According to a report released on Monday by an international human rights agency, the Cuban government was responsible for the death of Oswaldo Payá, a prominent political activist who had organized a movement seeking to compel the government to allow more freedom, in 2012. Mr. Payá was killed in a suspicious car crash in eastern Cuba that his family and supporters always believed had been caused by the government. At the time of his death, Mr. Payá was one of the most prominent members of the Cuban opposition, having gained international attention for leading a grass-roots campaign behind a referendum that would have given Cubans the right to choose the country’s political system. Many considered Mr. Payá to be the only person who had a chance of becoming a democratic challenger of the regime and paving the way to a more representative government.
The Cuban authorities had said that the crash happened after Ángel Carromero, a young Spanish politician who was driving the vehicle in which Mr. Payá was traveling, lost control and hit a tree. Mr. Carromero was later arrested and sentenced to four years in prison for vehicular manslaughter. But the independent investigation, which took a decade to complete and reviewed evidence and testimonies from several witnesses, contradicts the government’s findings. Mr. Payá’s car was hit by an official government car, causing it to crash, according to the report by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, which is part of the Organization of American States. Another passenger, Harold Cepero, a rights activist, was also killed.
The commission found “serious and sufficient evidence to conclude that state agents participated in the death” of the two men. “Both were subjected to various acts of violence, harassment, threats, attempts on their lives, and, finally, a car crash that caused their deaths.”
Cuban officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The island was excluded from participating in the Organization of American States, which former President Raúl Castro called an “instrument of imperialist domination.” A 2009 resolution lifted that suspension, but Cuba never rejoined.
Mr. Payá was the founder and leader of the Christian Liberation Movement, a dissident party pushing for a multiparty democracy on the island, which has been ruled by an authoritarian Communist regime for more than six decades. His efforts culminated in the late 1990s in the Varela Project, a petition calling for a national referendum to overhaul the ruling system, including open elections, free speech and amnesty for political prisoners. The proposal represented a defiant rebuke to the iron grip that Fidel Castro, the country’s leader at the time, held on Cuba. In response, the authorities detained Varela activists and forced some petition signers to rescind their signatures. Mr. Payá was “under constant surveillance and harassment,” the report by the commission said….
2023-06-12 20:16:37
Article from www.nytimes.com
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