Did baby diplomacy help US-Cuban relations?

July 1, 2015

Cuban agent sentenced to two life terms in US discusses his unlikely role in restoring ties between US and Cuba

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Did baby diplomacy help US-Cuban relations?

When Gerardo Hernández, the leader of the Cuban 5, was released in December after 16 years in a U.S. prison, there to welcome him home as a hero of the revolution was President Raúl Castro. He was also greeted by his pregnant wife. Hernández was freed in a historic prisoner exchange that helped lead to the thaw in US-Cuban relations. The negotiations involved an unusual bit of diplomacy: allowing a sperm sample from Hernández to be sent to a Panamanian clinic last year to inseminate his wife, Adriana Perez. Lucia Newman traveled to Havana to meet with Hernández, Perez and their child, born just weeks after his return to Cuba.


 

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