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Who killed Cuban dissident Oswaldo Payá?

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Who killed Cuban dissident Oswaldo Payá?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/oswaldo-paya-crossed-red-lines-with-the-cuban-government-before-his-death/2012/07/24/gJQAZTWZ7W_story.html


By Carl Gershman, Tuesday, July 24

Carl Gershman is president of the National Endowment for Democracy.
With the death of Oswaldo Payá, a key leader of the Cuban democratic opposition, Cuba has suffered what the writer Yoani Sanchez called “a dramatic loss for its present and an irreplaceable loss for its future.” The circumstances surrounding Payá’s death Sunday have sparked controversy similar to that caused in October by the death of Laura Pollan , the leader of the much-acclaimed Ladies in White, just weeks after she was attacked at a protest march by a government supporter.

The Cuban government said that Payá died in a traffic accident near the city of Bayamo when his car slammed into a tree, killing him and another passenger and injuring two others. But Payá’s daughter, Rosa Maria Payá, immediately challenged that version, saying that the family had received information from the survivors that their car was repeatedly rammed by another vehicle. “So we think it’s not an accident,” she said, according to CNN en Español. “They wanted to do harm and then ended up killing my father.”
The Castroit regime posted false photos of the Oswaldo Paya accident crash site on the facebook page of the Cuban communist party. Why are they doing it? What are they trying to spin? Sorry but this tactics doesn’t work on this time and age of internet information. The images of the car speak for itself. The communist party facebook page image shows a frontal impact only of the car involved in the crash.

http://www.penultimosdias.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/PCC.jpg

The real pictures show a large impact to the back of the car not consistent with a frontal impact with a tree. In reality this was the car they traveled in:

http://zoevaldes.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/fotoautopaya.jpg?w=600
 
[
THE WHITE HOUSE PRESS RELEASE
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-.....swaldo-pay

Statement by the Press Secretary on the Death of Oswaldo Payá- The President’s thoughts and prayers are with the family and friends of Oswaldo Payá, a tireless champion for greater civic and human rights in Cuba. Payá gave decades of his life to the nonviolent struggle for freedom and democratic reform in Cuba as the head of the Christian Liberation Movement, the leader of the Varela Project, and through his role as a civil society activist. He remained optimistic until the end that the country he loved would see a peaceful and democratic transition. We continue to be inspired by Payá’s vision and dedication to a better future for Cuba, and believe that his example and moral leadership will endure. The United States will continue to support the Cuban people as they seek their fundamental human rights.
Paya's daughter spoke with the two men who were in the car, before they were kept incommunicated in the hospital. His family seems to be in no doubt about who was responsible.
 
Up to 50 arrested at Payá funeral, family and supporters insist his death was no accident
Up to 50 arrested at Payá funeral, family and supporters insist his death was no accident - Cuba - MiamiHerald.com

By Juan O. Tamayo
jtamayo@ElNuevoHerald.com

Cuban dissident Oswaldo Payá was buried Tuesday as police dragged off and allegedly beat at least 40 supporters who shouted “Freedom!” after his funeral mass, in a clash watched by a large and impassive crowd in Havana.

Relatives and supporters voiced new allegations that Payá was killed in a car crash caused by another vehicle, but a Madrid newspaper reported the Spaniard at the wheel of the car carrying the dissident told police the accident was his fault.

Police detained 40 to 50 dissidents, and beat some of them severely, as more than 300 people left the El Salvador del Mundo church Tuesday morning and started the funeral procession to the Colón Cemetery, said Havana human rights activist Elizardo Sánchez.

Among those reported “brutally beaten” was dissident Guillermo Fariñas, winner of the 2010 European Parliament’s Sakharov price, which Payá won in 2002. Several had been released by Tuesday evening, Sánchez told El Nuevo Herald.
Carromero, the Spaniard who was driving, made phone calls to Europe. Seems he was rattled, and driving on unfamiliar roads to evade this criminal pursued, which led to the crash. Paya had suffered a similar incident two weeks earlier in Havana, putting him and his wife in danger.

131738a5-1583-4248-87ed-21068ebe8a78_w640_r1_s.jpg

Photo of Paya’s family van after the previous “accident” induced by the Castroit regime goons.

It is evident now that the Castroit regime is going for broke. It sent the thugs of the state security to perform ruthless assault of the grieving attendees at Paya's funeral. They were savagely beating and arrested.
 
Paya was a peaceful dissident, with many merits. The state security forces have no business beating up and locking people up at a funeral. The regime mob disturbed the funeral chanting pro regime slogans, shoving, punching and kicking the mourning crowd. Their intolerance begets more intolerance, and they will reap what they sowed.
 
During the last two years the harassment and detention of dissidents across the island has risen sharply. It has reach the point now that they arrest people grieving at a funeral, unheard off at any civilize country.

This video by Amnesty International reveals new tactics by the Cuban regime security apparatus to punish individuals which oppose the regime.
Routine repression in Cuba
 
Cuban Dissident's Widow Rejects Gov't Version of Husband's Death
Cuban Dissident's Widow Rejects Gov't Version of Husband's Death | Fox News Latino

Published July 28, 2012 EFE

Obit%20Oswaldo.jpg

Ofelia Acevedo, second from left, widow of the late Cuban activist Oswaldo Paya, is comforted by an unidentified man in front of the coffin containing her husband's body during a funeral mass in Havana, Cuba, Monday, July 23, 2012. Paya, who spent decades speaking out against the communist government of Fidel and Raul Castro and became one of the most powerful voices of dissent against their half-century rule, died Sunday in a car crash. He was 60. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa) (AP2012)

The widow of prominent Cuban dissident Oswaldo Paya said she does not accept the official government statement on the cause of the car crash that killed her husband and is demanding to meet with the two survivors of the accident.

"I'm not going to accept the version the government's giving. In no way do I accept it," Ofelia Acevedo told Efe Friday after Cuban state television made public an Interior Ministry note on the accident.

Paya, the 60-year-old leader of the Christian Liberation Movement, and 31-year-old Harold Cepero, also a member of that dissident organization, died in the accident last Sunday near Bayamo, a city 800 kilometers (500 miles) east of Havana.
The use of toxic substances, radioactive and carcinogenic chemicals in the Castroit prisons have caused lethal disease among political prisoners. Carlos Alberto Montaner published an article title “The Bulgarian Treatment” (The Bulgarian Treatment* Carlos Alberto Montaner* Dec), where it refers to the possible use of radioactive isotopes to kill political prisoners.
 
In 1996 Sebastián Arcos testified before the Human Rights Commission of the UN in Geneva, (Address to the U.N. Human Rights Commission by Sebastian Arcos Bergnes), where he said: “Or the Cuban government recognizes itself guilty of criminal negligence in my case, or it recognizes itself guilty of an attempted premeditated homicide against my person. Out of the group of 6 political prisoners liberated by the Cuban government after the requests of France Libertes, only two enjoyed good health. In addition to my own case, Reinaldo Figueredo has cancer in his vocal chords, Luis Enrique Gonzalez Ogra has pancreatic cancer, and Ismael Salvia Ricardo is nearly blind.” Sebastián passed away in Miami in December of 1997 at 65 years of age.
 
Oswaldo Payá: The Cuban dissident's moral example will outlive Castro
Review & Outlook: Oswaldo Payá - WSJ.com

WSJ Opinion, July 27,2012

Twice in the past year a popular and internationally recognized leader for democracy in Cuba has died in unusual circumstances.
On Sunday 60-year-old Oswaldo Payá died in a car crash in the eastern province of Granma, near the city of Bayamo. Fellow dissident Harold Cepero also died. Two foreigners—a lawyer and political activist from Madrid and a Swedish politician—were in the car but escaped with minor injuries.

Payá was a fervent Catholic and pacifist who devoted his life to resisting the Castro dictatorship. In 1988 he founded the Christian Liberation Movement, and his work on the Varela Project made him a global hero.

Varela collected 25,000 signatures in support of a national referendum on free elections, the release of political prisoners and the right to free assembly, free speech and freedom to run a business. That so many Cubans were willing to risk reprisals by signing their names was a testament to their belief in Payá's example. In 2002 he received the European Parliament's Sakharov Prize for his bravery and moral leadership.

Payá's petition was lawful in Cuba at the time, and Fidel Castro responded by changing the law, declaring the socialist system irrevocable. In March 2003 the dictator rounded up 75 dissidents, journalists and writers, including some 40 Payá lieutenants who had worked on Varela, and sentenced them to long prison terms. Payá wasn't arrested and continued his denunciations of the dictatorship. His work always emphasized the need to rebuild Cuban spirituality and raise the population's awareness of its rights.
Payá's death comes nine months after the death of Laura Pollan, the leader of the Ladies in White, who won the Sakharov Prize in 2005. The Ladies had worked to win the release of imprisoned relatives, and Pollan later widened her human-rights work and expanded the organization. In October she came down with a mysterious illness and died after a week in a Cuban hospital. Her family never learned the details of her illness because her body was cremated within two hours of her death.

Castro may believe another problem is gone. But when the island's liberation finally comes, Payá and Pollan will count for more in Cuban memory.
The octogenarian Castro brothers will reap what they sow; they sow murder and destruction and that is what they will reap. After 53 years of the brutal Castroit tyrannical military regime, the Cuban people soul is still alive and well, and their desire for freedom couldn’t be eradicated. In a near future they will break the chains of slavery of the evil Castro brothers’ monstrous regime and be free again. Rest in peace Oswaldo Payá and Harold Cepero.
 
Mary Anastasia O'Grady on Cuba Dissident's Unusual Death
Columnist Mary Anastasia O'Grady on the death of Cuban dissident Oswaldo Paya.
http://www.nasdaq.com/video/video.aspx?vid=Mary-Anastasia-OGrady-on-Cuba-Dissidents-Unusual-Death-517425528
The Castroit regime affirmed that Laura Pollán, leader of “The Ladies in White” 63 years old, died of a heart attack on October 14, 2011. Nevertheless the doctors who treated Laura in the hospital confirmed that she had dengue type 4.
On September 24, 2011, Laura was pinched in the right arm as can be seen in the photo. On October 3 she experienced chills, vomiting and joint pains. The next day she went to the hospital, was examined and was told she was fine. She developed breathing problems and extreme weakness, went to hospital again on October 7 and was hospitalized. Only his daughter was allowed to see her on October 10, and it wasn’t until the 12 that the dengue type 4 infection was confirmed by doctors. Her health deteriorated during the period that she remained under the state medical care. Laura died on the 14.

The doctors were not able to recognize early symptoms of dengue, which began to emerge since October 3, in order to proceed with the adequate treatment. It's very unusual that there weren’t other cases of dengue in the municipality where her house is located, since it is a virus transmitted by the mosquito Aedes aegypti. If we connect the dots, the result points to a premeditate murder disguised as a mortal illness.
garra1.JPG
 
The “accidental” death of Oswaldo Paya, a true leader, is a classic case of state murder. This is criminal state where its security apparatus is running wild. The Castros are old men near the end of the rope, but it would be much sweeter to see them deposed and repudiated before they go. They deserve a Gaddafi and Ceausescu type of end.
 
Oswaldo Paya is not the first and unfortunately will not be the last victim of the Castroit regime. The “Cuba Archive” has an ongoing report about the female victims of the Castroit regime. Until 2003 the number of death stands at 216. Link:
http://cubaarchive.org/home/images/stories/truth and memory/female_victims.pdf

We cannot forget the thousands of Cubans that without due process have been executed, imprisoned, perishing trying to escape in make shift rafts, forced into exile, since the reign of terror of the Castro brothers started 53 years ago.
 
The “accidental” death of Oswaldo Paya, a true leader, is a classic case of state murder. This is criminal state where its security apparatus is running wild. The Castros are old men near the end of the rope, but it would be much sweeter to see them deposed and repudiated before they go. They deserve a Gaddafi and Ceausescu type of end.

Cuba is freer and more democratic than the US fascist corpocracy
 
Change, unless it comes from the top, requires external support to hasten a transition to a free society. The time is ripe for the freedom lovers Cubans, in and out of the island, to prepare the conditions for the coming upraising against the Castros’ tyrannical military regime.
 
SENATE HONORS CUBAN DISSIDENT OSWALDO PAYÁ, CALLS FOR IMPARTIAL THIRD PARTY INVESTIGATION INTO DEATH
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Senate Honors Cuban Dissident Oswaldo Payá, Calls For Impartial Third Party Investigation Into Death | Babalú Blog

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Washington, D.C. – The U.S. Senate unanimously approved S. RES. 525, a resolution honoring the life and legacy of Cuban dissident Oswaldo Payá, who died in a July 22 car crash in Cuba. The resolution was introduced by Senators Marco Rubio (R-FL), Bob Menendez (D-NJ) and Bill Nelson (D-FL).

According to the resolution, “The Senate recognizes and honors the life and exemplary leadership of Oswaldo Payá, offers heartfelt condolences to the family, friends, and loved ones of Oswaldo Payá and praises the bravery of Oswaldo Payá and his colleagues for collecting over 11,000 verified signatures in support of the Varela Project.” The resolution then “calls on the Cuban Government to allow an impartial, third party investigation into the circumstances surrounding the death of Oswaldo Payá” and “condemns the Cuban government for the detention of nearly 50 pro-democracy activists following the memorial service for Oswaldo Payá.”

Following the resolution’s passage, Rubio said, “Oswaldo Payá’s death is a tragedy for his family as well as the Cuban people and those of us who want to see a free and democratic Cuba. It’s important that the U.S. Senate speak with one voice and join the international community and others inside Cuba insisting that the regime be forthcoming with the truth about his death.”
The Senate knows there won't be any such investigation, but it is a nice gesture.
 
Payás death leaves leadership gap in Cuba dissident movement thats hard to fillPayá’s death leaves leadership gap in Cuba dissident movement that’s hard to fill - Cuba - MiamiHerald.com

Oswaldo Payá, unquestionably the most centrist of Cuba’s opposition leaders, was also one of the movement’s giants.

By Juan O. Tamayo
jtamayo@ElNuevoHerald.com

The death of Oswaldo Payá has left a gap in the moderate heart of the Cuban dissident movement, which has tried for decades to figure out the most effective way to confront the communist system and push for democracy.

Payá was unquestionably the most centrist of Cuba’s opposition leaders, a profoundly Catholic activist who believed in reconciliation and dialogue, tried to change the system with its own rules and rejected both Fidel Castro and the U.S. embargo.

He was also the first opposition figure to try to mobilize the Cuban streets for change, while others focused on seeking political freedoms, establishing civil society groups or recording and denouncing human rights abuses.

“His death was truly an irreparable loss, because he was the most notable figure of the internal resistance,” Havana human rights activist Elizardo Sánchez Santa Cruz said of the 60-year-old Payá, killed Sunday in a disputed car crash.
The regime report cited three Campesinos (countrymen) witnesses, two of them riding bicycles, who gave details about the performance of an automobile on a dirt and gravel road as if they were expert test drivers, when probably neither may have ever driven a car before. It is very probable that the regime State Security personnel intimidated these witnesses to provide such information. Two week before Paya reported a previous incident when he and his wife were subject to an assault by another vehicle in a similar accident when driving in his personal VW van in Havana. Obviously that incident was a warning from the regime.
 
So for now it is a tragic one car accident caused by an inexperienced driver on a superbly marked road under construction (having driven tens of thousands of kilometers on Cuban roads, this is unbelievable!), who applied the brakes too strongly to slow his speeding car down, causing the car to leave the roadway.

It just so happened to impact a very small tree-which shows No damage- in such a way as to severely injure the two Cuban Dissidents in the back seat to the point of Death, while not harming the two foreigners in the front seat at all.
 
Over a week ego two young democratic European traveled to Dr. Castro’s island to meet with the peaceful dissidents and help them in their struggle for freedom and democracy. After the tragic “accident” where Payá and Harold Cepero were kill, they were held incommunicado by the Castroit regime State Security. On July 30 the regime State Security summoned the international journalists to a news conference showing them a video where Carromero and Modig “confessed” and “apologized” to the Castroit tyrannical regime. Modig was allowed to leave, and Carromero has been charged with vehicular manslaughter, and will remain hostage for security, since “The Swede can’t speak freely because his friend is still prisoner in Cuba."
 
For sure it will be very interesting how the Spanish government will react when Carromero is found guilty and sentence to many years in prison considering their many investments in the island. Unlike the American hostage Allan Gross that has spend several year in the Castroit gulag, and the Obama administration hasn’t taken concrete action to obtain his release.
 
Opinion: What Really Happened to Cuban Dissident Oswaldo Payá?
Opinion: What Really Happened to Cuban Dissident Oswaldo Payá? | Fox News Latino

Roger Noriega
Published August 01, 2012


paya%20arrestos.jpg

What kind of regime could be suspected of engineering a car accident to kill an opponent? The kind that made a “criminal” out of a man like Oswaldo Payá.

This weekend, the widow of Cuban dissident Oswaldo Payá rejected the Castro regime’s assertion that the July 22nd automobile crash that claimed her husband’s life was the result of reckless driving.

After hearing of Payá’s untimely death, his family members explained that he received persistent threats during two decades of political opposition.

Their suspicions were raised in the week after the incident because Cuban authorities had detained two European pro-democracy activists who were in the car during the crash that killed Paya and a Cuban colleague, Harold Cepero Escalante.
Castros’ tyranny has no moral right to criticize, as the Castro brothers and accomplices before 1959 received weapons and money from foreign hands for decades and then received help of billions of dollars a year from the Soviet Union and other socialist countries to sustain its de facto regime imposed January 1, 1959.
 
Payá’s dream of a free Cuba will come true
Payá’s dream of a free Cuba will come true - Other Views - MiamiHerald.com

By EDUARD FREISLER
E.FREISLER@YAHOO.COM

Posted 8, 01, 12

When I learned about the death of Oswaldo Payá, a rocking-chair image came to my mind. He sat in it each time I visited his Havana house. Then another image — this one not cozy at all — quickly popped into my head: the drawn window shades.

This was how Oswaldo tried to hide us from the prying eyes of the state agent who lived next door and constantly monitored the well-known dissident. As Oswaldo swayed slowly back and forth in the chair giving off an air of composure, I tangibly felt the heaviness of his everyday life.

I remember how impressed I was by Oswaldo’s patient manners, analytical mind and compassion. The only time I saw him restless was when I delivered a personal letter written by the late Czech president Vaclav Havel. That day, I had a flight booked to depart Cuba so I thought there was not enough time to respond. Yet, Oswaldo insisted on writing a reply. “Okay, I will wait. Go ahead,” I encouraged him. But Oswaldo was a deep thinker who didn’t like to rush things.
Payá was a true hero fighting the good fight, which remained in Cuba and gave up his life in the struggle against the Castroit tyrannical regime.
 
Getting at the truth of car crash that killed Oswaldo Payá
Investigate the crash that killed Oswaldo Payá - The Washington Post

By Editorial Board, Published: August 18 The Washington Post

ON THE AFTERNOON of July 22, in Cuba’s eastern Granma province, a blue Hyundai rental car was in a terrible accident. The driver was Angel Carromero, leader of the youth wing of Spain’s ruling party. Sitting next to him in the front passenger seat was Jens Aron Modig, president of the youth league of Sweden’s Christian Democratic party. Both suffered minor injuries. Cuban dissidents Oswaldo Payá and Harold Cepero were in the back seat and were killed.

Mr. Payá was a leading voice for freedom in Cuba, champion of the Varela Project, a petition drive in 2002 seeking a national referendum to guarantee democracy. Many organizers of the Varela Project were later arrested by Fidel Castro’s security forces, but Mr. Payá was undeterred and continued to push for a free Cuba. The accident that took his life was blamed by the authorities on reckless driving by Mr. Carromero, who has been charged and is being held in Cuba. In a video made by the authorities just after the accident, Mr. Carromero says that he saw a pothole, braked and lost control of the car, which careened off the road and hit a tree. Mr. Modig, now back in Sweden, says that he was asleep in the car and doesn’t remember what happened.
It is clear that the majority of the damage is to the rear half of the vehicle. I would describe it as if it were crushed from behind. To believe that the deaths occurred because the vehicle hit a tree would most likely stem from a belief that the tree was coming from behind at high speed.
 
If the Castroit regime has nothing to hide, given the high international profile of Mr. Paya, an international investigation should be allowed by the regime. The Castroit tyrannical regime has dedicated itself to a campaign of character assassination, ranging from videos on TV over data going back years on the man's driving record, to financials of his family in the state controlled media in Cuba and affiliated sites abroad.
 
If the Castroit regime has nothing to hide, given the high international profile of Mr. Paya, an international investigation should be allowed by the regime. The Castroit tyrannical regime has dedicated itself to a campaign of character assassination, ranging from videos on TV over data going back years on the man's driving record, to financials of his family in the state controlled media in Cuba and affiliated sites abroad
 
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