English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
Harold Cepero and Oswaldo Paya, members of the Christian Liberation Movement in Cuba, were both killed in a car crash on the Island earlier this year, the cause of which is yet to be satisfactorily explained. Harold would have turned 33 today.
www.oswaldopaya.org/es/proyecto-de-ley-de-reencuentro-nac… January 14 2013
On Friday night, December 7 was a good opportunity to inaugurate the Oswaldo “Payá Sardiñas” Circle of Democratic Thought. In the evening I gave a reading of the most recent paper from the Cuban Christian Liberation Movement, and had the opportunity to publicly express myself on the current Cuban situation, speaking from my own experience. … Continue reading “Paya in Miami, in Cuba / Luis Felipe Rojas”
The reasons behind the position held by the European Union (EU) concerning human rights in Cuba have not changed in the last 16 years. The Cuban Government has not recognized the fundamental rights of Cubans. With the imminent and necessary revision of the current Common Position and the possibility of future pacts with the Cuban … Continue reading “Declaration from the Christian Liberation Movement Regarding the European Union’s Common Position / Rosa Maria Paya Acevedo #Cuba #MCL”
Careful with those whom you all kill, they can spur a craving for liberty in the people (Oswaldo Paya in an interview by the Hispano Cubana Magazine, No. 16, 2003, p. 122). Friday, September 7 the launch of the 16th edition of the magazine Voices took place in Havana in the home of Yoani Sanchez and … Continue reading “My Encounter with Paya in Voices 16 / Mario Lleonart”
We are on the eve of new elections in Cuba. And I am reminded that the first law issued in Sierra Maestra during the anti-Batista insurrection before the elections scheduled in 1958, was a death penalty law. It was designed to punish with death those who took part in the elections. It also punished those … Continue reading “There are no free elections without free people, free citizens, free men and free women / Oswaldo Paya”
Four days before Oswaldo Payá was killed, I drove past the exact spot where his rented blue Hyundai slammed into a tree. I didn’t find out about the crash until I was en route to Florida on July 22. I had known Payá for many years and was saddened to hear of his death. Quiet … Continue reading “Voices Magazine No. 16: Tribute to Oswaldo Paya / Tracey Eaton”
Fernando Ravsberg, correspondent for the BBC in Cuba, has published an extension of the misrepresentations, manipulations and deceits with which the Cuban official media have sought to confuse the Cuban people and the rest of the world for over half a century. He has published it in his own blog, perhaps because the daily four … Continue reading “Response to Fernando Ravsberg / Rosa Maria Paya Acevedo”
We know that the trial of Angel Carromero — the Spaniard who was driving the car in when Oswaldo Paya and Harold Cepero were killed — will be held in Bayamo, 450 miles east of Havana. But we still don’t know when it will begin. Although Friday, August 31, was mentioned, the fact is that … Continue reading “Secrecy Shrouds Upcoming Trial in the Case of Oswaldo Paya’s Death / Yoani Sanchez”
It has been ten days since the event which took the life of my husband, Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas, National Coordinator of the Christian Liberation Movement, and the life of the young man Harold Cepero Escalante, a member of the same movement. The event has been covered by Cuba’s National Television, which is unusual since fatal … Continue reading “Statement from the Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas Family / Ofelia Acevedo”
By Dagoberto Valdés On the afternoon of Sunday, 22 July 2012, we were surprised by unexpected and terrible news: Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas, founder and leader of the Christian Liberation Movement (MCL), had tragically died near the city of Bayama, seeking the roots of our Cubanness to say goodbye to the land he loved so much … Continue reading “Oswaldo Pay: Example and Legacy / IntraMuros, Dagoberto Valdes”
A lengthy editorial in Granma on Tuesday marked the beginning of legal proceedings for murder against Angel Carromero. The 27-year-old Spaniard, deputy secretary general of The People’s Party New Generation, Carromero was driving the car in which the regime opponent Oswaldo Paya and the activist Harold Cepero were killed. Also slightly injured in the crash … Continue reading “Ángel Carromero, Driver of the Car in Which Payá and Cepero Died, Charged with Murder / Yoani Sánchez”
The trashed cityscape reaches all the way to the gate of the parish, in the arid Cerro neighborhood. “The Savior of the World,” says the sign, so distant from the desert outside, beyond the gates. And one thinks, sleepwalking before sunrise: how poor any form of expression is in this country. Dawn lingers on the … Continue reading “Payá, Posthumous President / Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo”
World: Death on the island The death of Oswaldo Paya in Cuba has impacted the dissidence and sowed suspicion. This is the story and tribute from a Cuban writer and photographer from the ranks of the opposition. By Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo, from Havana 26/07/2012 Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas (1952-2012) has died like they kill the … Continue reading “Payá Yes, Bishops No / Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo”
About five hundred people accompanied the body of Oswaldo Payá to his final resting place in the Colon Cemetery. Family members, activists, Ladies in White, foreign correspondents and diplomats based on the island gathered at eleven in the morning. Dozens of dissidents traveled from the central and eastern provinces to the capital in Havana to … Continue reading “Rosa María Payá Honors Her Father Oswaldo Payá: “We do not seek revenge, but we thirst for the truth” / Yoani Sánchez”
