14ymedio, Havana, 25 January 2025 — Those responsible for an attack perpetrated 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 Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the US Embassy in Havana – demanded that the regime hand over the fugitives.
On January 24, 1975, members of the Puerto Rican Armed Forces of National Liberation (FALN) detonated a bomb in what is now a museum and restaurant. The 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 on the 50th anniversary of the attack and said that “to this day,” the regime protects those responsible, in addition to other “fugitives and terrorists” wanted by the United States. The Secretary of State points in particular to William Morales, leader of the terrorist group for whom “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 the fugitives wanted by the US 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 1975 attack on the Fraunces tavern, he added, is a reminder of the “devastating impact of terrorism and the pain it inflicts on families and communities.” The US Embassy in Havana endorsed and reproduced Rubio’s message.
Last May, when the Biden Administration decided to remove Cuba from the list of countries that sponsor terrorism, Joe Connor, the son of one of the victims, asked the government to reconsider this decision. “My father was murdered by terrorists sponsored by Cuba,” he wrote to the Secretary of State, Antony Blinken.
“I bring this matter to your attention so that the United States Government will take the necessary measures to return this convicted terrorist to a US prison to serve out his sentence. I thank my government in advance for Morales’ return,” he said. The extradition “would provide a certain closure to this open wound that our family has suffered all these years,” he added.
Just before leaving the White House, Biden removed Cuba from the list of countries that sponsor terrorism. Reversing that decision was one of the first executive orders of 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 place chosen for the attack was not just by chance: that was where the banquet was held after General George Washington negotiated peace with the British after the War of Independence, in 1776.
“There the hero also offered a banquet for his soldiers, ‘sons of freedom’. This is the kind of symbolism that the FALN could not tolerate,” added Connor, again demanding a negotiation for the capture of Morales.
Born in New York in 1950, Morales was arrested in 1979 for possession of explosives and managed to escape, first to Mexico, then 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 unintentional detonation of a bomb in his own home. He was sentenced to 89 years in prison, but he 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 policemen died. In the Cuban capital he married and had children, although no more details are known about his current life.
The Clinton Administration denied him amnesty 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 handed over by Cuba.
The FBI is offering $100,000 to anyone who provides information that leads to Morales’ capture.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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