Oswaldo Payá, age 60, and Harold Cepero, age 32, were killed July 22, 2012 in a car crash. Payá, founder and leader of the Christian Liberation Movement (known for its Spanish abbreviation MCL), was widely regarded as Cuba´s leading dissident leader. Cepero was a young activist in the MLC. They had been traveling by car in Cuba’s eastern Granma province with two visitors --Angel Carromero, member of the youth branch of Spain´s Popular Party, and Aron Modig, President of the Christian Democrat Youth League of Sweden, both 27. Both foreigners were quickly removed from the site, apparently without seeing the passengers in the back; the Spaniard later claimed he had been drugged immediately. Cuba´s Interior Ministry reported that Payá had died instantly from head trauma while Cepero had died a few hours later at the hospital from an "acute respiratory insufficiency" caused by a blood clot from a broken leg. Payá’s body had, according to the family, no visible injuries. Autopsy reports were not provided.
