Fugitive a curiosity in Cuba

CUBA | FBI MOST-WANTED LIST
Fugitive a curiosity in Cuba
A woman on the FBI's most-wanted list who fled to Cuba after escaping
from a U.S. prison is starting to arouse curiosity among islanders.
Posted on Tue, Dec. 18, 2007
BY WILFREDO CANCIO ISLA
El Nuevo Herald

Joanne Chesimard, an African-American militant on the FBI's most-wanted
list who has lived in Cuba since 1984, has started to create curiosity
among island residents, even if the official news media doesn't mention her.

Chesimard, one of about 70 U.S. fugitives who live protected in Cuba,
escaped from prison in 1979 while serving a life sentence for the murder
of a police officer in New Jersey. The reward for her capture was
increased to $1 million in May 2005.

The several hundred people who daily visit the U.S. diplomatic mission
in Havana can see her FBI wanted poster, distributed more than two years
ago, on display there.

Some Cubans have been asking themselves who this woman is, according to
residents. Others have searched the Web for information about her, and
still others have contacted U.S. publications for details on her case.

On Nov. 13, Havana independent journalist Santiago Du'Bouchet sent a
report to the Miami-based New Cuban Press with Chesimard's phone number
and street address in the capital's Playa municipality.

''This woman strolls unnoticed through the streets of Havana, driving a
VW and a black Volvo,'' Du'Bouchet reported.

El Nuevo Herald made numerous calls to the number, but it was always
busy. Many years ago, Chesimard's phone number was listed in the Havana
directory under the name she uses in Cuba, Assata Shakur. But the
listing was later withdrawn.

New Cuban Press director Nancy Pérez Crespo noted what while the
Chesimard photographs in her FBI wanted poster are more than 20 years
old, her group's magazine, Enepecé, published a photo that claims to be
of Chesimard, taken in February 2005.

The photo was taken when Chesimard was participating in an event for the
XIV International Book Fair in Havana, Pérez Crespo said. The
photographer, who asked that his name not be disclosed, sent it to New
Cuban Press, which published it in mid-2005.

''We published it immediately, but no one [from the FBI] has called me
to verify its authenticity or its origin,'' Pérez Crespo said.

Chesimard, now 60 years old, is the most notorious of the U.S. fugitives
known to be living in Cuba. According to her own testimony, she was
welcomed to the island with the personal consent of Fidel Castro, who
considered her a fighter for racial equality in the United States.

''To make her look like a terrorist is an injustice, a brutality, an
infamous lie. This woman was a role model,'' Castro said in a television
broadcast in 2005.

Chesimard was joined in Cuba in 1985 by her daughter Kakuya, who had
been under her grandmother's care in New York. She wrote a book, Assata:
An Autobiography, in 1987 and is known to have worked as an
English-language editor for Radio Habana.

In 1997, she told her experience in a documentary, The Eyes of the
Rainbow, by Gloria Rolando. The film was officially premiered in Havana
in 2004, in an event promoted by Casa de las Américas, the Cuban
government's main cultural forum.

The status of Chesimard and the other U.S. fugitives in Cuba has come
under increased speculation since Castro surrendered power to his
brother Raúl in mid-2006.

''They have protection only by . . . Fidel Castro's decision'' said a
former Interior Ministry official who was involved in cases of
foreigners' protection in Cuba. ``It is probable that things will remain
the same if their main supporter disappears, but nobody can guarantee
them that once the change takes place, there won't be negotiations.''

PETITIONS IGNORED

The latest U.S. State Department report on countries that sponsor
terrorism, dated in April, noted that the Cuban government permits the
presence of U.S. fugitives on the island and does not respond to
periodic petitions for their extradition.

''However, Cuba has declared that it won't be a shelter for new American
fugitives who seek refuge there,'' the report added.

Since October of last year, Cuba has surrendered to Washington three
American fugitives who had apparently arrived recently in Havana.

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/americas/cuba/story/348605.html