Cuba Archive - Case 985

Case ID: 985

Title: N/A

First name: Harold

Last name: Cepero Escalante

Suffix: N/A

Aliases: Manolo

Name also reported as: Manolo

Age: 32

Gender: Male

Date of Birth: Day:29 / Month:1 / Year:1980

Civil Status: Single

Date of death/disappearance: Day:22 / Month:7 / Year:2012

Citizenship: Cuba

Last known address: Martí 194, entre Blas Hernández y Progreso

Last known city: Ciego de Avila

Last known province-TOD: Ciego de Ávila

Last known province current: Ciego de Ávila

Last known country: Cuba

Location death-address: Finca La Gabina, km. 724, rural road near city of Bayamo

Location of death - city: Las Tunas, Bayamo

Location of death province - at TOD: Granma

Location of death province - current: Granma

Location of death - country: Cuba

Trial held?: No

Docket Number: N/A

Sentence details: N/A

Arrest or detention at time of death: N/A

Date of arrest: N/A

Imprisoned/Detained: Location: N/A

How long imprisoned/detained: N/A

Death attributed to: Castro regime

Death attribution detail: Agents of State Security (political police)

Associated Event: N/A

Case description:

A young member of the Christian Liberation Movement killed with the group's founder, Oswaldo Payá, Cuba's foremost dissident leader, in or after a car accident, allegedly of a pulmonary thrombosis. They were riding in a car with two foreigners (a Spaniard and a Swede) in a desolate road of the eastern province of Granma seeking to investigate a reported cholera outbreak. The Cuban government insists their car was speeding and hit a tree. The driver, Angel Carromero, a lawyer and adviser of the Partido Popular in the municipality of Madrid, Spain, was sentenced to 4 years of prison for the homicide in a trial lacking due process of law that the victims' families were not allowed to attend. On December 29, 2012, a year and a half after his arrest and sentencing in Cuba, Carromero was allowed to leave for Spain to finish serving his sentence there as part of a negotiation with the Spanish government. Once in Spain, he indicated he had been threatened and intimidated by Cuban authorities to support the "official version" but insisted the car he was driving had been forced off the road by a car that had been in their pursuit. Both foreigners had each faced long years of prison for violations to Cuba's national security and immigration laws. 
Payá's family and supporters have called for an independent investigation. Cepero was said by witnesses at the hospital to have arrived alive at the hospital with a broken hip and ribs, but friends were not allowed to see him and he was pronounced dead four hours later. Independent autopsies were not allowed. The death certificates of both victims do not cite Cause of Death and autopsy reports have not been provided to the families despite repeated official requests. In March 2018 Cuba's Ministry of Justice denied the Payá family a review of the case and examination of the car involved in the accident. A 2015 investigation by the New York-based Human Rights Foundation concluded that the alleged accident did not occur as per the official version and that the best available evidence strongly suggested direct government responsibility for Payá's death. A study of the photos released by Cuba of the car in the accident, conducted by the Varela Academy of Sciences of Miami concluded that it had been moved from the site and that the crash could not have happened as reported. The Swede passenger of the car, Jens Aron Modig, leader of the Swedish Christian Democratic Youth, had sent text messages to Sweden indicating they had been forced off the road by a car that had been following and attacking them. Modig was released after several days in isolation and detention and flew back to Sweden, claiming he had no memory of anything. 
Harold had been a veterinary student at the University of Camagüey when he was expelled in 2002 for endorsing the Varela Project, a signature-gathering initiative led by Payá to request reforms in Cuba through mechanisms established in the Communist Constitution. Harold had then entered a seminary to become a Catholic priest but later decided the priesthood was not his calling. He held odd jobs as a pig caretaker and was a cook at a Havana church. Throughout, he had remained an active member of the Christian Liberation Movement.
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Un joven miembro del Movimiento de Liberación Cristiana que fue asesinado con el fundador del grupo, Oswaldo Payá, el principal líder disidente de Cuba, al chocar el auto en que viajaban en un camino desolado del oriente de la isla. El gobierno lo reportó oficialmente como un accidente. Viajaban con dos extranjeros que
resultaron ilesos que fueron amenazados con largos años de prisión por violaciones a las leyes cubanas. El conductor, un abogado español, fue condenado a 4 años de prisión por homicidio en un juicio sin debido proceso legal. Un año y medio
después se le permitió salir de Cuba para terminar de cumplir su condena en España. Negó la "versión oficial" de que había chocado contra un árbol cuando viajaba a exceso de velocidad e insistió en otro automóvil que los perseguía los había sacado
de la carretera. El otro pasajero del automóvil, un líder sueco de la Juventud Demócrata Cristiana, había enviado mensajes de texto a Suecia indicando que seguían y habían sido forzados fuera de la carretera. Fue liberado luego de estar varios días en aislamiento por intervención de las autoridades suecas y afirmó no tener memoria del siniestro. No se permitieron autopsias independientes y se le negaron los informes de autopsia a las familias; los dos certificados de defunción no citaban causa de muerte. Una investigación por la Fundación de Derechos Humanos con sede en Nueva York concluyó que la evidencia señalaba la responsabilidad de agentes del estado. Poco antes
de su muerte, Payá y su esposa viajaban en su furgoneta en La Habana cuando un vehículo los golpeó fuertemente por detrás. El coche se volcó pero la pareja logró escapar sin lesiones graves.

Sources: Conflict of Evidence:

Violation Status: Confirmed with primary source(s)

Cause of Death: - Extrajudicial killing, possible/suspected

Occupations: - Food Preparation and Serving Related Occupations

External Files: N/A

Relatives in Archive: N/A

Victim Type: - Political opponent: member of opposition group

Affiliations: - Christian Liberation Movement

Other Victims Same Event: - Case 430: Oswaldo José Payá Sardiñas

Case Record - Harold Cepero Escalante