NPR interviewed Alan Gross, who was for five years a political prisoner in Cuba. In 2014 Gross was visited in prison by three senators, Jon Tester, Heidi Heitkamp and Bernie Sanders. This is what happened:
During the one-hour meeting, @BernieSanders told the prisoner that he didn’t understand why others criticized Cuba.
“He said, quote: ‘I don’t know what’s so wrong with this country,'” Gross recalled.
Gross was wrongfully imprisoned by Castro.
“He said, quote: ‘I don’t know what’s so wrong with this country,'” Gross recalled.
Gross was wrongfully imprisoned by Castro.
He was arrested in December 2009 after completing a U.S. Agency for International Development subcontract. He was in Cuba working to expand Internet access to the country’s small Jewish community, beyond the restrictive Internet regulations set by the Castro government.
He spent 1,841 days in detention, during which he lost five teeth and over 100 pounds. He also said his interrogators threatened to pull out his fingernails and to hang him.
“The first year of my captivity was akin to sensory deprivation because I saw about 20 minutes of sunlight during the first year,” Gross said.
NPR reached a representative of Heitkamp, who essentially confirmed Gross’s account:
A source close to Heitkamp said the senator remembered that Sanders seemed to disregard the meeting with Gross and that an uncomfortable exchange occurred, but did not remember the exact remark
A source close to Heitkamp said the senator remembered that Sanders seemed to disregard the meeting with Gross and that an uncomfortable exchange occurred, but did not remember the exact remark
