Obama's December surprise The president rolls the dice on Cuba; Republicans immediately cry foul.

President Barack Obama announced the most sweeping shift in U.S. policy toward Cuba in more than half a century Wednesday, calling the move to reestablish diplomatic relations a “new chapter” for the two countries.

“We will end an outdated approach that for decades has failed to advance our interests,” Obama said in remarks from the White House. “Neither the American nor the Cuban people are well-served by a rigid policy that is rooted in events that took place before most of us were born.”


America has had relations with communist China for more than 35 years, and reengaged with Vietnam nearly two decades ago, Obama said, adding that the time to open talks with Cuba was long overdue.

“Through these changes, we intend to create more opportunities for the American and Cuban people, and begin a new chapter among the nations of the Americas,” Obama said.

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The move follows the release of American aid worker Alan Gross, who spent more than four years in prison in Cuba on spying charges. He was released Wednesday on humanitarian grounds. A U.S. intelligence agent was also released as part of a swap for three Cuban agents brokered between the Obama administration and the Cuban government, senior administration officials said.

Obama spoke for 45 minutes Tuesday with Cuban President Raul Castro, the first presidential-level engagement since the Cuban revolution. The leaders discussed the Gross release, prisoner swap and the policy changes each planned to announce Wednesday, the officials said.

The centerpiece of the new approach includes establishing diplomatic relations. Obama has instructed Secretary of State John Kerry to initiate discussions with Cuba and will reestablish an embassy in Havana in the coming months. The shift in approach also includes further relaxing of travel restrictions, increasing remittance levels, expanding commercial sales and exports from the United States and of Cuban cigars for personal use, and reviewing Cuba’s designation as a state sponsor of terrorism.

The Obama-Castro call was the culmination of more than a year of private talks between American and Cuban officials, who held a majority of their meetings in Canada. Senior administration officials also credited Pope Francis for his rare personal appeal to Obama and Castro through separate letters early this summer, a gesture that gave the talks “greater emphasis and momentum,” one official said.

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The prisoner swap was ultimately cinched in a meeting held at the Vatican, officials said. Ben Rhodes, a deputy national security adviser with a background mostly in speechwriting and communications, and Ricardo Zuniga, the senior director for Western Hemisphere Affairs on the National Security Staff, led the talks for the White House.

Obama acknowledged the critics of his announcement, saying he respected their “passion” and he shared their “commitment to liberty and democracy.”

“The question is how do we uphold that commitment?” Obama said. “I do not believe we can continue to do the same thing for over five decades and expect a different result. It does not serve American interests or the Cuban people to try to push Cuba toward collapse.”

The changes were made possible by the release of Gross, senior administration officials said.

Obama said he had been prepared to take additional steps in easing relations with Cuba for some time but Gross’s imprisonment was a “major obstacle.”

Gross, 65, departed Cuba on Wednesday on a U.S. government plane bound for the United States. Several senators, including Democrat Pat Leahy of Vermont and Republican Jeff Flake of Arizona, flew back with Gross and his wife — all cheering as the plane crossed into U.S. airspace.

“You could see the relief on his face,” Flake said in an interview on MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports.”

Gross was arrested in December 2010 while working on a U.S. Agency for International Development contract to bolster Jewish groups in Cuba. Cuban authorities accused him of having telecommunications and Internet equipment that is illegal in the island nation and of effectively being a spy for the U.S.

While Republican opponents of the move such as Florida Sen. Marco Rubio welcomed Gross’s return but lashed out at the policy change. Rubio criticized Obama for not getting more concessions from Cuba and doing more to push for improved human rights there.

But the policy of improving ties with Cuba also has many supporters.

Hillary Clinton, the leading contender for the Democratic nomination, has called for an end to the embargo. In a June appearance in New York, the former secretary of state said, “We should advocate for normalizing relations and see what they [Cuban officials] do.”

U.S. officials insisted Wednesday that the three Cuban agents serving time in the U.S. were not swapped directly for Gross, but for another person who had aided U.S. intelligence services and had been in a Cuban prison for more than 20 years. That person was not named.

Obama described the agent as “one of the most important intelligence agents that the United States has ever had in Cuba.”

“This man, whose sacrifice has been known to only a few, provided America with the information that allowed us to arrest the network of Cuban agents that included the men who were transferred to Cuba today, as well as other spies in the U.S.,” Obama said. “This man is safely on our shores.”

Gross, 65, departed Cuba on Wednesday on a U.S. government plane bound for the United States. | Getty

Cuban officials had long been campaigning for release of the so-called “Cuban Five”—a group of Cuban nationals convicted in 2001 of acting as what amounted to a spy ring known as “the Wasp Network.” The group used shortwave radios to receive direction from Cuba, including demands for information on Cuban exile groups in Florida and U.S. military activities in the Caribbean.

The five men were eventually acknowledged as agents by the Cuban government and became a cause celebre for the regime as well as some left-wing activists in the U.S. At one point, a federal appeals court overturned the convictions of the men due to the atmosphere surrounding their trial, but a broader panel of judges reversed that decision.

One of the five Cubans was released from prison in 2011 and another earlier this year after their prison terms expired. The three remaining members of the Cuban Five released Wednesday had been sentenced to lengthy terms: Gerardo Hernandez was serving two life terms for conspiracy in connection with the shoot-down of the Brothers to the Rescue aircraft in 1996, while Ramon Labanino was serving 30 years and Antonio Guerrero 22 years as part of the U.S.-based Cuban spy ring.

Following Gross’s return, Obama addressed a crowd of 550 guests at the White House Hanukkah Party on Wednesday that included the released prisoner’s sister-in-law.

Obama called Gross “a man of deep faith” who “dedicated his life to others.” He also joked that Gross was “willing to interrupt his corned beef sandwich” to accept a phone call from the president on his flight home.

“He’s back where he belongs, in America with his family, home for Hanukkah,” Obama said. “I can’t think of a better way to mark this holiday, with its message that freedom is possible, than with the historic changes that I announced today in our Cuba policy.”

Kendall Breitman contributed to this report.