Castroite Show Trial in Bayamo, Cuba tries to cover up the real crime

show trial: n (Law) a trial conducted primarily to make a particular impression on the public or on other nations, esp one that demonstrates the power of the state over the individual. A trial (as of political opponents) in which the verdict is rigged and a public confession is often extracted. Ex: They were forced to confess their guilt in public show trials.

Police block courthouse, keeping the children of Oswaldo Paya from attending the trial of Angel Carromero, who is on trial for their father's death (AP Photo/Franklin Reyes)

Today, the children of Oswaldo Paya attempted to attend the trial of the young man accused of being responsible for their father's death according to the dictatorship's version of the events on July 22, 2012.  Rosa María Payá Acevedo tweeted at 11:08 am: "I'm with my brothers 100m from court, surrounded by 30 state security agents, they don't let us pass, we want to see Angel." More than two hours later she gave an update at 1:37pm:  "Tried for hours to reach Court gates where the trial of Carromero is being is conducted. State security stops us 90m from there." At 2:52pm Oswaldo's daughter still denied entry to the trial tweeted: "We don't believe in a trial made by the same ones who threatened my dad with death. But its our right to attend, we want to see Angel Carromero." At 10:37pm her final tweet of the evening on the matter: The circus is over for tonight, the authorities have taken a city and have only demonstrated all that they hide. Everything that they fear."

Angel Carromero enters the courtroom to attend his own show trial

 Another shameful chapter of history repeats itself in Cuba. A trial is underway in Cuba that falls far short of international standards of fairness which is systemic to the regime but it also appears in order to cover up two extra-judicial killings by the dictatorship. Spanish youth leader Angel Carromero has been in detention since July 22, 2012 and is now undergoing a trial Bayamo, Cuba in which he is accused of being responsible for the deaths of Oswaldo Paya and Harold Escalante in a car accident charged by the dictatorship with negligent homicide. A little over a week after he had been in detention he gave a public statement incriminating himself via video in a press conference organized by the Castro regime. Before the trial began Yoani Sanchez, her husband and journalist Reinaldo Escobar, and blogger Agustín Díaz were detained on their way to Bayamo to report on the trial and held for 30 hours.

Oswaldo Paya with his wife Ofelia Acevedo, his two sons and Rosa Maria

Oswaldo Paya's family does not accept the official regime narrative and has repeatedly called for a transparent and independent, international investigation into the events that took place that day that took the lives of Oswaldo and Harold. They have an online petition requesting signatures in support of it.



Oswaldo Paya's widow, Ofelia Acevedo, explained in a lengthy statement on behalf of the Paya family why they refused to accept the regime's version of events on July 22, 2012 and the following excerpts are reproduced below:

"It is presented by the same organs of State Security of the government that have threatened to kill him multiple times through their agents over the years in which they have defamed, insulted, watched, discredited with television campaigns inside and outside of Cuba, the same ones that have placed microphones over our bed in telephone boxes, the same ones knowing that her mother had cancer, visited to cowardly intimidate her, and did not allow their children who live outside of Cuba to visit, which forbade my oldest son , a 24 year old student from visiting his aunt on holiday in Spain last year." 
...

"They are the same ones who on several occasions have loosened the nuts on the wheels of our car while parked and knowing that the whole family and even friends were traveling. Only last June 2 while he and I were traveling in our car (1964 VW station wagon), to my mother's house in La Lisa traveling on the road of El Cerro and having practically surpassed the intersection of Rancho Boyeros Avenue were impacted by an old American car in the rear right wheel of our vehicle with such force that rocked our car, my husband could not control it and after sliding with only two wheels on the left side turned on the opposite path being trapped inside and covered with broken windshield glass. Oswaldo was wounded in the left arm by the elbow and nothing happened to me."
...

Because I received the news from Madrid of the supposed car accident that my husband was traveling at three eighteen on the afternoon of Sunday, July 22 where they communicated with me, "carrying four people, only three in the hospital, we do not know about one. Two friends, one of them unconscious. They were hit and removed from the road. Do you know who the other two where? The whereabouts of one of them is unknown. "

Why was I not allowed to meet with the Swedish boy and still have not allowed me to meet with the Spaniard who were survivors of the event?

 The behavior of the dictatorship since July 22 in this matter should raise the suspicions of any fair minded observer. The trial now underway combined with the earlier "press conference"in which the Spaniard incriminated himself has the aroma of a 1930s Stalinist show trial, but then again it wouldn't be the first time one of those has been held in Castroite Cuba.  Speak truth to power by signing the petition demanding an international and independent investigation into the circumstances surrounding the July 22, 2012 deaths of Oswaldo Paya and Harold Cepero and expose the regime's web of lies.