The activist was convicted of killing a police officer in the US in the 1970s and took refuge in Havana after fleeing the maximum security in Hunterdon County; She died for ‘health problems and old age’
The government of informed on Friday (26) the death, at the age of 78, of the American Joanne Deborah Byron, known as Assata Shakur, activist of the rights of the black population and former member of the Black Liberation Army Party, among other organizations.
“On September 25, 2025, he died in Havana, Cuba, the American city Joanne Deborah Byron, ‘Assata Shakur’, as a result of health problems and his advanced age,” said the Cuba Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a statement published on its website. The activist has lived refugees on the island for over 40 years.
In May, United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio denounced in the X network that the “Cuban regime” continued to “refuge to terrorists and criminals, including fugitives from the United States.” “We have the obligations to the victims and the American people to maintain our unwavering commitment to demand responsibilities from the Cuban regime,” Rubio added, posting a photo of Shakur and a police officer murdered in 1973.
In 2013, the FBI included Joanne Deborah Byron, also known as Joanne Carsimard, on her most sought after terrorist list, making her the first woman to join the record. Byron was a member of the Black Liberation Army Armed Army Organization when, on May 2, 1973, a police patrol confronted with two accomplices on a New Jersey road. In the shooting, a policeman and a member of the group died. She was arrested in 1977, accused of death and sentenced to life imprisonment, but fled the prison less than two years later.
It was located in Cuba in 1984 and entered the list of 25 most sought after FBI fugitives, which offered a reward of $ 1 million (about $ 5.3 million) for information about their whereabouts. An activist lived under the name Assata Shakur, according to the FBI. The agency estimates that other Americans sought by the court also live refugees on the island.
*With information from AFP
Posted by Carol Santos
