The US demands from the Cuban regime the return of a terrorist that Fidel Castro asylum in 1988

Havana/Those responsible for an attack perpetrated 50 years ago by a Puerto Rican terrorist organization in the historic Taberna Fraunces in New York still live in Cuba. This Friday, several US authorities – including the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, and the US Embassy in Havana – demanded that the regime deliver the fugitives.

On January 24, 1975, members of the Armed Forces of Puerto Rican National Liberation (FENS) detonated a bomb in the building – today Museum and Restaurant – whose explosion left more than 50 injured and caused the death of four people: Alejandro Berger, Frank Connor, James Gezork and Harold Sherburne.

Rubio remembered the name of the victims in a official statement For the 50th anniversary of the attack and said that “to this day”, the regime protects those responsible, in addition to other “fugitives and terrorists” sought by the US. In the text, the Secretary of State indicates in particular to William Morales, leader of the terrorist group to whom “dictator Fidel Castro gave a safe shelter” in 1988.

“Today, we remember the lost lives on that tragic day,” said Rubio. “We must also commit ourselves once again to demand that the fugitives sought by the US and under the protection of the Cuban regime be taken before justice. We owe the victims and the American people our unrestricted commitment to ask the Cuban regime. ”

The attack on the Frances tavern, added the head of the US diplomacy, is a memory of the “devastating impact of terrorism and pain that inflicts families and communities.” For its part, the embassy in Havana signed and reproduced Rubio’s message.

Last May, when the administration of Joe Biden decided to withdraw Cuba from the list of countries that do not collaborate with Washington’s efforts to eradicate terrorism, Joe Connor, son of one of the victims, asked his government to reconsider the decision . “My father was killed by terrorists sponsored by Cuba,” wrote To the then Secretary of State, Antony Blinken.

“I bring this matter to your attention so that the United States government takes the necessary measures so that this terrorist condemned fugitive is returned to an American prison to fulfill its penalty. I thank you in advance the return of Morales, ”he said. The extradition “would provide a certain closure to this open wound that our family has suffered all these years,” he added.

Just before leaving the White House, Biden ended up taking Cuba from another list, more relevant: Sponsors of terrorism. Reversing that decision was one of the first measures of the newly invested President Donald Trump.

Connor, along with the children of the other victims, participated this Friday in a tribute In New York. There, Connor recalled that the site chosen for the attack was not fortuitous: there took place the banquet where General George Washington negotiated peace with the British after the War of Independence, in 1776.

There he also offered the hero a banquet for his soldiers, “Children of Freedom,” said Connor. This is the type of symbolism that the faln could not tolerate, said the man, who again claimed a negotiation for the capture of Morales.

Born in New York in 1950, Morales was arrested in 1979 by possession of explosives and managed to escape, first to Mexico, from where he traveled to Cuba. He is attributed to the preparation of all the bombs that the faln used during his activity. In fact, he lost an eye and nine fingers during the involuntary detonation of a time bomb in his own home. He was sentenced to 99 years in prison, but escaped thanks to a member doctor of a communist organization.

The FBI and other agencies, Rubio recalled, tried in vain to find the terrorist, who had been involved in other attacks during the 70s. When they tried to arrest him in Puebla (Mexico), before their escape to Havana, two police officers died. In the Cuban capital he married and had children, although no more details about his current life are known.

Bill Clinton’s administration denied the amnesty that he requested in 1997 and did not return to the US after the restoration of diplomatic relations between Havana and Washington, when several media predicted that both he and terrorist Assata Shakur –ex member of Black Liberation Army– would be delivered to Havana.

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