Havana, May 6 (RHC) –- Four U.S. congressional representatives agreed in Havana on Monday that there are favorable conditions for direct and unconditional dialogue between Havana and Washington to normalize bilateral relations.

The four U.S. legislators visiting Cuba are Democratic Representatives Barbara Lee and Sam Farr, from California; Emmanuel Cleaver, from Missouri; and Gregory W. Meeks, from New York.

During a press conference at Havana’s Saratoga Hotel, the U.S. congressional representatives said that their visit to Cuba aims at favoring possible negotiations to achieve the release of U.S. citizen Alan Gross who is jailed in Cuba, and of the three anti-terrorist Cubans held in U.S. prisons since 1998.

Gross, a contractor with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), was arrested, tried and convicted in 2009 for having violated Cuban laws after he tried to introduce a subversive project financed by Washington. The project consisted of setting up covert and illegal communications systems based on non-commercial technology.

Gerardo Hernández, Ramón Labañino and Antonio Guerrero, members of the group known as the Cuban Five, have been incarcerated in U.S. prisons for having monitored Miami-based organizations that planned terrorist actions against Cuba.

Cuba has reiterated its willingness to find an acceptable solution for the two cases, which considers the humanitarian concern about Gross and also the three Cubans.

Representative Barbara Lee said that they are trying to use the experience of other visits and contacts to promote a dialogue between Havana and Washington from their own positions as lawmakers.

She said that they also hope to advance the elimination of U.S. travel restrictions against Cuba and the lifting of the U.S. blockade.

Meanwhile, Representative Emmanuel Cleaver from the U.S. state of Missouri criticized the subversive twitter program launched by Washington against Cuba, known as Zunzuneo, and the inclusion of the island on a U.S. State Department black list of countries supposedly sponsoring terrorism.