Communiqué from the family of Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas

On August 1, 2012 the family of  Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas issued the following statement to the press. It was written by his widow Ofelia Acevedo.  Oswaldo Payá and Harold Cepero died on July 22, 2012 in a car accident under circumstances that have generated concern that it may have been a premeditated act by State Security. Below is an English translation.

Ofelia Acevedo and her late husband Oswaldo Payá

Havana, August 1, 2012

Communiqué from the family of Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas.



Today is 10 days past the event that killed my husband, Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas, National Coordinator of the Christian Liberation Movement and the young Harold Cepero Escalante, a member of that movement.
The event was explained over national television in Cuba, which is something unusual in that fatal traffic accidents happen every day and have never been given this television coverage.

I will not go into detail about the technical analysis done according to the official version. I'm not an expert, although one does not need to be one to question it. I want to clarify that I learned on television of how the event occurred because I had only had a very brief verbal version of the event given by a criminologist, Major Sanchez, when he turned over my husband's body. I expressed to him that I did not believe in that version and needed to interview the surviving witnesses. I was never informed by any authority of the death of my husband. Yesterday, July 31 at 8: 45 pm, 10 days after the death of Oswaldo and Harold, I was visited by two officers of the Centre for Criminal Investigation and Operations with a subpoena in my name for today at 11am, with the aim to "ventilate issues of civil liability derived from the accident."


Video statement by Ofelia Acevedo on July 27, 2012 (In Spanish)

I as the wife of Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas in representation of the family living inside and outside of Cuba, want to declare.

We do not accept the explanation of the event televised because:

1. 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 do not allow anyone from our family to exit or enter Cuba. They are the same ones who intimidate our neighbors, my husband’s co-workers, my brothers in the Christian community, and those who I need to hire to make repairs in my house. That go to the centers of study of my children to alert their peers to avoid relating to them. They are the same ones that break into hospitals, intimidate doctors every time my children have any health problems. They are the same ones that have attacked my house with mobs that they bring in from other places, painted the facade of my home with offensive slogans, and have stained my door with red paint simulating blood. They have surrounded the walls of the neighborhood with signs full of phrases of threats and hate.
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.

They are the same ones that have bullied and threatened to kill members of the Movement and their families. Today they have imprisoned Yosvany Melchior [the young son of Rosa María Rodríguez, a member of the Movement] , serving twelve years in prison for a crime he did not commit. All of this in order that they leave the Christian Liberation Movement.

I do not believe the official version:

1. Because my husband Oswaldo Payá was distinguished by his sense of responsibility without limit towards all people, especially those associated with him. He would never let the chauffeur driving the car that they were traveling in to be speeding. His friends and those who know him know that I speak the truth when I say this. He knew the risk to his life each day in Cuba.

2. 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. "

3. 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.

4. For all these antecedents and information that has come to us about what happened in Granma, my family requests to international institutions an investigation independent of the Cuban government on the facts about what happened.

5. I want to say that I'm very proud to have shared 26 years of life with an extraordinary man and of the family that we founded. He had the sorrow of not having been able to devote to his family all the time that he wanted but his dedication to service led him always to work for the common good. All his intelligence, intellectual ability was in constant search for ways for the people to ascend to their rights, he said: Neither the state nor the market can dominate society, or be above the people's decisions, or of the freedom and dignity of persons.

Now we must try to direct our life without the physical presence of Oswaldo. It will be very hard, but for those who live by the faith we know that he will continue to protect us, to always be in our midst.

Thanks for listening.

Take action by signing the petition requesting a transparent and independent international investigation into the deaths of Oswaldo Payá and Harold Cepero. The regime in Cuba has a long track record of this type of behavior. Others such as Lech Walesa have joined the call for getting at the truth of what happened.

We will not be silenced, and we will not stop seeking the truth

"When a truth is not given complete freedom, freedom is not complete." - Vaclav Havel


The following statement was read by Oswaldo Paya's daughter in a press conference in Cuba on August 1, 2012. It has been translated to English below and offers important information and new questions surrounding the deaths on July 22, 2012 of Oswaldo Payá and Harold Cepero.

Rosa María Payá Acevedo and her mother Ofelia Acevedo

Words read at press conference by Rosa María Payá Acevedo

I do not intend today to give another version of what happened. We are not at this moment accusing anyone. The facts that I will continue to relate were read by Captain Fulgencio Medina, criminal instructor, in a room at Carlos Manuel de Céspedes Hospital in Bayamo on the evening of Sunday July 22. I will not make clarifications on how these reports have come into our hands. We do not want to subject to the pressures of state security, the people who in solidarity with our family have sent us this news.

As we have been told, Captain Fulgencio Medina, criminal instructor, reading the witness statements of the events that took the life of my father, and of Harold, told the following to everyone in one of the halls of the hospital:

The captain said he would tell how it happened, reading the statements of the witnesses, saying:

Witnesses of the bike and of the tractor said that there was a red Lada traveling parallel to the wrecked car.

In a moment the wrecked car goes ahead of all, the bicycle, the tractor and the red Lada and at that moment comes the change of pavement, of the pavement to the embankment.

The cyclist says he only sees the dust when the car drops (but it seemed normal).

The individual in the tractor comments that it seems that something happened. The officer says that another tractor was coming from the front but apparently the road was wide enough and the tractor was far enough to cause any reaction in Angel. There was no danger of impact.

Those in the red Lada come to the rescue, in the words of the witnesses on the bicycle and in the tractor.

The officer said that witnesses say that when the persons in the Lada approached to help the Spaniard , he reacted saying: Who are you and why are you doing this? First they take out the Spaniard and there was one complaining (which apparently was Harold), but he had a very sore leg and was touching his chest, as if it hurt a lot. With the other they do not do anything because they say they touched him and realized he was dead.

They first removed the two foreigners, and the red Lada takes out a cell phone that they had and say: send an ambulance over here there has been an accident. At that moment a blue van arrives and some of the injured are placed on it and leave for the hospital.

Receive a call from the girl and say they don’t know who the cell phone belongs to because everything was a mess. First attended by a traffic officer and then by a legal doctor.

Fulgencio Medina said he knew the daughter had called because the legal doctor who had been in the ambulance answered.

This ends the information that has come to us about what Captain Fulgencio Medina said that evening in that room with other officers and all others who were there.

It seems to us very strange:

1. That a legal doctor would arrive in the ambulance.

2. That in none of the official versions is this red Lada mentioned and the people traveling in it.

3. But for the people traveling in the red Lada who could then have called the ambulance.

4. The reaction, according to witnesses, Angel had at the time of being rescued.

5. Who and how was the premature diagnosis of the death of my father made.

We have received other information, including:

We have information that the ambulance was requested by a lieutenant colonel and that in an ambulance they took Harold to the hospital, but first made a stop in a children's hospital.

We have also information that the doctor who attended Harold (called ¨ The Kid ¨, son of Dr. Perez Profet) expressed contempt for him. And he told the other doctors and nurses that these people were bringing drugs to Santiago and to plant bombs.

This raises questions about the care my friend received in that hospital.

We have been informed that Angel arrived at the hospital accompanied by an officer who said he was an eyewitness to the accident, and that there Angel said twice that the car had been rammed from behind.

I ask myself, if this officer was a witness:

What was he doing there?

Why not transfer the injured in his car?

If it was he who called, how did he know the hospital phone?

Would he be one of those in the red Lada?

I also have doubts regarding the technical condition of the car carrying my father and Harold.

To our friends, people who represented us that day in the hospital until my mother could get there, they would not let them see the body of my father until after 8 pm. They told us that the corpse had a syringe placed at the top of the leg, a shirt, … and shoes and that at that time the body was still without treatment, storage, or refrigeration.

About Harold’s state, a physician told them that the boy was going to die because he was brain dead. This data, the latter, does not coincide with the official version of the cause of death of Harold Cepero and is also very strange because witnesses say they saw Harold conscious according to information we received about the words read by Captain Fulgencio Medina.

Our friends did not have access to the survivors until after Angel was sedated so that they could never talk to him. With Aron they could barely identify themselves because they do not speak English.

Aron, Angel and I met Friday afternoon and talked, as three young people converse with social concerns without interfering agendas and money involved.

My father faced the power of a state, a totalitarian state with 53 years experience. And that state is dropping all its force against a family, my family for many years now. Once more I fear for the lives of my brothers, my mother and my whole family. I reiterate that I hold the government responsible for the physical integrity of the members of my family.

We have the support of many within and outside Cuba, we thank you deeply. On the other hand, we know that these events have become a matter of state and we know that sometimes between states there are pacts and silence, but while others remain silent we will not be silenced, and we will not stop seeking the truth even if it means remaining alone. My father, the Christian Liberation Movement and my family have seen ourselves alone before. We do not fear solitude. We know, because we seem to have been touching it in recent days, that only evil fears the truth.

August 1, 2012

Original Spanish text available here. Take action by signing the petition requesting a transparent and independent international investigation into the deaths of Oswaldo Payá and Harold Cepero. The regime in Cuba has a long track record of this type of behavior. Others such as Lech Walesa have joined the call for getting at the truth of what happened.

Amnesty International calls on Castro regime to end harassment of human rights defenders

Amnesty International issued an Urgent Action for José Daniel Ferrer García on August 1, 2012 following his detention on July 30, 2012. He was released a day later on August 2nd. Below is Amnesty's analysis of what is taking place and demand for change.

Cuba must stop ‘cat-and-mouse game’ with political activists

José Daniel Ferrer García has been detained on  numerous 

occasions for his peaceful activism in Cuba. © UNPACU

 by Amnesty International

 The Cuban authorities must end their ongoing harassment of political and human rights activists, Amnesty International said today after a former prisoner of conscience was released following his latest arrest and detention in a police station for 36 hours.

José Daniel Ferrer García, coordinator of the organization Patriotic Union of Cuba (Unión Patriótica de Cuba, UNPACU), was set free on Wednesday, two days after police arrested him in the eastern province of Holguín.

He was not charged with any crime. His family had no idea of his whereabouts until he was returned home by the authorities on Wednesday afternoon.

Ferrer’s latest arrest follows three days he spent in detention after being arrested in Havana in February 2012 and a 27-day detention for “public disorder” in Santiago de Cuba two months later. These repeated, short detentions are in line with a pattern of harassment by the Cuban authorities against UNPACU members and other political dissidents.

“The latest arrest and short-term detention of José Daniel Ferrer García continues the Cuban authorities’ cat-and-mouse game with political dissidents and human rights activists,” said James Burke, Campaigner on the Caribbean at Amnesty International.

“This practice – used as a form of harassment and intimidation to repress legitimate, peaceful activism and freedom of expression – must come to a halt.”

UNPACU was formed in mid-2011 as an umbrella group of Cuban dissident organizations in and around the province of Santiago de Cuba who seek democratic change by non-violent means.

Since its creation, the Cuban authorities have used arbitrary detention and other measures to harass and intimidate its members. One member, Wilman Villar Mendoza – whom Amnesty International named a prisoner of conscience – died last January on a hunger strike to protest his four-year prison sentence after a summary trial.

UNPACU coordinator Ferrer García served eight years of a 25-year jail sentence for his political activism before being granted conditional release in March 2011.

He was among 75 Cuban dissidents arrested during the so-called “Black Spring” crackdown in March 2003. Amnesty International adopted all 75 as prisoners of conscience after they were jailed for the peaceful expression of critical opinions of the government.

Ferrer García was among those targeted in part for his participation in the Varela Project, which called for a national referendum on democratic reforms in Cuba.

Following his conditional release last year, police in Santiago de Cuba re-arrested Ferrer García on 2 April 2012 along with 42 other activists – most of them UNPACU members.

All the rest were set free, but police held Ferrer García on a “public disorder” charge for a further 27 days, before releasing him on the condition that he renounce his political activism.

Following his release, José Daniel Ferrer García told Amnesty International that the authorities had arrested him to prevent him from travelling to the capital, Havana where he had planned to hold meetings with other government critics who are peacefully seeking greater respect for civil and political rights in Cuba.

He said the ongoing campaign of harassment would not deter him or his colleagues from continuing with their activism: “Our goal in Cuba is to establish true rule of law in Cuba where freedom of expression, freedom of association – all fundamental freedoms – are respected, and until we do so, we will continue our peaceful struggle.”

http://www.amnesty.org/en/news/cuba-must-stop-cat-and-mouse-game-political-activists-2012-08-02

Cuba's Day of National Rebellion: August 5, 1994

August 5, 1994 in Havana, Cuba during "El Maleconazo" uprising

18 years ago today the word "liberty"was chanted through the streets of Havana, Cuba by thousands of Cubans spontaneously gathered in protest against the dictatorship and desiring freedom.

Part of the reason that they were out there was the "13 de Marzo"tugboat massacre that had taken place less than three weeks earlier just six miles from the Malecon in Havana. Family members and survivors bravely spoke out and the news of what happened had gotten out.



Thousands of Cubans beginning in the early hours of August 5, 1994 took to the streets shouting for freedom and continued throughout the day.

The response by the regime was violent repression and police shooting at unarmed civilians and beating them down with night sticks. After things were under control the dictator Fidel Castro appeared on the scene.

State security agent with gun drawn during August 5 uprising

The end result was another mass exodus of Cubans. Eighteen years later the Cuban punk rock band Porno para Ricardo recalls those days of protest and frustration in their song "El Maleconazo". The video begins with a call for more Maleconazos.

International Day of Solidarity with civil society of Belarus

“The solidarity of the shaken can say ‘no’ to the measures of mobilization that make the state of war permanent. … The solidarity of the shaken is built up in persecution and uncertainty: that is its front line, quiet, without fanfare or sensation even there where this aspect of the ruling Force seeks to seize it.” - Jan Patočka

"We wish to express our solidarity with all those who suffer from any form of oppression and injustice, and with those in the world who have been silenced or marginalized." - Oswaldo Paya

In the midst of the pain and sorrow surrounding the untimely deaths of Oswaldo Paya and Harold Cepero it is still necessary to remember those in other parts of the world suffering repression at the hands of tyrants. Today, August 4, 2012 has been set aside as the International Day of Solidarity with Civil Society of Belarus.

This is what Oswaldo would do if he were physically with us today because he believed in the power of human solidarity and the importance to demonstrate it and apply it for the sake of humanity itself. Oswaldo Paya placed solidarity into the modern day context observing: "The talk today is of globalization, but we must state that unless there is global solidarity, not only human rights but also the right to remain human will be jeopardized."

August 4th, 2011 is the day selected because a prominent dissident and human rights defender Ales Bialiatski was arrested on that day. Ales is a leading figure in the defense of human rights as chairman of the Human Rights Center "Viasna", and vice-president of the International Federation for Human Rights. It also important to remember the crucial role played by the arts in civil society to create spaces of freedom.

Furthermore, the tyrant of Belarus visited the tyrant of Cuba in March of 2012 and reached out to cooperate with a fellow repressive dictator. This adds another reason as to why free Cubans and Belarusians need to reach out in solidarity with one another in confronting their shared challenges to obtain freedom.


The organizers of the event published a statement explaining the significance of the day stating that their objective is to attract attention to the human rights situation in Belarus, and to express solidarity with the Belarusian citizens fighting for their civil rights under permanent pressure and harassment. I joined together with other friends in celebrating the 20th anniversary of Belarus's independence from the Soviet Union on August 25, 2011. Today my prayers go out to Belarus's civil society and two Cubans who died under mysterious circumstances on July 22, 2012. At the same time reproducing the important document below released by the organizers of the solidarity day.

Manifest

International Day of Solidarity
with civil society and human rights movements in Belarus

We, the activists of civil and human rights organizations from various countries around the world declare our initiative to establish International Day of Solidarity with the civil society and human rights movement in Belarus on the 4th of August.

Being in the heart of Europe, Belarus is the only country of the continent, where the death penalty is enforced and where the European Convention on Human Rights does not apply.

Even in such conditions, civil society in Belarus is one of the most powerful in the post-Soviet area. Every day, Belarusian human rights defenders provide legal support to dozens of people. The lawyers from Belarus win cases in the Human Rights Committee and other UN bodies. Directors, artists, writers and musicians continue to create. The Belarusian rock-band "Lyapis Trubetskoy" is known all around the world for their songs and civil position, despite the fact that at home they are included in the "black list" of banned artists.

Politicians of our countries criticize the authorities of Belarus, then they sit down to talks; they impose sanctions, but keep on trading; they threaten Belarusian authorities with isolation, at the same time maintaining relations. But leave it to politicians!

In contrast to politicians, we – civil society activists, human rights defenders and simply concerned citizens – consider it important to express our support to the Belarusian civil society, members of which carry on promoting and protecting human rights standards and the rule of law, offering new ideas and initiatives, helping people to meet, talk, write and create. And all of this is taking place in spite of the systematic violations of fundamental human rights: freedom of assembly, association and expression – the foundations, without which civil society can not exist.

We want to draw attention to the situation in Belarus and to show our solidarity with those people who fight for their freedom under constant pressure and persecution. On this day, we’d like the attention of mass media, news agencies and citizens of our countries being as much as possible attracted to what is going on with civil society in this European country, to its problems and difficulties. We want our colleagues in Belarus feel our support to help them go further with strengthening human rights and the rule of law in their country.

On this day - August 4, 2011 - Ales Bialiatski was arrested. He is one of the leading Belarusian human rights defenders, the head of the Human Rights Center "Viasna" and the vice-president of the International Federation for Human Rights. For many people this moment marked a new phase of pressure on human rights defenders and civil activists in Belarus, where massive human rights violations had become common practice.

We have established this day not to support any political opposition. On this day, one should not hear calls to overthrow the existing political regime in Belarus, but calls to comply with international obligations in the area of human rights, undertaken by Belarus.

We believe that freedom has no boundaries. We think that the situation in Belarus should be considered as a challenge for civil society all across Europe and Eurasia. We are convinced that all of this area can not be considered the territory of freedom, as long as there are countries (like Belarus) where freedom is restricted.

We believe that while there is at least one state that easily and with impunity shows disregard for the opinion of its own citizens as well as international norms and principles, such a scenario will be possible in other countries, authorities of which continue seeking new ways of how to silence voices of their critics and opponents, and quickly adopt the "worst practices" of their neighbors. In fact, the only thing we can oppose to it – is our international solidarity.

We will observe this day every year, until the situation of civil society in Belarus changes: until  its authorities put an end to imprisoning people for human rights activities, until there is a guarantee of fundamental human rights: freedom of expression, assembly and association.