Country Report on Terrorism 2019 - Chapter 4 - Cuba

Cuba.  Cuba, citing peace negotiation protocols, refused Colombia’s request to extradite ten ELN leaders living in Havana after that group claimed responsibility for the January 2019 bombing of the national police academy in Bogota, killing 22 people and injuring 87.  On October 11, Colombia filed extradition requests for ELN leaders Victor Orlando Cubides aka “Pablo Tejada” and Isreal Ramirez Pineda aka “Pablo Beltran” with the Cuban government, which has pointedly not responded.  In addition to ELN terrorists, there was credible reporting that FARC dissidents who abandoned the peace process in Colombia traveled to Havana to seek the regime’s support.

Cuba also harbors several U.S. fugitives from justice wanted on charges of political violence, many of whom have resided in Cuba for decades.  For example, the Cuban regime has refused to return Joanne Chesimard, aka Assata Shakur, a fugitive on the FBI’s Most Wanted Terrorists List, who was convicted of executing New Jersey State Trooper Werner Foerster.  Cuba also has refused to return William “Guillermo” Morales, a fugitive bomb maker for the Armed Forces for National Liberation (FALN), who is wanted by the FBI and escaped detention after being convicted of charges related to domestic terrorism; Ishmael LaBeet, aka Ishmael Muslim Ali, who received eight life sentences after being convicted of killing eight people in the U.S. Virgin Islands in 1972 and hijacking a plane to flee to Cuba in 1984; Charles Lee Hill, who has been charged with killing New Mexico State Policeman Robert Rosenbloom in 1971; and Ambrose Henry Montfort, who used a bomb threat to hijack a passenger aircraft and fly to Cuba in 1983.  Cuba is also believed to host or have hosted U.S. fugitive terrorists Catherine Marie Kerkow and Elizabeth Anna Duke.  The Cuban government provides housing, food ration books, and medical care for all of the fugitives residing there.