Country Report on Terrorism 2021 - Chapter 4 - Terrorist Safe Havens - Cuba 

Cuba, citing peace negotiation protocols, refused Colombia’s request to extradite 10 ELN leaders living in Havana after that group claimed responsibility for the 2019 bombing of the national police academy in Bogotá, killing 22 people and injuring 87 others.  During 2019, Colombia filed extradition requests for ELN leaders Victor Orlando Cubides (aka Pablo Tejada) and Israel Ramírez Pineda (aka Pablo Beltrán) with the Cuban government, to which Cuba has not acceded.

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 government 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 (or 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 persons in the U.S. Virgin Islands in 1972 and hijacking a plane to flee to Cuba in 1984; and Charles Lee Hill, who has been charged with the 1971 killing of New Mexico State Policeman Robert Rosenbloom.  The Cuban government provides housing, food ration books, and medical care for fugitives residing there.

In 2021 the Department of State designated Cuba a State Sponsor of Terrorism, citing, in part, the continued presence of ELN negotiators.

The government was not known to support or facilitate the proliferation or trafficking of WMD in or through its territory.

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