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The name of Assata Shakur, a woman convicted of the 1973 murder of a New Jersey state soldier, was used by Black Lives Matter to illustrate what the group called “Cuba’s solidarity with the peoples. oppressed of African descent “as the communist country faced rare government anti-protests this summer.
As Cuba suffered its worst economic crisis in decades amid food shortages and a resurgence of coronavirus cases, many called on the United States to take action.
BLACK LIVES MATTER BLAME US, PRAISE THE CUBAN DIET, SOCIAL NETWORKS ARE BURNING
But Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, Inc., in a statement on Twitter, blamed the US embargo for the economic devastation of Cuba while praising the Cuban regime for its efforts to protect “black revolutionaries like Assata Shakur.”
But who is the woman that Black Lives Matter calls a “black revolutionary” and whom the authorities call a “domestic terrorist”?
Fugitive and “domestic terrorist”
Shakur, also known as JoAnne Chesimard, was convicted of being an accomplice in the 1973 murder of New Jersey State Soldier Werner Foerster, who left behind a wife and 3-year-old son. Shakur then escaped prison and fled to Cuba, where former Cuban Prime Minister Fidel Castro granted him asylum.
She was a member of the Black Liberation Army, which the FBI describes as “the most violent militant organizations of the 1970s”.
Shakur, 73, was never apprehended after her escape from prison in 1979.
She is the first woman the FBI has ever put on its list of top terrorists, and the agency continues to offer a million dollar reward for information that could lead to her arrest today.
On May 2, 2019, the 46th anniversary of Foerster’s murder, New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal called Shakur “a domestic terrorist and nothing more.”
In praise of Black Lives Matter
Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors has praised Shakur on several occasions.
“Assata Shakur, we love you. Fight for you and because of you. On this day and every day [sic], “Cullors wrote in a Facebook post in 2016.
FILE – This is an undated file photo provided by New Jersey State Police showing Assata Shakur – former Joanne Chesimard – who was put on a US government terrorist watch list on May 2, 2005.
((AP Photo / New Jersey State Police, file))
In another 2015 article, Cullors wrote: “Over the past year we have seen the movement and the general public elevate Assata around the world by chanting the excerpt from his letter and proudly wearing sweatshirts. Assata Taught Me shirts. Today … we are asking people to take a moment to raise our sister Assata Shakur by posting on social media how Assata inspired them and why she is important to the current Black Lives Matter movement. ”
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After George Floyd’s death, a Black Lives Matter mural depicting the image of Shakur was on display in June 2020 in front of Palo Alto City Hall in Palo Alto, California. Five police officers sued the city for the mural, claiming it contained “discriminatory” anti-police images.
On June 14, Black Lives Matter cited Shakur’s asylum in Cuba as an example of the Communist country’s “solidarity with oppressed peoples of African descent” while blaming the United States for Cuba’s current economic crisis.
Fox News’s Edmund DeMarche and Audrey Conklin contributed to this report.
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