NJ police renew call for escaped domestic terrorists in Cuba to return to US

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A top New Jersey lawman is reminding potential tourists to Cuba that the communist dictatorship is a longtime haven for fugitive U.S. cop killers and terrorists just as President Obama begins his historic visit to the island nation. Col. Rick Fuentes, superintendent of the New Jersey State Police, posted a video message to Facebook on Thursday in which he warned the public of four domestic terrorists Cuba is harboring. Fuentes said the four are responsible for the deaths of 17 police officers, five American civilians and two U.S. servicemen and 159 bombings. "As a matter of public safety, I believe that all those considering travel to Cuba need to be aware that four dangerous fugitive terrorists are living free and protected on the island," Fuentes said. The video is the latest effort by Fuentes to push for the return of Joanne Chesimard, who was convicted in the killing of New Jersey State Trooper Werner Foerster in 1973 but later escaped and fled to Cuba. Chesimard, 68, who also wounded another officer in the attack, escaped from prison in 1979 and has been living in Cuba since the mid-1980s. She is the state's most-wanted fugitive. There's a $2 million bounty for information leading to her capture. A $100,000 reward is being offered for Morales and a $1 million reward for Gerena, according to the New Jersey State Police. In addition to his Facebook message, Fuentes penned an editorial in the Miami Herald Wednesday in which he charged that, "U.S. government negotiators speaking on behalf of the Obama administration seem to lack both the will and intent to press the Castro brothers for their return to the United States to answer for their crimes." "Tourists to Cuba, please be careful," wrote Fuentes. "You are not dignitaries with security teams or part of a pampered and propagandized political delegation fattened and flattered by the type of cuisine and accommodations most Cubans can only dream about." "I’m not saying that the jittery Cuban military and police aren’t interested in your movements on the island, but you will have no visible escorts or other functional layers of protection," he wrote. "You also should know that some of America’s most-wanted terrorists are living openly in Cuba. They roam the island freely and are still dangerous revolutionaries, disenchanted about all things American." While Fuentes named four convicted domestic terrorists, there are hundreds more hiding out in Cuba, according to the Sun Sentinel newspaper. There is no record of how many fugitives are wanted in Cuba on serious federal charges. Some criminal defense lawyers representing Cuban offenders say thousands of fugitives may have returned there, according to the newspaper. Fort Myers defense attorney Rene Suarez, who represents Cuban clients, told the paper in January 2015 that public estimates of fugitives in Cuba are typically "big, federal type cases." "But most of these folks that have gone back, they're not federal cases. The vast majority are just state charges that are tracked county by county," Suarez told the paper. "...There's got to be thousands of them."