Cuban President Raul Castro and top leaders of the Cuban government and Com-munist Party greeted a Cuban intelligence agent with a hero’s welcome upon his return to Havana on Friday, a day after his release from a U.S. prison.
Fernando Gonzalez, 50, had served more than 15 years for spying on Cuban-American exile groups in Miami and is one of the “Cuban Five” whose detentions have complicated the already tense relations between the United States and Cuba.
The United States deported him yesterday, and he told reporters he was still in handcuffs until the plane touched down at the Havana airport.
Three of the original five remain in prison in the United States, and all are treated as heroes in Cuba, where their cases are considered emblematic of U.S. hostility toward its neighbor 90 miles (150 km) away.
Cuba has suggested it would like to swap its agents for U.S. contractor Alan Gross, an American sentenced to 15 years in Cuba for setting up an illegal communications network. So far the United States has refused to make such a trade.
Cuban state television showed Castro, dressed in his trademark military fatigues, embracing Gonzalez inside the Havana airport. Other top military, party and government officials also hugged Gonzalez, looking very much like pictures taken of him before his arrest with a mustache and short hair.