The United States demands that the Cuban regime return a terrorist that Fidel Castro took refuge in 1988.

Havana/Those responsible for an attack carried out 50 years ago by a Puerto Rican terrorist organization in the historic Fraunces Tavern in New York still live in Cuba. This Friday, several US authorities – including the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, and the US Embassy in Havana – demanded the regime hand over the fugitives.

On January 24, 1975, members of the Puerto Rican National Liberation Armed Forces (FALN) detonated a bomb in the building – today a museum and restaurant –, whose explosion left more than 50 injured and caused the death of four people: Alejandro Berger, Frank Connor, James Gezork and Harold Sherburne.

Rubio recalled the names of the victims in an official statement for the 50th anniversary of the attack and said that “to this day,” the regime protects those responsible, as well as other “fugitives and terrorists” wanted by the United States. In the text, the Secretary of State points in particular to William Morales, leader of the terrorist group to whom “the dictator Fidel Castro provided a safe haven” in 1988.

“Today, we remember the lives lost on that tragic day,” Rubio said. “We must also commit once again to demanding that fugitives wanted by the United States and under the protection of the Cuban regime be brought to justice. “We owe the victims and the American people our unrestricted commitment to holding the Cuban regime accountable.”

The attack on the Fraunces tavern, added the head of US diplomacy, is a reminder of the “devastating impact of terrorism and the pain it inflicts on families and communities.” For its part, the Embassy in Havana signed and reproduced Rubio’s message.

Last May, when the Joe Biden Administration decided to remove Cuba from the list of countries that do not collaborate with Washington’s efforts to eradicate terrorism, Joe Connor, son of one of the victims, asked his Government to reconsider the decision. . “My father was murdered by Cuban-sponsored terrorists,” he wrote to then-Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

“I bring this matter to your attention so that the United States Government will take the necessary steps to have this fugitive convicted terrorist returned to a US prison to serve his sentence. I thank you in advance for the return of Morales,” he said. Extradition “would provide some closure to this open wound our family has suffered all these years,” he added.

Just before leaving the White House, Biden ended up removing Cuba from another, more relevant list: that of countries sponsoring terrorism. Reversing that decision was one of the first measures of the newly inaugurated President Donald Trump.

Connor, along with the children of the other victims, participated this Friday in a tribute in New York. There, Connor recalled that the site chosen for the attack was not fortuitous: the banquet where General George Washington negotiated peace with the British after the War of Independence in 1776 took place there.

There the hero also offered a banquet for his soldiers, “sons of freedom,” Connor said. This is the type of symbolism that the Faln could not tolerate, said the man, who again demanded a negotiation for Morales’ capture.

Born in New York in 1950, Morales was arrested in 1979 for possession of explosives and managed to escape, first to Mexico, from where he traveled to Cuba. He is credited with making all the bombs that the Faln used during its activity. In fact, he lost an eye and nine fingers during the inadvertent detonation of a time bomb in his own home. He was sentenced to 99 years in prison, but escaped thanks to a doctor who was a member of a communist organization.

The FBI and other agencies, Rubio recalled, tried in vain to find the terrorist, who had been involved in other attacks during the 1970s. When they tried to arrest him in Puebla (Mexico), before his escape to Havana, two police officers died. In the Cuban capital he married and had children, although no further details about his current life are known.

Bill Clinton’s Administration denied him the amnesty he requested in 1997 and he did not return to the United States after the restoration of diplomatic relations between Havana and Washington, when several media predicted that both he and the terrorist Assata Shakur – former member of the Black Liberation Army – would be delivered to Havana.

The FBI offers $100,000 to anyone who provides information that contributes to his capture.