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Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter (L) is welcomed by Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez plane upon landing at Havana's international airport on March 28, 2011. (Adalberto Roque/Getty Images)
Former President Jimmy Carter and his wife Rosalynn Carter arrived in Havana, Cuba, for a three-day visit Monday.
On this—his second—visit to Cuba, the 86-year-old Carter is expected to meet with President Raul Castro and other Cuban officials to discuss economic reforms and ways to improve U.S.-Cuba relations.
Carter’s visit comes amid speculation that he may try to win the release of Alan Gross, a 61-year-old American convicted by a Cuban court of activities intended to undermine its communist-led government.
A U.S. aid contractor, Gross was arrested in late 2009 after he provided Internet equipment to members of the Jewish community and other non-governmental groups that would allow them to communicate better with each other and the outside world, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Gross was sentenced to 15 years in prison on March 12.
“If he is able to help Alan in any way while he is there, we will be extraordinarily grateful,” said Judy Gross, the wife of Alan Gross, in a statement over the weekend, The Associated Press reported.
“Our family is desperate for Alan to return home, after nearly 16 months in prison. We continue to hope and pray that the Cuban authorities will release him immediately on humanitarian grounds.”
Carter made his first visit to the island in 2002, when it was still ruled by Fidel Castro, before Fidel handed power over to his younger brother, Raul Castro.
Carter, winner of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, is the only American president, sitting or otherwise, to have visited Cuba since the 1959 revolution, which put communist leader Fidel Castro in power.
Carter is expected to meet with Raul Castro on Tuesday.
The Carter Center, the ex-president’s peace-building organization in Atlanta, Ga., said this trip is a “private, non-governmental mission” and was scheduled “at the invitation of the Cuban government.”
U.S. and South Korean officials confirmed March 24 that Carter is planning a trip to North Korea on a private mission, likely in late April.
Carter made a landmark visit to Pyongyang in 1994 when the United States almost went to war with North Korea over its nuclear program. Carter reduced the hostility after talks with then-leader Kim Il-Sung.
Carter also made a trip to North Korea last August to secure the release of Aijalon Mahli Gomes, a Boston native detained in North Korea for illegal entry.
