Prominent Human Rights groups hold Cuban dictatorship responsible for 2012 deaths of Oswaldo Payá and Harold Cepero

From our Bureau of Obviously Guilty Parties Who Have Gotten Away With Murder

The American Commission of Human Rights (IACHR) and the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Advocacy released a joint statement yesterday in which they both accused the Cuban dictatorship of being responsible for the 2012 deaths of Cuban human rights activists Oswaldo Payá and Harold Cepero.

Ever since Payá and Cepero died after the car in which they were traveling was repeatedly rammed by another vehicle, everyone who knows how Castro, Inc. disposes of its enemies has known that these deaths were not the result of some vehicular mishap, but rather a deliberate and obvious assassination.

For the past eleven years this double murder has remained shrouded in a fog due to the willful neglect of journalists who have chosen not to report on the details of this heinous crime.

Today, two human rights organizations have jointly called attention to the obvious facts ignored by the world’s news media. This announcement has raised some congenitally paralyzed eyebrows. Even the normally Castrophillic El Guasingtonpó (Washington Post) has picked up on the significance of this development, featuring it in an editorial.

Let’s see what happens next, if anything. Castro, Inc. has one of the thickest Teflon coatings of any dictatorship on planet earth. None of its millions of crimes ever stick to it. Let’s hope this one does.

From The Organization of American States

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) publishes Admissibility and Merits Report 83/23, regarding Case 14.196. This case concerns the responsibility of the State of Cuba for the deaths of Oswaldo Payá and Harold Cepero and the torture and violations of judicial guarantees subsequently suffered by Ángel Carromero.   Human rights defender and political leader Oswaldo Payá and fellow human rights defender and dissident Harold Cepero were subjected to various acts of violence, harassment, threats, and attempted murder when a car crash finally cost them their lives on June 22, 2012. Later, Ángel Carromero, who had been driving the car at the time of the crash and survived, was prosecuted, and convicted in connection with these events.   In its report, the IACHR stresses that what happened to the victims had to be considered in the context of the persecution and State repression against political dissidents and rights defenders in Cuba, which seek to discourage or prevent efforts to advocate or promote human rights.   The IACHR identified sufficient serious evidence to conclude that State agents had been involved in the deaths of Payá and Cepero. In particular, the Commission took into consideration Carromero’s testimony—confirmed by an eyewitness—noting that the vehicle had been hit by an official car. The State did not submit allegations or otherwise refute these arguments. The IACHR therefore established that the State of Cuba had violated the rights to life, honor, and freedom of expression of the two men.   The Commission found many irregularities and omissions in the investigation of these events, including poor investigative capacity and a failure to get survivors to testify, as well as the fact that the authorities immediately adopted an official position, before having conducted the necessary investigation.   Concerning the right to access to justice, the IACHR found that Oswaldo Payá’s family had never been granted access to the autopsy reports or to the results of other relevant procedures. In proceedings against Ángel Carromero for his alleged responsibility in the accident, the authorities did not allow them to be involved, request evidence, or appeal the conviction. The Commission concluded that this investigation failed to comply with State obligations concerning due diligence, the exhaustion of logical lines of investigation, the need to publicize proceedings, and the need to grant access to information.   The IACHR therefore concluded that Cuba had violated the rights to justice and to file petitions held in the American Declaration, to the detriment of the families of Oswaldo Payá and Harold Cepero.