Christie To Obama: Demand Cuba Return Cop-Killer Joanne Chesimard

Cuba should prove its commitment to improving its record on human rights by sending convicted cop killer Joanne Chesimard back to New Jersey, Gov. Chris Christie says.

In a letter to President Barack Obama posted on Christie’s Facebook page Sunday, the governor said he disagrees strongly with the president’s recent decision to resume diplomatic relations with the nation. Obama made the announcement last week, in the wake of the release of Alan P. Gross, an American who had been held in a Cuban prison since 2009 after the Castro regime accused Gross of spying.

A trade embargo was imposed in 1960 by President Dwight Eisenhower, and diplomatic relations were broken off the following year in the wake of Fidel Castro seizing power in the country that sits 90 miles off the Florida coast.

A New York Times article said Obama has made normalizing relations with Cuba a priority for the remainder of his presidency.

The move has been heavily criticized by Republicans as well as some Democrats, including New Jersey Sen. Robert Menendez, according to the Times’ article, as well as the Cuban community.

On Sunday, Christie added his criticism, saying he does not share the president’s view that restoring diplomatic relations will lead to a change in the way the Cuban government treats its people.

“However, despite my profound disagreement with this decision, I believe there is an opportunity for Cuba and its government to show the American people it is serious about change.”

“I urge you to demand the immediate return of Chesimard before any further consideration of restoration of diplomatic relations with the Cuban government,” Christie wrote. ”Cuba’s provision of safe harbor to Chesimard by providing political asylum to a convicted cop killer, and her ability to elude justice, is an affront to every resident of our state, our country and in particular, the men and women of the New Jersey State Police.”

Chesimard, who was convicted in 1977 of the May 1973 murder of New Jersey State Trooper Werner Foerster during a shootout on the New Jersey Turnpike in East Brunswick. was sentenced to 30 years in prison for the crime. But she escaped from prison in 1979 and in 1984 turned up in Cuba, where she has lived ever since.

Chesimard, who now goes by the name Assata Shakur, is the only woman on the FBI’s Most Wanted List and last year the New Jersey State police increased the reward for information leading to her capture to $2 million. Col. Rick Fuentes, superintendent of the New Jersey State Police, issued a call for Chesimard’s return to serve her prison sentence on Tuesday, according to an article on NJ.com.

Christie’s Facebook post: