In July 2012, Mr. Payá was killed in a car wreck in eastern Cuba under suspicious circumstances, along with another activist, Harold Cepero. The vehicle in which they were riding was rammed from behind by a car bearing government license plates, according to the driver. There has yet to be an independent and credible investigation of the circumstances of the crash.
Before the E.U. foreign ministers act, they should read the Jan. 17 letter sent from Havana by the Christian Liberation Movement, of which Mr. Payá was a leader. It notes that there has been a wave of arbitrary detentions, beatings and suspicious deaths over the past two years and cautions that, in his recent gradual liberalization measures, Raúl Castro “grants privileges and permissions, but not our right to have rights.”
On Dec. 11, the European Parliament expressed concern about the human rights situation in Cuba and called for “an international and independent committee of inquiry” to investigate the deaths of Mr. Payá and Mr. Cepero. We hope the E.U. foreign ministers are listening to the parliament that honored Mr. Payá with the Sakharov Prize a decade ago.
Source: The Washington Post
