MURDER OF SECOND SPANISH PRIEST CAUSES COMMOTION

C O N F I D E N T I A L HAVANA 000445 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/17/2019 TAGS: PGOV PHUM PINS CU SUBJECT: MURDER OF SECOND SPANISH PRIEST CAUSES COMMOTION REF: HAVANA 145 Classified By: COM Jonathan Farrar for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d) ¶1. (C) SUMMARY: A second brutal murder of a Spanish catholic priest in five months has become a cause celebre in Cuba in spite of receiving no press coverage locally until Sunday, July 19. Rampant rumors in the Cuban public and international press about the cases may have prompted the GOC to publish a statement by the Archdiocese of Havana on that date that purports to clarify the situation. Typical GOC lack of transparency makes an accurate judgment on the cases almost impossible, however. End Summary ¶2. (SBU) The brutal murder on July 13 of a Spanish Roman Catholic priest, Fr. Mariano Arroyo, five months to the day after the very similar murder of Fr. Eduardo De la Fuente (REFTEL) generated enough public concern in Cuba (in spite of the fact that it was never reported in the local press) that the GOC published a statement from the Archdiocese of Havana in the Sunday edition of Juventud Rebelde. The statement provides very little information except to say that the police had made an arrest in the Arroyo case and that there were no links between the Arroyo murder and that of de la Fuente. That conclusion was reportedly based on a confession by a suspect in the de la Fuente case. ¶3. (C) Even though there had been no press coverage of the Arroyo murder (there had never been any reports of the De la Fuente murder either),word spread rapidly around Havana. The fact that Arroyo, a popular priest who worked in a parish in the poor district of Regla in the eastern part of Havana, was murdered exactly five months after another Spanish priest who also worked in one of Havana's marginal neighborhoods (Lawton),and was reportedly found stabbed, strangled and burned as in the previous case, had "Radio Bemba," the Cuban rumor mill, humming. That there had never been any apparent progress in the De la Fuente case added to the level of speculation. In several conversations with our Spanish embassy colleagues over the past five months we were told that they had heard nothing from Cuban authorities about possible suspects in the De la Fuente murder. Likewise, even after the statement by the Archdiocese had been made public, the Spanish Political Counselor told Pol-Econ chief that his Embassy had received no communications from the GOC on the issue. At the same time, the Spanish PolCouns expressed doubt about the arrest of suspects. Pol-Econ chief also spoke after the Archdiocesan statement was made public with Fr. Jose Felix Perez Riera (please protect) the Executive Secretary of the Cuban Bishop's Conference. Perez Riera responded cautiously that he hoped that some progress could be made in resolving both cases, but left the impression that he too had doubts about the "suspects" in custody. ¶4. (C) COMMENT: Though one would not know it by reading the local press, murder in Cuba--and especially in the marginal neighborhoods of Havana--is not that rare. However, the very similar murder of two priests Clearly generated a new level of concern in the populace. Not surprisingly, the GOC's lack of transparency added fuel to the fire. It is noteworthy and indicative of the level of unrest caused by the murders that Cuban authorities decided to make the Archdiocesan statement public. The structure of the language in the statement indicates that the GOC may have been involved in drafting it. It remains to be seen if the publication will accomplish its apparent goal of tamping down public concern. If it does not, the GOC may be forced to open up even more and provide information on the alleged perpetrators and the conduct of the investigations that led to their arrests. FARRAR