Mexico Releases Fugitive Terrorist Wanted by U.S.

To the distress of U.S. officials hoping for his extradition, fugitive Puerto Rican terrorist William Morales was freed from a Mexican prison Saturday.

Morales, a leader of a Puerto Rican nationalist organization that has claimed responsibility for scores of bombings in the United States since the mid-1970s, was convicted on guns and explosives charges in U.S. state and federal courts and was serving sentences of up to 89 years when he escaped from a prison ward at New York City ‘s Bellevue Hospital in 1979.

Gustavo Librado, an official of Mexico’s Interior Ministry, said that Morales, 38, was released from the Reclusorio Norte Prison here. He had completed five years of an eight-year sentence on charges of participating in a 1983 shoot-out with police who apprehended him in Mexico, where he had fled after escaping from Bellevue.

“In Mexico, one can gain freedom after serving three-fifths of a term, with good behavior,” Librado said.

It is unclear whether Morales will be permitted to stay in Mexico; his Mexican lawyers have been pressing the Foreign Ministry to grant him political asylum. Last week, Foreign Secretary Bernardo Sepulveda rejected a U.S. request for Morales’ extradition, saying that he is the victim of “political persecution.”

Still in Custody

Librado said only that Morales’ case is “at the disposition” of Mexican immigration authorities and that he is still in custody of Interior Ministry agents.

In Washington, the Justice Department protested Sepulveda’s decision, saying that the U.S. government was “very disturbed” by the action. The U.S. Embassy in Mexico City also protested Sepulveda’s announcement in a note to the Foreign Ministry complaining that Mexico is harboring a convicted felon in the guise of a political refugee.

The embassy had no comment on Morales’ release from prison.

The United States has been pressing for Morales’ extradition ever since he was captured in this country.

He is a leader of the Armed Forces of National Liberation, a Puerto Rican nationalist outfit widely known by its Spanish initials FALN. It seeks independence for Puerto Rico.