HAVANA, Dec. 17 -- Cuban leader Raul Castro confirmed here Wednesday that the remaining three agents of the Cuban Five, who had been imprisoned in the United States, were released and returned to their home country.

"As Fidel (Castro) promised in June 2001, when he said 'They will come back,' Gerardo (Hernandez), Ramon (Labaino) and Antonio (Guerrero) arrived today in our fatherland," said the Cuban leader in a public appearance, stressing that the decision by U.S. President Barack Obama deserves the respect and recognition of the Cuban people.

Wednesday's development followed more than a year of clandestine talks between the United States and Cuba, hosted largely by Canada and encouraged by Pope Francis who hosted the final meeting at Vatican. In a near-one-hour telephone call Tuesday, Obama and Castrol agreed to put aside decades of hostility and take the steps that could reshape bilateral ties.

Also on Wednesday, the Cuban government released Alan Gross, the U.S. subcontractor "for humanitarian reasons and upon the U.S. request."

The White House confirmed the returning of Gross, who was arrested in Havana, the Cuban capital, on Dec. 3, 2009, on charges of distributing sophisticated satellite telecommunications equipment to the opposition groups, while serving as a subcontractor. He was convicted and sentenced to a jail term of 15 years in 2011. His imprisonment had been considered by the U.S. side as a main obstacle to the normalization of relations between Washington and Havana.

Cuba also released Wednesday an important U.S. intelligence agent who has been imprisoned for twenty years.

The "Cuban Five," referring to intelligence agents, whose network operated in the U.S. state of Florida in the 1990s, were convicted in Miami on charges of conspiracy to commit espionage and murder. Cuba insists they were not acting against U.S. sovereignty, only spying on militant exile groups that Havana blames for terror attacks on the island.

Two other agents Rene Fernandez and Fernando Gonzalez were freed in 2011 and 2014 after serving about 13 years and more than 15 years behind bars, respectively. They now live in Havana.