VZCZCXRO4679
PP RUEHAG RUEHROV RUEHSL RUEHSR
DE RUEHUB #0110/01 0571937
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 261937Z FEB 10
FM USINT HAVANA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 5228
INFO RUCNMEM/EU MEMBER STATES COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUEHWH/WESTERN HEMISPHERIC AFFAIRS DIPL POSTS PRIORITY
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RUEHBS/USEU BRUSSELS PRIORITY
RHEHAAA/NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RUCOGCA/COMNAVBASE GUANTANAMO BAY CU PRIORITY
RHMFISS/HQ USSOUTHCOM MIAMI FL PRIORITY
RUCOWCV/CCGDSEVEN MIAMI FL PRIORITY
RHMFISS/JOINT STAFF WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 HAVANA 000110 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR WHA/CCA AND WHA/PD 
STATE FOR DRL CNEWLING 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/20/2019 
TAGS: PREL PHUM PGOV EAID CU
SUBJECT: CUBAN OPPOSITION SHOCKED AND ENERGIZED BY DEATH OF 
HUNGER STRIKER 
 
REF: HAVANA 107 ("CUBA BUTTONED DOWN FOLLOWING DEATH 
     OF HUNGER-STRIKING POLITICAL PRISONER 
     ORLANDO ZAPATA TAMAYO") 
 
HAVANA 00000110  001.2 OF 002 
 
 
Classified By: Principal Officer Jonathan Farrar for reasons 1.4 (b) an 
d (d). 
 
¶1. (C) SUMMARY. The February 23 death of political prisoner 
Orlando Zapata Tamayo has both shocked and energized the 
Cuban opposition, but has not provoked large scale political 
unrest in Cuba or resonated deeply within Cuban society at 
large.  State security forces have been active, resorting to 
short-term and house detentions and travel restrictions to 
repress organized activities honoring Zapata. Other than 
President Raul Castro's unprecedented February 24 statement 
(not published within Cuba) "lamenting" Zapata's death and a 
brief mention on a government website, the official media has 
remained silent. END SUMMARY. 
 
MUCH EXCITEMENT BUT THINGS QUIETING DOWN 
 
¶2. (SBU) After an initial 24-hour period in which elements of 
the opposition and public security forces bristled for 
possible confrontation, the situation throughout Cuba appears 
to be returning to the status quo after Zapata's burial. 
There have been no public demonstrations, and all persons who 
had been detained in Havana and eastern Cuba have been freed. 
 There have been no further reported detentions.  Despite 
this, there is a certain sense of momentum among the 
political opposition, with several prisoners of conscience 
and other leaders announcing hunger strikes and other 
activities to mark the seventh anniversary of the 2003 
arrests that netted Zapata and 75 other members of the 
opposition. 
 
REPRESSION AT THE BURIAL 
 
¶3. (SBU) Zapata's burial in his hometown of Banes in 
easternmost Cuba was a tense affair.  Witnesses reported a 
heavy police presence, with opposition members' houses 
surrounded and checkpoints at the town's entrances. 
High-profile opposition leaders such as Martha Beatriz Roque, 
Vladimiro Roca and Laura Pollan, along with several Damas de 
Blanco were allowed to enter Banes and attend the wake and 
funeral, along with many local activists.  Pollan told us 
that tensions rose when Cuban officials insisted that 
Zapata's burial take place within hours after his body had 
arrived in Banes on February 24, and the family pushed back 
hard.  Roque reportedly told a Cuban woman doctor sent to 
press the case for a quick burial that she would "kick her 
ass" if she didn't leave the place at once.  Eventually, 
authorities bowed to pressure and allowed the family to delay 
the burial until early in the morning of February 25. 
Despite the reported presence of 50-60 state security 
officials at the funeral and burial, both in uniform and 
plainclothes, mourners were permitted to march through the 
streets of Banes to Zapata's burial site, shouting "Long Live 
Human Rights!," "Long Live Zapata!," and other chants. 
 
DETENTIONS AND HARASSMENT ELSEWHERE 
 
¶4. (C) Throughout Cuba, Zapata's supporters were prevented 
from attending activities to mark his death.  Human rights 
monitor Elizardo Sanchez told PolOff that he had received 
reports of more than one hundred detentions and house arrests 
in the hours following Zapata's death.  In Havana, several 
small and disparate groups were detained en route to sign a 
condolence book in Damas de Blanco spokesperson Pollan's home 
(which USINT Pol Counselor signed on February 25 on behalf of 
the USG).  Blogger Yoani Sanchez told PolOff that she and her 
sister were detained on their way to Pollan's house on 
February 24 and "roughed up" by state security agents, who 
released them ninety minutes later and apologized for the 
"misunderstanding."  Opposition activists in Matanzas, Pinar 
del Rio, and throughout eastern Cuba informed PolOffs of 
police harassment, house arrests, and detentions. With the 
exception of Sanchez, however, detainees released from police 
stations reported a minimum of interrogations or harassment. 
 
HAVANA 00000110  002.2 OF 002 
 
 
 
CIVIL SOCIETY UNITY 
 
¶5. (C) Zapata's death has uniformly shocked and outraged 
Cuba's fractured civil society, inspiring an unprecedented 
show of unity and teamwork among traditional opposition 
figures, bloggers, religious leaders, and independent 
journalists.  Punk guitarist Ciro Garcia filmed an interview 
with traditional opposition leaders Juan Carlos Gonzalez 
Leyva and Pollan, and posted the interview on his partner 
Claudia Cadelo's blog.  Yoani Sanchez told Poloff she had 
deliberately downplayed news of her own violent detention in 
order to avoid detracting from Zapata's death, and publicly 
showed solidarity with the highly-political traditional 
opposition leaders she generally avoids.   Convivencia, an 
independent Catholic publication, organized a nationwide 
prayer circle to coincide with the time of Zapata's death. 
Meanwhile, political prisoners and other activists from all 
over Cuba began to report their own hunger strikes in protest 
of Zapata's death, including well-known afro-Cuban political 
leader Guillermo "Coco" Farinas. 
 
RAUL REACTS, REINA RIPOSTES 
 
¶6. (U) The official media has kept silence on Zapata's death. 
 Cubadebate.cu, the GOC's primary internet mouthpiece 
featured a posting with Cuban President Raul Castro's 
"lament" that a political prisoner had died.  The same 
website also featured pro-GOC bloggers maligning Zapata as a 
common criminal.  The February 26 issue of Granma had an 
article on the "shamelessness" of the U.S. detailing prison 
conditions, including deaths, in the United States.  Reina 
Danger Tamayo, Zapata's mother, reacted angrily to Castro's 
comments in her interviews with the foreign press, rejecting 
his lament and labeling the death of her son "premeditated 
murder."  In at least one interview (with ABC news), Danger 
also categorically rejected Castro's claim that Zapata's 
death was due to U.S. government policies in Cuba, stating 
bluntly, "(the U.S. government didn't kill my son.  This 
regime did." 
 
COMMENT:  DEATH CATCHES ALL OFF-GUARD 
 
¶7. (C) Although the GOC response to Zapata's death has been 
swift and thorough, it has been calibrated, focused on 
preventing large gatherings and relying upon mostly 
non-violent means.  Nearly all observers agree that the GOC 
did not want Zapata's death and that it was a result of gross 
negligence and incompetence by prison authorities and the 
health system.  These two institutions are truly and 
thoroughly broken down.  This makes it an extremely dangerous 
proposition to be an inmate in Cuba's prison system.  There 
are dozens of political prisoners who are seriously ill. 
.FARRAR