Kerry lifts hold on some U.S. funds for Cuba

WASHINGTON, -- A key U.S. senator has stopped blocking $20 million in aid to Cuban dissidents, a spokesman said.

Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, officially lifted his hold on the funds Thursday after the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development agreed to a "thorough review of the programs," spokesman Frederick Jones told The Miami Herald.

Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., still has his own hold on some of the money, but Senate staff said his concerns were likely to be resolved soon as well.

Kerry was said to view the democracy program, which the Castro regime calls subversion, as ineffective and wasteful, and fears it could delay the release of Alan Gross, a U.S. government subcontractor jailed in Cuba.

Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont still has a separate hold on part of the funds, but three Capitol Hill staffers said his concerns could be quickly resolved by the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Kerry spokesman Frederick Jones, in an email to El Nuevo Herald Thursday afternoon, wrote that the chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations “lifted the hold on the Cuba funds” after State and USAID officials agreed to a “thorough review of the programs.”

There was no explanation for the reports by Capitol Hill staffers throughout Thursday that the Massachusetts Democrat had lifted his hold Wednesday then put it back on, saying he wanted to wait because freeing the funds now might anger Cuba and delay its possible release of Gross.

Sen. Bob Menendez, a Cuban-American Democrat from New Jersey who favors releasing the money, at one point was considering blocking Senate action on all U.S. ambassadorial nominations until Kerry cancelled his block, the staffers added.