Prisoners, heroes, spies, guerrillas, terrorists...

…take your pick as to the label, but they are in the news:

• AP: Assistant Secretary of State Arturo Valenzuela met Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez last month at the UN, and the State Department says the meeting was about detained USAID contractor Alan Gross.

• The Herald digs into the story of Francisco Chavez Abarca, the Salvadoran “mystery man” arrested recently in Venezuela, shipped off to Cuba, and now appearing in videos about the terrorist attacks on Havana hotels in the 1990’s. His wife makes no bones about his role, as the article recounts: “‘You have to remember the role Cuba played in El Salvador: they trained guerrillas in explosives and bombs.’ she said in a telephone call from El Salvador. ‘So what is the issue: who planted more bombs?’”

• After a raid that killed some FARC guerrilla leaders last month, Colombia’s president released newly captured documents, El Universal reports. In one, deceased FARC commander Víctor Julio Suárez praises the movement for “setting our own line for governing ourselves and taking power.” “This has bothered Cubans, and Chavez and company; for this reason they are disrespectful and at times join with the enemy in the ideological struggle to fight us.”

• Amnesty International says the Cuban Five deserve to have their cases reviewed because their trials may not have been fair. CNN story here.

• Orlando Bosch, now a panelist at the University of Miami; the Havana Note writes it up.