Wednesday, May 11, 2005 Posted: 11:36 AM EDT (1536 GMT)
HAVANA, Cuba (AP) -- President Fidel Castro has rejected calls to hand
over a fugitive who U.S. officials put on a terrorism list this month,
saying she is an innocent victim of racial persecution.
"They wanted to portray her as a terrorist, something that was an
injustice, a brutality, an infamous lie," Castro said in a television
address Tuesday night.
While Castro did not identify the woman by name, he was apparently
alluding to Assata Shakur, the former Joanne Chesimard, who was put on a
U.S. government terrorism watch list on May 2. On the same day, New
Jersey officials announced a $1 million reward for her capture.
Castro's remarks were his first comment on the new U.S. actions.
A member of the Black Liberation Army, Shakur, 57, was convicted in 1973
of killing New Jersey State Trooper Werner Foerster as he lay on the
ground. She escaped from prison in 1979 and fled to Cuba.
Castro referred to her as a victim of "the fierce repression against the
Black movement in the United States" and said she had been "a true
political prisoner."
"They have always been hunting her, searching for her because of the
fact that there was an accident in which a policeman died," Castro said,
reflecting Shakur's assertion that she did not shoot the officer.
Castro said the appeal for her expulsion had been raised with him
several years ago by a woman who was both "a friend of Cuba" and a
friend of former President Bill Clinton.
"I transmitted my opinion to the president of the United States," he
said, though he did not specify who raised the issue nor when she
visited.
He made clear the case involved New Jersey, saying that it involved the
same state as that of former New Jersey Sen. Robert Torricelli.
Castro suggested that the action was meant to divert attention from
Cuba's demand that U.S. officials arrest Luis Posada Carriles, who is
wanted in Venezuela on charges of involvement in blowing up a civilian
Cuban jetliner in 1976, killing 73 people.
The Cuban leader called for a massive rally on May 17 in front of the
U.S. Interests Section, or diplomatic mission, to demand the arrest of
Posada.
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