miércoles, marzo 27, 2013

Cobra fuerza reclamo para aclarar muerte en Cuba de Oswaldo Payá. El diario The Washington Post destaca en un editorial la petición hecha por ocho senadores estadounidense


 Cobra fuerza reclamo para aclarar muerte de Payá

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El diario The Washington Post destaca en un editorial la petición hecha por ocho senadores estadounidenses para que se investigue el choque en el que perdió la vida el disidente cubano Oswaldo Payá.
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El editorial recuerda que Carromero declaró en una entrevista que el vehículo fue embestido por detrás.

martinoticias.com
marzo 27, 2013

Lo mínimo que se puede hacer por Oswaldo Payá, “un hombre que luchó por la causa de la libertad en Cuba”, es investigar las verdaderas causas de su muerte, dice en un editorial el diario The Washington Post.

El periódico pone de relieve la petición hecha por ocho senadores de EE.UU. para que la Comisión Interamericana de Derechos Humanos, un organismo de la OEA, emprenda una investigación del choque automovilístico en que perdió la vida el destacado disidente cubano.

Los legisladores dan crédito a las declaraciones hechas al Post por el chofer del vehículo, el joven político español Ángel Carromero, que dejan sin respuesta “inquietantes dudas” sobre si el accidente fue causado por el gobierno cubano, “conocido por su acoso a Payá”.

El editorial recuerda que Carromero declaró en una entrevista que el vehículo que el conducía fue embestido por detrás por un auto que tenía una chapa del gobierno, y luego el joven fue encarcelado y objeto de “intimidación y amenazas” de parte de las autoridades cubanas.

El diario destaca el hecho de que tanto Carromero como el sueco Aron Modig, quien iba en el otro asiento delantero del automóvil, llevaban consigo teléfonos celulares, y luego del choque enviaron mensajes de texto a familiares y amigos.
“Esos mensajes no pueden ser manipulados u ocultados”, señala.

Según el Post, los mensajes ofrecen “pistas” y constituyen de por sí una razón para que las interrogantes sobre la muerte de Payá no quede sin respuestas.

Uno de esos mensajes, precisa, fue enviado por Modig a alguien en Suecia y decía: “Chocamos. Ahora viajando en una ambulancia. No tengo mi pasaporte. No en grave peligro”.

El periódico añade que en subsiguientes mensajes Modig y Carromero reportaron estar bien en un hospital en Bayamo, y destaca que en uno de ellos el sueco afirma: “Ángel (Carromero) dijo que alguien había tratado de empujarnos fuera de la carretera”.

“Esas y otras sospechas acerca de la muerte de Payá necesitan ser aclaradas—concluye el editorial--. La familia de Payá, incluida su hija Rosa María, ha demandado una investigación internacional e independiente” del accidente.
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Eight senators demand investigation of Payá’s death


By Editorial Board, Published: March 26

THE CAR crash that killed dissident Oswaldo Payá and the youth activist Harold Cepero in eastern Cuba last July was on a rural road. As with any wreck in which passengers die or are knocked unconscious, there was some confusion. In the front of the rental car, on the passenger side, sat Jens Aron Modig of Sweden, president of the youth league of Sweden’s Christian Democratic Party. He has said he was asleep at the moment of impact. The driver, Ángel Carromero, a leader of the youth wing of Spain’s ruling party, has told us the car was hit from behind by a vehicle bearing Cuban government license plates. They both survived; Mr. Payá and Mr. Cepero, in the back seat, did not. Mr. Carromero said that after the crash he was imprisoned and subjected to intimidation and threats by Cuban authorities, who attempted to cover up their role in the deaths. Cuba convicted Mr. Carromero of vehicular homicide, transferred him to Spain and declared the case closed.

But it must not be closed. Mr. Carromero and Mr. Modig carried cell phones. Text messages were sent to friends and relatives abroad immediately after the wreck. These messages cannot be manipulated or suppressed. Although not the whole story, they must be taken seriously as important contemporaneous evidence. The text messages are one reason why the questions about Mr. Payá’s death will not go away.

Washington Post Editorials

Editorials represent the views of The Washington Post as an institution, as determined through debate among members of the editorial board. News reporters and editors never contribute to editorial board discussions, and editorial board members don’t have any role in news coverage.


Editorial Board MAR 26

Five years after construction began, Silver Spring’s transit center still is not ready.

It is not known precisely what happened on the road, but the messages offer clues. One was sent from Mr. Modig’s phone to a recipient in Sweden, according to screenshots provided to us. It says: “We’ve crashed. Traveling in an ambulance now. I do not have my passport. Not in grave danger.” A subsequent message reports that Mr. Modig and Mr. Carromero are in a hospital in the town of Bayamo “and OK.”

Then Mr. Modig adds: “Ángel said that someone had tried to run us off the highway.”

Who? And why? If the wreck was — as Cuba has claimed — an accident caused by reckless driving, why would one of the survivors have said they were run off the road? These and other suspicions about the death of Mr. Payá need to be addressed. Mr. Payá’s family, including his daughter Rosa Maria, have demanded an international and independent probe.

On Monday, eight U.S. senators from both parties asked for such an investigation from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, part of the Organization of American States. The signers are Sens. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.), Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Benjamin L. Cardin (D-Md.), Mark Kirk (R-Ill.), John McCain (R-Ariz.), Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) and Mark R. Warner (D-Va.) They say Mr. Carromero’s account has raised “deeply troubling questions that Payá’s car was deliberately targeted by Cuban government officials well known for their harassment of Payá.” Only a serious investigation will put this matter to rest. It seems like the very minimum necessary for a man who championed the cause of freedom in Cuba.

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http://cubaaldescubierto.com/?p=3721

Carromero en la entrevista con el Washington Post dijo:


How was your statement obtained?
They began to videotape me all the time, and they kept doing so until the last day I was jailed in Cuba. When they questioned me about what happened, I repeated what I told the officer who originally took my statement. They got angry. They warned me that I was their enemy, and that I was very young to lose my life. One of them told me that what I had told them had not happened and that I should be careful, that depending on what I said things could go very well or very badly for me.

Then came a gentleman who identified himself as a government expert and who gave me the official version of what had happened. If I went along with it, nothing would happen to me. At the time I was heavily drugged, and it was hard for me to understand the details of the supposed accident that they were telling me to repeat. They gave me another statement to sign — one that in no way resembled the truth. It mentioned gravel, an embankment, a tree — I did not remember any of these things.

 The hit from the back when we left the road didn’t need to be hard, because I remember that there was no curb or incline. The pavement was wide, with no traffic. I especially did not agree with the statement that we were traveling at an excessive speed, because Oswaldo was very cautious. The last speed I saw on the speedometer was approximately 70 kilometers per hour [about 45 miles per hour]. The air bags did not even deploy during the crash, nor did the windows shatter, and both I and the front-seat passenger got out unhurt.