Father Lester Rafael Zayas Díaz reported a daylight theft at the Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish located on Línea Street in Vedado, Havana, where a man brazenly stole exterior lights. “What desperate situation must someone be in to feel compelled to scale two walls and climb several meters at three in the afternoon to steal some fluorescent light tubes, risking capture and perhaps willing to do anything to get what they need? What dire need, what hunger and anguish, to risk everything for some light tubes, only to end up breaking most of them and leaving with almost nothing?” questioned the priest, who shared photos of the incident.
Moreover, he added, “This happened at three in the afternoon in front of some children and catechists who watched him climb down and flee with astonished eyes.” He also mentioned that the man “did not seem mentally well and looked like someone who hadn't bathed in days. How much sadness resides in our national reality!”
At the end of 2022, Father Zayas Díaz had also reported an act of vandalism against his office door. “Sometimes I think you’re just a common thief, one of the many in these times. But seeing you so limited and poor softens my heart. You’ve broken the door four times at different moments and haven’t taken anything. I’ve thought it might be good to schedule a meeting with you; next time, I could help you break the door and share the loot,” the priest wrote in a Facebook post.
In 2023, the priest reported another intrusion at the parish where lamps and lightbulbs were stolen. “Our ‘brother thief’ visited again, this time needing lamps and lightbulbs. This thief has keys and comes and goes as he pleases. This time he came twice: first to take the lamps and then to break the lock he forgot to break earlier, making it clear he didn’t enter with keys but by breaking in,” the priest detailed in another extensive post.
Zayas is among the 15 Catholic priests who, in 2021, signed a petition against repression before the Civic March for Change organized by the Archipelago platform on November 15. He has been one of the Cuban church figures under State Security surveillance.