Particle.news
Download on the App Store
5 ARTICLES
·
3h ago

Assata Shakur Dies in Havana at 78, Cuba Says

The former Black Liberation Army member lived in Cuba for decades after fleeing a New Jersey life sentence.

Muere Assata Shakur, la activista estadounidense buscada por el FBI y protegida en Cuba, a los 78 años
Joanne Chesimard, also known as Assata Shakur, was convicted in 1977 of the 1973 murder of New Jersey State Trooper Werner Foerster. She escaped from a New Jersey prison in 1979 and has been residing in Cuba.
Chesimard fue condenada en 1977 a cadena perpetua por la muerte de un agente en Nueva Jersey

Overview

  • Cuba’s foreign ministry said she died in Havana on September 25 due to health problems and advanced age at 78.
  • Shakur was convicted for a 1973 New Jersey highway shooting that killed a state trooper, received a life sentence in 1977, escaped prison in 1979, and surfaced in Cuba in 1984 with political asylum from Fidel Castro.
  • In 2013 the FBI named her the first woman on its Most Wanted Terrorists list and, with New Jersey authorities, set a $2 million reward for information leading to her capture.
  • Her long refuge in Cuba became a recurring point of friction in U.S.–Cuba relations, with anti-Castro activists citing her case to argue for keeping Cuba on the State Department’s terrorism list.
  • In May, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio criticized Cuba on X for harboring terrorists and U.S. fugitives, and the coverage noted no immediate formal U.S. government response to her death.