US envoy asks Cuba to probe dissident's death

US envoy asks Cuba to probe dissident's death
Last Updated: Wednesday, August 07, 2013, 08:03

New York: US Ambassador Samantha Power has asked Cuba's foreign minister
to investigate the death of Oswaldo Paya, saying the Cuban dissident
"stood up for freedom".

Paya was the lead organiser of the Varela Project, a signature-gathering
drive regarded as the largest nonviolent campaign to change the system
Fidel Castro established in 1959.

The government said he died in a car crash in Bayamo, Cuba, in July 2012
when the car he was riding in struck a tree, but his family insists the
crash was not an accident and has pressed for an international
investigation.

Power, a former foreign policy adviser to President Barack Obama, made
her appeal, yesterday on her second day as US ambassador. She spoke with
Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez at a lunch hosted by Argentine
President Cristina Fernandez, who had just chaired a Security Council
meeting.

In a tweet on Tuesday afternoon, Power said: "Oswaldo Paya stood up for
freedom. Just raised with the Cuban FM the need for a credible
investigation into his death."

The encounter was a rare meeting between a US ambassador and a Cuban
foreign minister.

Cuba and the United States have not had diplomatic relations since the
1959 communist revolution that brought Fidel Castro to power, though
both countries are represented at the United Nations.

In June, Paya's daughter Rosa Maria said she decided to seek refuge in
Miami after facing continued repression on the island. Rosa Maria, 24,
said she and her family had been the subject of threats, harassment and
increased vigilance since her father's death.

Six members of the family have now left Cuba, but they have vowed to
continue the work of Oswaldo Paya from Miami in conjunction with
activists on the island.


Source: "US envoy asks Cuba to probe dissident`s death" -
http://zeenews.india.com/news/world/us-envoy-asks-cuba-to-probe-dissident-s-death_867325.html