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Last modified: Friday September 11, 1998
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chronology of events:
JANUARY 1997: Joachim Ogner Lovschall, a 26 year old market economist from Denmark, travels to Cuba, a popular vacation paradise in the Caribbean. He rents a room with the Garcia Llanes family in the capital city of Havana, and begins his study of Spanish at the University of Havana.
MARCH 28, 1997: Joachim Lovschall eats dinner in a little restaurant called Aladin, on 21st street in Havana. From there he goes to the Revolutionary Plaza and buys a ticket to the Cuban National Theater.
After the performance he goes into the theater cafe, Cafe Cantate, and is joined by two friends from Sweden. At 23:30, they say good bye to each other, on the sidewalk in front of Cafe Cantate. The friends never see Joachim again.
According to a Cuban inquiry, Joachim Lovschall walks alone down the deserted Avenue Territorial, behind the Cuban Ministry of Defense. He walks on a sidewalk that lies opposite the Ministry, m
idway he crosses the street to the other sidewalk, which is considered a military area - even though it is not blocked off, fenced in or clearly marked. When he does not respond to warning shots fired by Cuban soldiers, he is shot in the stomach and the neck by two bullets fired from an AK-47 at close distance. Cuban authorities estimate that Joachim Lovschall died of blood loss at 3:06 am on March 29, 1997.
APRIL 1, 1997 - 4 days after the killing: Joachim Lovschall's two friends go to the Cuban police to report that Joachim is missing and has not returned to the private room he has rented from the Garcia Llanes family. His friends and his Cuban landlord are extremely worried.
APRIL 3, 1997: Back in Denmark, Joachim Lovschall's parents are worried because their son has not telephoned them as agreed and they become alarmed when they are unable to contact him.
APRIL 4, 1997 - 7 days after the killing: Joachim Lovschall's rented room is searched and ransacked by Cuban authorities.
APRIL 4, 1997: In the evening, Joachim Lovschall's friends are called to the legal medical institute in Havana, where they identify the corpse of Joachim Lovschall.
APRIL 6, 1997 - 9 days after the killing:
The Cuban Ambassador from Stockholm, Sweden makes the first contact with Danish authorities in Copenhagen, Denmark regarding the killing. At 23:30 Danish authorities notify the parents of Joachim Lovschall of their son's death. Family and friends are in shock.
APRIL 8, 1997 - 11 days after the killing: Newspapers in Denmark, Cuba, Canada, Great Britain, Mexico, Norway, Spain and the United States first learn about the killing and begin reporting on it.
APRIL 22, 1997:
Denmark's ambassador in Mexico, Martin Kofod, comments on the case, after he travels to Havana to get clarification of the circumstances. He finds that neither barricades nor signs clearly state that the sidewalk in question is a restricted military area. He is astonished over the severe methods used by the soldiers and says: "I will reiterate, that to me it is completely incomprehensible that it was not possible to employ methods other than 'shoot to kill', in a situation like this."The Lovschall family's lawyer, Bent Nielsen obtains a video from the autopsy and asks Danish forensic medicine specialist, Dr. Markil Gregersen, to examine video. Nielsen writes: "It appears obvious and is clearly evident that the soldiers did not attempt to seize and restrain Joachim Lovschall. If so, there would have been signs of a struggle. Nor did they attempt to shoot at his legs. In this case, two bullets were fired directly at the trunk and the head, from a distance of less than two meters (6 feet). Under all circumstances, we must demand that the Cubans carry out a thorough investigation, find out what wrongs were committed, and punish those who are guilty."
AUGUST 1, 1997 - 4 months after the killing:
Denmark officially protests by sending a formal note to the Cuban government. "In it we ask the Cubans a series of critical questions. More specifically, we have criticized the lack of barricades at the military area. We have also written, that we find it absolutely incomprehensible that it was necessary to shoot directly at the trunk of the body, to restrain Joachim Lovschall."Simultaneously with the protest to Cuba, the
Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs sends a travel directive to the Danish travel industry, regarding travel to Cuba. The directive urges Danish tourists to keep at a safe distance from all military areas, and it underlines that these are not always effectively marked off. "People who do not immediately obey and react correctly to the orders from Cuban military guards ... risk being shot without further warning."
SEPTEMBER 23, 1997, NOVEMBER 18, 1997 AND FEBRUARY 18, 1998: The
Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs informs the European Union countries about the killing and urges them to warn their citizens of the injustice unsuspecting tourists can encounter. EU countries adopt a warning in their travel guidelines regarding Cuba, similar to that in the Danish travel directive.JANUARY 6, 1998 - 9 months after the killing: Cuba presents to the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs (not to the family of the deceased) a note dated December 8, 1997. The note written in Spanish is an answer to the Danish note from August 1, 1997. The Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs does not find the answer from the Cuban authorities satisfactory.
JANUARY 26, 1998: Joachim Lovschall's parents make a request, to the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, that the original note written in Spanish from the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs be given to them.
JANUARY 29, 1998: The Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs decides to give the parents a Danish translation of the note, not the original note in Spanish, and states that because "the Cuban authorities have expressly requested that the basic rules regarding the confidentiality of diplomatic exchanging of notes be respected, the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs must request that you not make public the translation of the note."
MARCH 18, 1998: The family of Joachim Lovschall feels the answers, in the note from Cuba, are unsatisfactory and presents to the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs a summary of questions they consider unanswered, and asks for help in obtaining answers from the Cuban authorities. The main questions they pose to the Danish and Cuban authorities are in part:
-Why has no lawful investigation of the case begun, and even more surprising, why has no one from the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs demanded that such an investigation be carried out?
-For what reason was the August 1, 1997 protest note to Cuba, from the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs to Cuba, kept secret from the family of the deceased?
-Has the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs received an answer to why it was necessary to shoot directly toward the body?
-Has the matter been taken up at the EU's regular meetings about Consul's questions, and if so, what has become of it?
-Has an explanation been requested regarding the Cuban authorities' long suppression of the murder? Why was there monitoring by the police when we talked on the telephone with Joachim Lovschall's circle of friends in Cuba? Why was his rented room searched and ransacked already by April 4, 1997, when we did not receive information about the murder until April 6, 1997 at 23:30? Where is the cash in U.S. dollars Joachim Lovschall had with him? This missing cash seems to suggest that the soldiers have committed murder with the intent to rob, or robbed from the grave. We request an explanation of this matter.
-The Cuban authorities maintain that Joachim Lovschall invaded an area that was clearly marked as a Military Zone. According to Ambassador Kofod's writings from April 22, 1997, the information regarding such markings is not in accordance with the truth. What have those from the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs' office decided to do about this evasion of the truth?
MAY 7, 1998 - 13 months after the killing:
The Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs delivers a new protest note to the Cuban "charge' d'affaires" in Copenhagen. In the note, Denmark asks Cuba to answer, among other things, whether or not they have begun a disciplinary or lawful investigation of the guard who killed Joachim Lovschall.
OCTOBER 1998: The Cuban government has not yet replied.
Please follow the speak out link to find out what you can do to help.
The Committee in Support of Justice for Joachim Løvschall
E-mail: c/o Free Cuba Foundation,
Please send comments to: fcf@fiu.edu
Last modified: Friday September 11, 1998
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