Fernández de Cossío, Cuban deputy foreign minister, denied knowing this case in an interview
Madrid, Yunior García Aguilero, September 27, 2025 — William Guillermo Morales is a name that sums up several decades of tensions between Washington and Havana. His case is one of the most cited when there is talk about fugitives sought by American justice who found asylum on the Island, and it returns to relevance after the recent interview that the Cuban Deputy Foreign Minister, Carlos Fernández de Cossío, granted to journalist Mehdi Hasan. The diplomat rejected the accusations that Cuba is supporting terrorists, but there are elements in Morales’ story that hardly fit this official version.
Morales, a Puerto Rican-born New York engineer, was a member of the Armed Forces of National Liberation (FALN), a clandestine group that carried out dozens of bombings in the U.S. in the 1970s to demand Puerto Rico’s independence. The FALN’s bloodiest action occurred in January 1975, when a device exploded at the Fraunces Tavern restaurant in Manhattan, killing four people and injuring dozens.
Although Morales was not directly convicted of the attack, he was arrested in 1978 after an accidental explosion at a bomb factory in Queens. The blast left him severely mutilated, with his hands shattered and face disfigured. In the apartment, police found explosives and documents linking him to the FALN network and the Fraunces Tavern bombing.
Morales was sentenced to 89 years in prison for possession of weapons and explosives. He was hospitalized at the Bellevue Hospital Center in New York to receive prostheses when, in May 1979, he participated in a breakout worthy of a documentary. The terrorist used an improvised rope made with bandages to hang from the bathroom window, aided by supporters of the underground movement. He fled to Mexico, where in 1983 he was arrested after a shoot-out with police that left an officer dead. He spent five years in prison in that country and, upon his release in 1988, was able to travel to Cuba where he obtained political asylum. Since then he has been living in Havana, free and protected by the Cuban government, despite U.S. extradition demands.
The families of the deceased at Fraunces Tavern have repeatedly asked that Morales be extradited and serve the sentence he evaded
The case of Morales shows how the Cuban regime has served as a refuge for individuals accused of terrorism or serious crimes in the U.S. The best-known example is Joanne Chesimard, aka Assata Shakur, a former member of the Black Liberation Army who was convicted of murdering a New Jersey police officer in 1973 and has been on the run since 1979. Shakur died in Havana this September 25, due to health problems and her advanced age.
Charles Hill is also mentioned, implicated in the murder of a policeman in New Mexico in 1971 and living in Cuba since the 1970s. For the U.S. authorities, these cases are proof that Havana is violating international agreements on judicial cooperation and combating terrorism. For the Cuban government, they are political fighters who faced persecution and deserve asylum.
Fernández de Cossío, in his dialogue with Mehdi Hasan, denied knowing the case of Morales. He argued that Cuba does not protect terrorists and said that Washington’s accusations are part of a political pressure campaign. However, the argument does not solve the dilemma of the victims, who continue to demand justice half a century after the events. The families of the deceased at Fraunces Tavern have repeatedly asked that Morales be extradited and serve the sentence he evaded. For them, the decision of Havana is an affront that prolongs the pain.
The asylum granted to Morales has implications that go beyond the legal. The Cuban regime’s refusal to cooperate with the U.S. justice system in cases of civilian killings raises an ethical problem. Morales is a kind of political ghost in Havana: he does not appear in the official press and does not participate in public events, but he is a symbol of the old alliance between armed independence activists and the Cuban government. At a time when Havana is desperately seeking to improve its international image and normalize relations with Washington, protecting fugitives from violent crimes on the Island is a burden that fuels mistrust and provides arguments for maintaining sanctions.
The case of William Morales is a reminder that historical debts do not expire and that political refuge, when extended to perpetrators of attacks against civilians, ceases to be a humanitarian gesture and becomes a political decision with consequences.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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