Judy Gross, wife of U.S. aid contractor Alan Gross who was released from a jail in Cuba, shows their family picture.
U.S. Agency for International Development contractor Alan Gross, imprisoned in Cuba for five years on charges of trying "to promote destabilizing activities and subvert constitutional order,"
has been released as part of a larger prisoner (and spy) swap, and as part of a shift in relations between the United States and Cuba:
Gross' "humanitarian" release by Cuba was accompanied by a separate spy swap, the officials said. Cuba also freed a U.S. intelligence source who has been jailed in Cuba for more than 20 years, although authorities did not identify that person for security reasons. The U.S. released three Cuban intelligence agents convicted of espionage in 2001.
President Barack Obama is also set to announce a broad range of diplomatic and regulatory measures in what officials called the most sweeping change in U.S. policy toward Cuba since the 1961 embargo was imposed.
Obama is expected to speak on Cuba "shortly after noon ET," according to CNN.