Vol. 79/No. 11      March 30, 2015

In two interviews with the North Bergen, New Jersey, Record, Freeh demanded Cuba extradite Shakur now.

Shortly before the attempted swap, the U.S. government had arrested the Cuban Five — Gerardo Hernández, René González, Ramón Labañino, Fernando González and Antonio Guerrero — in South Florida on trumped-up charges, including conspiracy to commit espionage, because of their actions in defense of the Cuban Revolution. The Five were railroaded to jail and served 14 to 16 years in U.S. prisons.

René González returned to Cuba in May 2013 and Fernando González in February 2014. Gerardo Hernández, Ramón Labañino and Antonio Guerrero were released in December 2014 in exchange for the release of a U.S. spy of Cuban origin, as the two countries announced steps to resume diplomatic relations.

Freeh told the Record that shortly after the arrests, with the agreement of then-Attorney General Janet Reno, he sent a message through a third party to the Cuban government proposing Washington release one or more of the Five in exchange for Cuba’s return of Shakur, the paper reported in a Feb. 28 article.

What was the Cuban government’s answer? “The response was no response,” Freeh told the Record.

Shakur, formerly Joanne Chesimard, was active in the Black Panther Party in the late 1960s and later in a group called the Black Liberation Army. On May 2, 1973, the car she was traveling in was stopped by cops on the New Jersey Turnpike and a shootout took place. Shakur was gravely wounded. The FBI claimed she shot two troopers, wounding James Harper and killing Werner Foerster. Zayd Shakur, who was in the car with her, was shot and killed by Harper.

Shakur was charged with killing Foerster and Zayd Shakur. At the trial her lawyers presented physical evidence that she hadn’t fired a weapon and was shot with her hands in the air. In 1977 she was found guilty on eight counts, including first- and second-degree murder, by a jury that included no African-Americans. She was sentenced to life plus 33 years. Two years later she escaped from prison.

Since the announcement last December that Cuba and the U.S. would seek to reestablish diplomatic relations, some capitalist politicians and media have insisted Washington press for Shakur’s extradition, including a Washington Times editorial Dec. 29 titled “U.S. Must Demand Cuba Return Cop-Killer Assata Shakur.” New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie sent a letter to President Barack Obama urging him to make Shakur’s return to the U.S. a condition for establishing diplomatic relations between the two countries.

Josefina Vidal, head of the North American Bureau of Cuba’s Foreign Ministry and the leader of Cuba’s delegation negotiating with the U.S., responded to a question from the press Dec. 22 by making it clear Cuba’s revolutionary government had no intention of sending Shakur back to the U.S. “Every nation has sovereign and legitimate rights to grant political asylum to people it considers to have been persecuted,” she said.

Shakur was put on the FBI’s Most Wanted Terrorist list in 2013, with a $2 million bounty on her head, half from the FBI and half from the state of New Jersey. She is the only woman on the list of 30 individuals, all except her connected with al-Qaeda and other jihadist organizations.
 
 
Related articles:
‘Cuba’s revolution and principles not negotiable’
Women’s delegation speaks at NY events
Cuban 5 stand up for Venezuela at Havana event
US hands off Venezuela! No sanctions!
 
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home