“Justice was done” with the IACHR report accusing the Cuban regime of the deaths of Oswaldo Paya and Harold Cepero
14ymedio, Madrid, 23 July 2025 — The tomb where Oswaldo Payá is buried, in the Colón Cemetery in Havana, received a visit on Tuesday, the thirteenth anniversary of his death, from the head of mission of the United States Embassy, Mike Hammer.
As Hammer usually does with all his visits to people and places on the island, the diplomat had himself recorded and the video was shared through the diplomatic headquarters’ social media. “This July 22nd, we remember and pay tribute to Oswaldo Payá and Harold Cepero, who sacrificed their lives for a better Cuba and in defense of human rights,” was posted on Facebook, along with the images.
Hammer, carrying a dozen showy red ginger flowers, briefly explains the purpose of his visit to the camera and then places the bouquet in front of the gate of the cemetery, after which he silently looks back at the camera, while forming the L for freedom with his index finger and thumb, a gesture widely used by members of the Christian Liberation Movement (MCL) founded by Payá.
Outside the island, in the United States, other tributes to Payá took place this Tuesday. The most prominent was the posthumous presentation of the Medal of Service to Democracy by the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), at a ceremony attended by his daughter, Rosa María Payá, and his widow, Ofelia Acevedo.
In the video announcing the event, Damon Wilson , president and CEO of NED, referring to the Varela Project, recalled that Payá “led a peaceful citizens’ movement that mobilized thousands of people to demand free elections and fundamental rights.” For that courage, Wilson said, he paid “the ultimate price.”
Similarly, he referred to the June 2023 report in which the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), part of the Organization of American States (OAS), ruled that the Cuban regime was responsible for the deaths of Oswaldo Payá and Harold Cepero, stating that “justice was finally done.”
That detailed report, which included information provided by relatives and a direct witness to the accident that killed the opposition members on July 22, 2012, confirmed that the collision was caused by a State Security vehicle, contradicting the official version. Authorities concluded at the time that the driver of the car carrying Payá and Cepero, Spanish politician Ángel Carromero of the Popular Party, was responsible for causing the accident. As such, he was tried for involuntary manslaughter in a court on the island. However, upon returning to Spain, Carromero always maintained that he was coerced to corroborate the regime’s hypothesis.
“This bill will soon be voted on in both chambers, and it will become law that the Cuban Embassy will be located on Oswaldo Payá Street.”
Another memorial service for Payá took place this Tuesday in the U.S. Congress, where Republican Mario Díaz-Balart and Democrat Debbie Wasserman Schultz reintroduced the bill to rename the street in front of the Cuban Embassy in Washington after the opposition figure. The lawmakers sponsoring the bill are Republicans María Elvira Salazar, Carlos Giménez, and Nicole Malliotakis, and Democrats Frederica Wilson and Darren Soto.
Rosa María Payá, recently elected to the IACHR, expressed her hope to Martí Noticias : “We believe that this time we will achieve it, that very soon this bill will be voted on in both chambers and it will become law that the Cuban Embassy will be located on Oswaldo Payá Street.”
The activist, who heads Cuba Decide, thanked the NED on behalf of her mother and siblings for the medal awarded to her father, as well as another tribute that took place in the Senate, “on the 13th anniversary of that fateful Sunday, the state crime ordered by Raúl and Fidel Castro to try to block the path to liberation that my father paved the way for, and for which he worked alongside many other Cubans.”
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