Holding the Castro regime accountable by bearing witness

"State crimes are never an issue exclusive to the families of the victims." - Rosa Maria Payá over twitter, July 10, 2014  

Remember and demand justice for them

Although July is the first full month of summer. For Cubans it is overshadowed by recent crimes that darken what should be a sunny and joyous time. The Castro dictatorship's long and bloody history stretches back from 56 years to the present. Two awful days will be observed this month: First, 21 years ago on July 13, 1994 Castro regime agents killed 37 Cubans trying to flee Cuba. Fifteen years later human rights champion Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas reflected on the significance of this crime:

Behind the Christ of Havana, about seven miles from the coast, "volunteers" of the Communist regime committed one of the most heinous crimes in the history of our city and of Cuba. In the morning, a group of seventy people in all, fled on a tugboat, led by the ship's own crew; none was kidnapped, or there against their will. They came out of the mouth of the Bay of Havana. They were pursued by other similar ships. When the runaway ship and its occupants stopped to surrender, the ships that had been chasing them started ramming to sink it. Meanwhile, on the deck, women with children in their arms begging for mercy, but the answer of their captors was to project high pressure water cannons against them. Some saw their children fall overboard under the murderous jets of water amid shrieks of horror. They behaved brutally until their perverse mission was fulfilled: Sink the fleeing ship and annihilate many of its occupants.

Second, three years ago on July 22, 2012 on a stretch of road in Eastern Cuba, State Security agents rammed the car Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas and Harold Cepero Escalante were traveling in. Both bodies appeared later.

 The Obama administration will announce later today that the United States and Cuba will re-establish normal diplomatic relations. Normalized relations with an abnormal regime are a contradiction. At the same time the U.S. State Department human rights report recognized the suspicious circumstances surrounding the deaths of Oswaldo and Harold:

By the end of the year, the government had not responded to calls for an international investigation into the 2012 deaths of opposition activists Oswaldo Paya and Harold Cepero. The government claimed that the two died in a car accident, although in October the driver of that car, Angel Carromero, publicly reiterated his allegation that the car crash that led to their deaths occurred because state security forces followed Paya’s vehicle too closely, struck the car, and forced it off the road.

By the end of the year, the government had not responded to calls for an international investigation into the 2012 deaths of opposition activists Oswaldo Paya and Harold Cepero. The government claimed that the two died in a car accident, although in October the driver of that car, Angel Carromero, publicly reiterated his allegation that the car crash that led to their deaths occurred because state security forces followed Paya’s vehicle too closely, struck the car, and forced it off the road. - See more at: http://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/humanrightsreport/index.htm?year=2014&dlid=236680#wrapper

Despite the ongoing attempt at the normalization of relations between Cuba and the United States the level of violence and harassment of opposition activists have increased and there continue to be prisoners of conscience there.  The criminal nature of the dictatorship remains the same.

 The sinking of the "13 de Marzo" tugboat has been investigated and the crime documented but the case of Oswaldo and Harold still demands a transparent and international investigation. What plans do you have to honor the memory of these Cubans killed during July?