Rosa María Payá went to the Ministry of Justice in Cuba to review the case of her dad Oswaldo Payá and friend Harold Cepero

 Justice for Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas and Harold Cepero

Rosa María Payá at the Cuban Ministry of Justice (twitter)

Today, February 27, 2017 at 10:30 am Rosa María Payá delivered to the Ministry of Justice of Cuba an appeal for a judicial review to Maria Esther Reus González, Minister of Justice. In accordance with the procedures of Cuban criminal law, she presented an appeal for a judicial review of the conviction of Angel Carromero for the events that caused the death of her father, Oswaldo Payá, and her friend Harold Cepero.

Rosa María expressed that:

"According to Cuban law, anyone can request a review of a criminal case and I decided to do it not only because Angel Carromero alleged that another car had intentionally hit the car he was driving, but also because the rules of due process were violated when he was prevented from providing expert evidence which would determine if the event was provoked. I submit the request for judicial review to the competent authorities: the Minister of Justice, the President of the Supreme Court and the Attorney General. With this process, the last legal possibility of discussing the case in Cuba is exhausted. By law, one of these authorities must respond within 90 days. Consequently, we remain waiting, without prejudice to the allegations and with evidence that we will present in various international legal forums.

Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas, and Harold Cepero Escalante died under circumstances that point to an extrajudicial killing carried out by the Castro regime's intelligence services on July 22, 2012.  World leaders and human rights defenders in 2013 called for an inquiry into deaths of Oswaldo and Harold, among them was South African Nobel Peace Laureate, Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas and Harold Cepero Escalante killed on 7/22/12

On July 22, 2015, the third anniversary of the death of Cuban dissident Oswaldo Payá, the New York based Human Rights Foundation released a report:

"...highlighting the inaccuracies and inconsistencies of the official government investigation following Payá’s death in 2012. HRF has documented numerous due process violations, including damning witness accounts, a grossly inadequate autopsy examination, and other key pieces of evidence that were overlooked by the Cuban judicial system. HRF’s report concludes that the “evidence, which was deliberately ignored, strongly suggests that the events of July 22, 2012 were not an accident, but instead the result of a car crash directly caused by agents of the state.”

Later in the day Rosa María Payá delivered copies of the appeal also to the Supreme Court and the General Prosecutor's Office. Over Facebook she streamed a live video explaining what she was doing. For more information, visit CubaDecide and the Latin-American Youth Network for Democracy or e-mail red@juventudlac.org 

Second survivor in events surrounding July 22, 2012 activists' deaths confirms car was violently forced off the road

Spanish newspaper Diario YA ES published an article yesterday citing a 2013 interview in which Aron Modig reaffirmed not recollecting the events during the crash but did recognize that the SMS texts describing a second vehicle crashing into his was sent by him.

Jens Aron Modig spoke on July 22, 2012 events in Cuba

 In the Spanish newspaper DiarioYA.ES on March 26, 2015 in the article titled "Jens Aron Modig confirmed that the car was forced off the road violently" the following information was published referring to a March 14, 2013 radio interview:

The Swedish activist Jens Aron Modig who on July 22, 2012 was in the passenger seat in the car driven by the Spanish politician Angel Carromero and in which Cuban dissidents Oswaldo Payá  and Harold Cepero were killed has confirmed that the vehicle was forced off the road violently by another car when they had the accident. Although initially the Swedish activist claimed to have no recollection of the alleged involvement of another vehicle in the accident, thus denying the criminal nature of the event while Angel Carromero was detained in Cuba, and he obtained permission from the Cuban authorities to leave the island, recognized on National Radio of Sweden the existence of SMS (text messages) that he sent that recounts how a vehicle forced them off the road. This contradicts the version of the communist government about the crash being due to a speeding driver.

  (...)

For Modig what happened "was a traumatic experience .. I could see up close how it works in a dictatorship like Cuba. I was imprisoned about a week, stripped of my belongings, I had no chance to make contact with my family or with Swedish diplomats in Cuba. All without being informed of what crime I was being accused (...). I could see the reality in which people live daily in Cuba," said the young Swede.

This account contradicts the version put forward by the Castro regime and corroborates the Spanish survivor Ángel Carromero. The SMS text messages mentioned above were copied and are a key element in understanding the events surrounding the deaths of Oswaldo and Harold on July 22, 2012.

Who represents the Castro regime in negotiations with the United States?

Negotiating with the devil?

Gustavo Machin accomplice of Aron Modig kidnapping after attack on Oswaldo Paya is Cuban counterpart of WHAAsstSecty

Today over twitter Rosa Maria Payá Acevedo revealed a worrying piece of information. The Cuban counterpart to the Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, Roberta Jacobson, who represents the United States in the negotiations with the Castro regime is Gustavo Machin. According to  Rosa he was an accomplice in the kidnapping of Aron Modig following the attack against Oswaldo José Payá Sardiñas on July 22, 2012 and is linked to her father's death.

Gustavo Machin, and his sordid background, makes him an appropriate representative for the dictatorship, a reminder that this is a negotiation with the devil. The term is borrowed from a book by Robert Mnookin titled "Bargaining with the Devil: When to Negotiate, When to Fight."

As a nonviolent activist "fighting" can also translate to nonviolent resistance. When dealing with highly repressive and diabolical regimes this type of approach has proven more effective than violence in achieving effective, positive and lasting change.

However, let me recommend that you read the following article available online in which he offers some past examples of when negotiation could work and when it was disastrous.

Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas and Harold Cepero Escalante: Murdered

 Aron 1 translation: "Angel says a car pushed us off the road"

SMS text from July 22, 2012

Text of the Rosa Maria Payá press conference on February 28 at the FHC

Today my father would have turned 61 years old. Today my mother, my brothers and I will not have his always optimistic and hopeful physical presence. 221 days today that the parents of our friend Harold Cepero Escalante are living in the pain of never seeing their charismatic and young son. 

My father and Harold found themselves immersed in the Peoples Path campaign that offers a way to move Cuba towards democracy, a path of reconciliation advocated by the majority of the Cuban opposition, a nonviolent option for freedom and prosperity of our people, given the lack of options of a government that has nothing to offer its citizens. 

On July 22, 2012 after years of death threats against my father, that had become more frequent and intense in recent months and a dubious car accident in which my parents almost lost their lives, my mother received a phone call from Madrid that we will never forget. Regis Iglesias informed us that something had happened to our friends and their companions. A few minutes later we received a text message that told us that the car he was traveling in had been rammed off the road, there were three people in the hospital and the fourth was missing. A few hours later we learned that my father and Harold were dead. After hearing the testimonies of people who were in the hospital where the survivors transferred and heard the first reading of the minutes taken by the police of the witnesses, in the words of Captain Fulgencio Medina. 

After reading the tweets published by Yohandry Fontana, a Cuban government website. 

We learned that:
 

1. My father, Harold Cepero, Aron Modig and Angel Carromero were being followed and monitored by state security of the Cuban government from the time they began the trip in Havana.
 

2. There was at least one other car (a Red Lada model ) traveling nearly parallel with the car my father was riding in and the passengers of this Lada were on the scene even before the arrival of the first of the official witnesses.
 

3. My father did not receive any medical assistance before he died and was taken to the hospital only after his death.
 

4. Harold Cepero Escalante was never taken to an operating room or intensive care.
 

5. It has not been able to be demonstrated that Angel Carromero was driving at an excessive speed. After reading the text messages of the survivors foreign friends in Madrid and Stockholm, [They will be published]. 

After having talked to Angel Carromero, sole survivor with full memory of the events and of the communications that my family and the MCL has had with Aron Modig and the people who were the recipients of the messages and calls for help from both survivors, we confirmed that:

1. There was no accident.
 

2. The car in which my father, Harold, Aaron and Angel were riding was intentionally hit from behind by another car, but this did not cause the death of any of the passengers.
 

3. None of the survivors recalled that the car has gone around or crashed against any tree.
 

4. The two foreigners were immediately removed from the scene by men who arrived in another car. We do not know what happened to my father and my friend, but a few hours later they were both dead. Our families, the Christian Liberation Movement, our brothers in struggle and friends in and outside of Cuba have a right to know how they died and who is responsible for their deaths ....

The data we have exposed, the governmental persecution under which we live in Cuba and increased repression on the Cuban democracy movement makes me fear for the safety of all. For years state security directly threatened the life of my father and now pursues and threatens members of my family and of MCL. The Cuban government is responsible for the physical integrity of our two families and the activists of our movement.

My father and Harold spent and gave their lives for peaceful change to bring reconciliation, rights and welfare to our people. This reconciliation requires the recognition of all truth, forgiveness and good will of its actors. That is the truth that we are seeking and we will not stop looking until we find it. It is for that reason that we request the support of all institutions and individuals that can help to realize an international investigation into the probable murder of my father and Harold. They are already in the presence of God and will light our way from there. 

Translated from original text on the MCL website