SpyTalk

As recently as last week, Cuban President Raul Castro reiterated that he was ready to trade some 200 political prisoners for five Cuban "heroes" serving long sentences for espionage convictions in Florida.

But with the U.S. Chamber of Congress now joining the mostly farm-state clamor for lifting travel restrictions and ending the half-century long trade embargo against the communist-led island, Cuba may be able to have its cake and eat it, too: it can hold onto the prisoners for a U.S. concession down the road.
   
"I don't think it's a front burner item right now," says Peter Eisner, a former Washington Post deputy foreign editor who recently reported from Cuba for the PBS television show WorldFocus. 

"If Congress is already opening up travel, Cuba doesn't need to follow through on the bargain it has offered --   200 some-odd political prisoners in Cuban jails for the five spies," Eisner added.

"It might appease right-wingers in Miami if they release all 200, but it seems like the track things are on at this point is bypassing a spy trade -- which also would be too high-profile and get Obama more involved than he needs to be at this point. After all, his advisers would argue, the thaw is bipartisan in Congress so why complicate things?"

But some of the 200 political prisoners are more equal than others, analysts say. Among them are a number of its citizens arrested on charges of spying for the United States.