Cuba Provides Home to Suspects U.S. Seeks
Posted by Alex Sundby
(CBS/AP)
Longtime fugitive Luis Armando Pena Soltren is expected to be arraigned
Tuesday in a Manhattan courtroom after his arrest Sunday at New York's
John F. Kennedy International Airport more than 40 years after he
allegedly hijacked a plane and diverted it from Puerto Rico to Cuba.
Cuba remains somewhat of a safe haven for other people wanted by U.S.
authorities for hijacking planes, ABC News reported Tuesday. In 1968,
more than 30 planes "were hijacked or attempted to be hijacked to Cuba,"
the network reported, and those who succeeded live as fugitives on the
tiny Communist island 90 miles off the Florida coast.
The United States even formalized an agreement with Cuba in 1971 in an
effort to retrieve some of the alleged hijackers but yielded the return
of only a few fugitives.
"Most of these guys have been there for a long time," Wayne Smith,
former chief of the U.S. Interest Section in Cuba, told ABC. "Many of
them, like Soltren, hijacked planes, sought refuge and have been living
there ever since. By and large, they've been accepted and live normal
lives. They have housing and have been assigned jobs."
Not all of the sought criminals hijacked planes to get to Cuba, and they
all don't live out in the topen. Among the fugitives suspected of living
in the Cuban underground includes Chesimard, 62, also known as Assata
Shakur, mother of deceased rap icon Tupac Shakur. Chesimard, who
belonged to the radical Black Liberation Army, was convicted in 1977 for
shooting a New Jersey state trooper to death. She escaped from prison in
1979 and was last seen in Cuba in 1984.
Another suspected resident of the Cuban underground is Victor Manuel
Gerena, who appears on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list. The bureau has
been chasing Gerena ever since he allegedly stole $7 million from a
Wells Fargo armored car depot in Connecticut in 1984.
Cuba Provides Home to Suspects U.S. Seeks - World Watch - CBS News (13
October 2009)
http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/10/13/world/worldwatch/entry5381641.shtml
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