13 minute silent vigil for July's Cuban martyrs on July 13 at FIU's main fountain at 12 noon

Remembering two terrible days in July in Cuba

2017 marks 23 years since the massacre of 37 Cubans on July 13, 1994 when they tried to flee the island on board the Cuban tugboat "13 de marzo" by agents of the Castro regime. The crime was well documented by international human rights organizations and institutions.July will mark five years since Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas, and Harold Cepero were killed by Cuban state security agents on July 22, 2012.

We will gather in silent protest at the main fountain at Florida International University and demand justice for the victims of the "13 de Marzo" tugboat massacre and for martyrs Oswaldo Payá and Harold Cepero.

Free Cuba Foundation members together with Rosa Maria Payá hold vigil at FIU

Rosa Maria Payá Acevedo, Oswaldo's daughter, protesting in front of the Cuban Interests Section on July 10, 2014 observed a profound truth: "State crimes are never an issue exclusive to the families of the victims." In 2016 she accompanied Free Cuba Foundation members at Florida International University in a 13 minute moment of silence for July's Cuban martyrs.

Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel explained in his 1986 Nobel Lecture why it is important to remember:  "To forget the victims means to kill them a second time. So I couldn't prevent the first death. I surely must be capable of saving them from a second death." ... "There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest." This is why we protest.

What:   13 Minute Silent Vigil
When:  Thursday, July 13 at 12 noon
Where: Main Fountain at Florida International University
             [Between Library, and Charles Perry (PC) building]
Why:    Remember and Demand Justice for the Dead

July 22, 2012 Extrajudicial Killings

Oswaldo José Payá Sardiñas. Age: 60
Harold Cepero Escalante. Age: 32

July 13, 1994 "13 de Marzo" Tugboat Massacre Victims

Hellen Martínez Enriquez. Age: 5 Months
Xicdy Rodríguez Fernández. Age: 2
Angel René Abreu Ruíz. Age: 3
José Carlos Niclas Anaya. Age: 3
Giselle Borges Alvarez. Age: 4
Caridad Leyva Tacoronte. Age: 5
Juan Mario Gutiérrez García. Age: 10
Yousell Eugenio Pérez Tacoronte. Age: 11
Yasser Perodín Almanza. Age: 11
Eliécer Suárez Plasencia. Age: 12
Mayulis Méndez Tacoronte. Age: 17
Miladys Sanabria Leal. Age: 19
Joel García Suárez. Age: 20
Odalys Muñoz García. Age: 21
Yalta Mila Anaya Carrasco. Age: 22
Luliana Enríquez Carrazana. Age: 22
Jorge Gregorio Balmaseda Castillo. Age: 24
Lissett María Alvarez Guerra. Age: 24
Ernesto Alfonso Loureiro. Age: 25
María Miralis Fernández Rodríguez. Age: 27
Leonardo Notario Góngora. Age: 28
Jorge Arquímedes Levrígido Flores. Age: 28
Pilar Almanza Romero. Age: 31
Rigoberto Feu González. Age: 31
Omar Rodríguez Suárez. Age: 33
Lázaro Enrique Borges Briel. Age: 34
Julia Caridad Ruíz Blanco. Age: 35
Martha Caridad Tacoronte Vega. Age: 35
Eduardo Suárez Esquivel. Age: 38
Martha Mirella Carrasco Sanabria. Age: 45
Augusto Guillermo Guerra Martínez. Age: 45
Rosa María Alcalde Puig. Age: 47
Estrella Suárez Esquivel. Age: 48
Reynaldo Joaquín Marrero Alamo. Age: 48
Amado González Raices. Age: 50
Fidencio Ramel Prieto Hernández. Age: 51
Manuel Cayol. Age: 56  

These crimes are not isolated but part of a pattern of extreme cruelty by the Castro regime. For those who advocate forgiveness and reconciliation in Cuba, the Free Cuba Foundation agrees with you, but we leave an important caveat first stated by Lewis B. Smedes, a theologian: When you give up vengeance, make sure you are not giving up on justice. 

13 minute silent vigil for July's Cuban martyrs on July 13 at FIU's main fountain at 12 noon

"There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest." - Elie Wiesel, Nobel Lecture 1986*

July 13, 1994 at three in the morning three extended Cuban families set out for a better life aboard the "13 de Marzo" tugboat from Havana, Cuba and were massacred in a heinous crime committed by agents of the Cuban government. The most extensive international report on the the events that took place was prepared by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in 1996. Four years later on 1998 on the eve of Pope John Paul the Second's visit to Cuba Ted Koppel had a segment on the tugboat massacre interviewing survivor's and family members.  Fifteen years later human rights champion Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas reflected on what had happened:

Behind the Christ of Havana, about seven miles from the coast, "volunteers" of the Communist regime committed one of the most heinous crimes in the history of our city and of Cuba. In the morning, a group of seventy people in all, fled on a tugboat, led by the ship's own crew; none was kidnapped, or there against their will. They came out of the mouth of the Bay of Havana. They were pursued by other similar ships. When the runaway ship and its occupants stopped to surrender, the ships that had been chasing them started ramming to sink it. Meanwhile, on the deck, women with children in their arms begging for mercy, but the answer of their captors was to project high pressure water cannons against them. Some saw their children fall overboard under the murderous jets of water amid shrieks of horror. They behaved brutally until their perverse mission was fulfilled: Sink the fleeing ship and annihilate many of its occupants.

Four years ago on July 22, 2012 on a stretch of road in Eastern Cuba, State Security agents rammed the car Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas and Harold Cepero Escalante were traveling in. Both bodies appeared later that same day. The man who denounced the "13 de Marzo" tugboat massacre in 2009 would himself become a martyr of the same dictatorship along with Harold, a youth leader from the Christian Liberation Movement three years later in 2012 in the same month.
On July 13 at 12 noon at Florida International University the Free Cuba Foundation will hold a 13 minute silent vigil in memory of July's Cuban martyrs. This tradition has been underway at Florida International University for twenty years with one change. In the first year a one minute moment of silence was held and as each year passed without justice a minute was added. On the 20th anniversary we held a 20 minute moment of silence and after that we decided to set the minutes to 13 and in addition to remembering the 37 victims of the "13 de Marzo" tugboat sinking we would also remember Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas and Harold Cepero Escalante. We began this new practice last year. We ask to join us in continuing this tradition again this year at FIU and continue to make a silent demand for justice. Other activities have been organized by others to remember these crimes over the years.
 
What:   13 Minute Silent Vigil
When:  Wednesday, July 13 at 12 noon
Where: Main Fountain at Florida International University
             [Between Library, and Charles Perry (PC) building]
Why:    Remember and Demand Justice for the Dead

July 22, 2012 Extrajudicial Killings

Oswaldo José Payá Sardiñas. Age: 60
Harold Cepero Escalante. Age: 32

July 13, 1994 "13 de Marzo" Tugboat Massacre Victims

Hellen Martínez Enriquez. Age: 5 Months 
Xicdy Rodríguez Fernández. Age: 2 
Angel René Abreu Ruíz. Age: 3 
José Carlos Niclas Anaya. Age: 3 
Giselle Borges Alvarez. Age: 4 
Caridad Leyva Tacoronte. Age: 5 
Juan Mario Gutiérrez García. Age: 10 
Yousell Eugenio Pérez Tacoronte. Age: 11 
Yasser Perodín Almanza. Age: 11 
Eliécer Suárez Plasencia. Age: 12 
Mayulis Méndez Tacoronte. Age: 17 
Miladys Sanabria Leal. Age: 19 
Joel García Suárez. Age: 20 
Odalys Muñoz García. Age: 21 
Yalta Mila Anaya Carrasco. Age: 22 
Luliana Enríquez Carrazana. Age: 22 
Jorge Gregorio Balmaseda Castillo. Age: 24 
Lissett María Alvarez Guerra. Age: 24 
Ernesto Alfonso Loureiro. Age: 25 
María Miralis Fernández Rodríguez. Age: 27 
Leonardo Notario Góngora. Age: 28 
Jorge Arquímedes Levrígido Flores. Age: 28 
Pilar Almanza Romero. Age: 31 
Rigoberto Feu González. Age: 31 
Omar Rodríguez Suárez. Age: 33 
Lázaro Enrique Borges Briel. Age: 34 
Julia Caridad Ruíz Blanco. Age: 35 
Martha Caridad Tacoronte Vega. Age: 35 
Eduardo Suárez Esquivel. Age: 38 
Martha Mirella Carrasco Sanabria. Age: 45 
Augusto Guillermo Guerra Martínez. Age: 45 
Rosa María Alcalde Puig. Age: 47 
Estrella Suárez Esquivel. Age: 48 
Reynaldo Joaquín Marrero Alamo. Age: 48 
Amado González Raices. Age: 50 
Fidencio Ramel Prieto Hernández. Age: 51 
Manuel Cayol. Age: 56 

 *We pray for Elie Wiesel and thank him bearing witness for victims of oppression and injustice. 

Scenes and Reflections from the July 13 Vigil for July's Cuban Martyr's at FIU

On July 13, 2015 at Florida International University at the main fountain students, Free Cuba Foundation members and relatives of some of the 37 victims of the July 13, 1994 tugboat massacre gathered in a silent vigil for 13 minutes and afterwards gave interviews to local media.  Jorge Garcia, who lost 14 family members on that day including his son and grandson was present. He reiterated his call for justice while rejecting hatred

Students and activists gathered together after the vigil

Also joining in the observance was Ramon Saul Sanchez, of the Democracy Movement. 20 years ago on July 13, 1995 he led a thirteen boat flotilla that entered Cuban waters to journey to the spot where the "13 de marzo" tugboat was attacked and sunk in order to hold religious services for the departed. However, Cuban gunboats partially crushed the hull of the lead boat forcing the flotilla to turn around.

Jorge Garcia, who lost 14 relatives on July 13, 1994, spoke to media

 The event was organized by the Free Cuba Foundation (FCF) and announced over this blog and through other social media. Three past presidents of FCF were present at the vigil today, Augusto Monge, John Suarez and Pedro Ross. Each of them during their tenure organized silent vigils on July 13 in memory of the victims of the Castro regime's repression. Rey Anthony, age 20, initiated the vigil today at midday and thirteen minutes later thanked all who attended for their presence ending the vigil.

Silent vigil at FIU on July 13, 2015

Jorge Garcia thanked FIU students for holding the vigil and continuing the demand for justice in a nonviolent and civic manner.

Jorge Garcia and Rey Anthony at the silent vigil at FIU

The event today marked a change for the Free Cuba Foundation after twenty one years of silent vigils for the July 13, 1994 "13 de marzo" tugboat massacre. Sadly, today the vigil was also dedicated to the memory of  Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas and Harold Cepero Escalante both murdered by state security agents on July 22, 2012. Oswaldo Payá had spoken out denouncing the tugboat massacre over
the years while still in Cuba, and paid the ultimate price for speaking truth to power.  We will not forget and we will continue to demand justice and hold actions to raise awareness on the crimes of the Castro regime.

Project Varela: 12 years later as important as ever

Twelve years ago today, carrying 11,020 signed petitions in support of the Varela Project, Oswaldo Paya, Antonio Diaz Sanchez, and Regis Iglesias walked with the bulky card board boxes labeled Project Varela to the Cuban National Assembly.



The Varela Project, named after the Cuban Catholic Priest Felix Varela, sought to reform the Cuban legal system to bring it in line with international human rights standards. They had followed the letter of the law in organizing the campaign and yet the dictatorship's response to a nonviolent citizen's initiative was to first coerce Cubans into signing another petition declaring the Constitution unchangeable and quickly passed it through the rubber stamp legislature without debating the Varela Project, which according to the Cuban law drafted by the dictatorship meant that it should have been debated by the National Assembly.



Less than a year later beginning on March 18, 2003 the Black Cuban Spring would begin with a massive crackdown on Cuba's civil society with many of the organizers of Project Varela, imprisoned and summarily sentenced up to 28 years in prison. The 75 activists who had been imprisoned with long prison sentences became known as the "group of the 75."

The dictatorship announced, at the time, that the Cuban dissident movement had been destroyed. First, the remaining activists who were still free continued gathering signatures and would turn in another 14,384 petition signatures on October 5, 2003. Furthermore, the wives, sisters and daughters of the activists who had been detained and imprisoned organized themselves into the "Ladies in White." A movement that sought the freedom of their loved ones and organized regular marches through the streets of Cuba, despite regime organized violence visited upon them.

The Economist in its December 14, 2005 issue published a conversation with Oswaldo Paya titled "An unsilenced voice for change" that outlined what had taken place:

Between 2001 and 2004, Mr Payá's movement gathered 25,000 signatures in a vain attempt to persuade Cuba's National Assembly to change the constitution to allow multi-party democracy. Activists of his Christian Liberation Movement made up more than two-thirds of the 75 dissidents and journalists rounded up and jailed for long terms in April 2003. [...] Spain is “complaisant” with Mr Castro's regime, Mr Payá says. “We need a campaign of support and solidarity with peaceful change in Cuba” of the kind that brought an end to apartheid in South Africa and to the Pinochet dictatorship in Chile.

It took over eight years, but the last of the group of the 75 were eventually released. Many were driven into exile but  a core group remain in Cuba and are still defiant. One  of the Project Varela leaders still active and mobilizing large numbers today is Jose Daniel Ferrer Garcia, but others  lost their lives defending human rights and dignity who had also gathered signatures for the Varela Project, such as Orlando Zapata Tamayo.
On July 22, 2012 all evidence points to a state security operation that ended the lives of Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas, and Harold Cepero Escalante. Now signatures continue to be gathered for Project Varela inside Cuba and everywhere for an international investigation into the deaths of Oswaldo and Harold.

Cuba 2014: Why this year is important

Despite heightened violence and repression Cubans are losing their fear

20 years ago on July 13, 1994 they were massacred by the Castro regime

The dictatorship in Cuba wants everyone to believe that 2014 is important because CELAC is being held in Havana but discerning people know better. 2014 will be important for a number of reasons. At the same time state security is engaged in a massive crackdown rounding up and threatening dissidents in an effort to maintain monopoly control. The Cuban government's body count continues to rise despite its apologists claims that it is reforming. This is nothing new.

Brothers to the Rescue martyrs murdered in act of state terrorism on February 24, 1996

 Less than a month from now, February 23rd will mark four years to the day that Cuban prisoner of conscience Orlando Zapata Tamayo died on hunger strike defending human rights and dignity. February 24th will mark the eighteen years since the Brothers to the Rescue shootdown where Carlos Costa, Pablo Morales, Mario De La Peña, and Armando Alejandre were blown out of the sky on orders of the Castro brothers while engaged in the search and rescue of Cuban rafters in international airspace in what was an act of state terrorism.

Died on hunger strike on February 23, 2010

2014 is also the 20th anniversary of the "13 de Marzo" tugboat masssacre off the coast of Havana where 37 men, women and children were murdered by agents of the Castro regime for wanting to flee the country on July 13, 1994.

Died under suspicious circumstances on July 22, 2012

 July 22 will mark two years since Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas and Harold Cepero Escalante were killed under suspicious circumstances. Relatives and friends continue to demand an international investigation to clear up the circumstances of their deaths.

 The Free Cuba Foundation has and will continue to call for nonviolent actions to demand justice and remember the dear departed.

This year is the 50th anniversary of Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.'s December 11, 1964 Nobel Peace Prize Lecture that is required reading for advocates of nonviolence and resistance to injustice. Reverend King is a figure that inspired and continues to inspire Cuban dissidents to take action against injustice using nonviolent means.

Unfortunately, as the dictatorship engages in its distractions and those who should know better grant it a legitimacy that is not warranted, another man, Marcelino Abreu unjustly imprisoned, is dying on hunger strike. Let us pray that he survives this ordeal. Despite the media makeover to the contrary the human rights situation in Cuba remains dismal as revealed in Human Rights Watch's 2014 report on Cuba.

Despite the extrajudicial killings, arbitrary detentions, death threats, and physical assaults Cubans are losing their fear and demanding that their rights be respected. On January 21, 2014 in the morning hours hundreds of Cubans took to the street in Holguin which is located in Eastern Cuba to protest against the confiscation of their household goods by government officials.

Oswaldo Payá and Harold Cepero: Celebrating their Memory

 

Accompany us in the Commemoration of the First Anniversary of the Death of 

Oswaldo Payá and Harold Cepero

Friday, 19 of July 2013

Time: 8:00 PM

La Sagrada Famlia Salon at the Inmaculada Church 

4497 West 1st Avenue, Hialeah, Florida 33012 Members of the Christian Liberation Movement invite the community to a Colloquium about the legacy of Oswaldo Payá  

Monday, July 22, 2013

Time: 8:00 PM

Ermita de la Caridad.

3609 South Miami Ave Miami, Fl. 33133 

 The Payá  family and the Christian Liberation Movement invite you to accompany us in the celebration for a Eucharistic Celebration in the memory of Oswaldo Payá and Harold Cepero that will be presided by the Rector of  Our Lady of Charity Father Juan Rumin Dominguez

 

 

Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas, Harold Cepero and the "13 de Marzo" tugboat, massacre

 Remembering two terrible days in July in Cuba

 "In Cuba there are missing and it is known who has disappeared them, the latter are heroes for the government."..."There are more than 20 murdered children waiting to be claimed and mothers and grandmothers who were not allowed to look for them when they were killed off the coast of Havana " - Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas, El Nuevo Herald, March 18, 2005*

Ever since the July 13, 1994 massacre the Free Cuba Foundation has organized actions to remember what took place on that day. This year will also mark on July 22nd one year since the killings of two nonviolent human rights defenders, Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas and Harold Cepero Escalante.

Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas from his home in Havana, Cuba spoke clearly and courageously about the events that took place on July 13, 1994 six miles off the Cuban coastline. It was that kind of speaking truth to power in Cuba, and the courage to nonviolently organize others in support of a democratic transition that led to his being a hated target of the regime. Oswaldo knew what the stakes were: "They have told me that they will kill me before this regime ends, but I will not flee." On July 22, 2012 the Castro dictatorship carried out its promise killing him and Harold.

Free Cuba Foundation members are discussing various ideas to remember these injustices in a creative matter. What would you suggest? How do you plan to remember the 37 men, women and children massacred by Cuban government agents on July 13, 1994? How do you plan to remember Oswaldo and Harold and what happened on July 22, 2012?

 ***

*Original quote: "En Cuba sí hay desaparecidos y se sabe quiénes los desaparecieron, estos últimos son héroes para el gobierno" ... "Hay más de 20 niños asesinados que esperan ser reivindicados y madres y abuelas a las que no se les permitió buscarlos cuando los asesinaron en las costas de La Habana." - Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas, MENSAJE DE PAYÁ DESTACA QUE EN LA ISLA HAY DESAPARECIDOS  El Nuevo Herald, March 18, 2005 - PAGE: 23A SECTION: Panorama

Amnesty Candle now also burns for Oswaldo Payá and Harold Cepero

"We don't want savage capitalism; we already have savage communism. Please, no more savage things." - Oswaldo Payá, November 20, 2010 

Amnesty, Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas and Harold Cepero Escalante

Amnesty International came into existence 52 years ago on May 21, 1961 when Peter Benenson published "The Forgotten Prisoners"in The Observer and within the article announced that an "office has been set up in London to collect and publish information about Prisoners of Conscience all over the world."  Nevertheless, as Amnesty International grew and the awards and accolades flooded the organization Benenson never forgot all those innocents who had not been saved. He went on to explain the significance of the candle wrapped in barbed wire: 

"The candle burns not for us but for all those whom we failed to rescue from prison, who were shot on the way to prison, who were tortured, who were kidnapped, who ‘disappeared'. That is what the candle is for." 

 Since July 22, 2012 it also burns for Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas and Harold Cepero Escalante two human rights defenders who died under suspicious circumstances that demand an international investigation.

Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas was a consistent defender of human rights who denounced human rights violations across the ideological spectrum:

Two instances separated by a decade one involving the United States and the second, Iran demonstrate this courageous consistency in speaking truth to power. It is excerpted from an essay published today by Notes form the Cuban Exile Quarter:

On January 12, 2002 the Cuban Communist Party's daily newspaper Granma offered the official position of the dictatorship on the prison camp in Guantanamo: "We will not create any obstacles to the development of the [U.S. military] operation, though the transfer of foreign prisoners of war by the U.S. government to the base—located on a space in our territory upon which we have been deprived of any jurisdiction—was not part of the agreement that the base was founded upon."

The first Cuban on the island to criticize and denounce the United States for housing Afghan prisoners in Cuba and demanding they be treated with dignity was Cuban opposition leader Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas on December 17, 2002:  

"It's obviously a matter of shame that our land is being used for that purpose, having foreign prisoners brought to Cuba. Even if they are terrorists they deserve respect. Their human rights should be respected."

Ten years later, January 11, 2012,  Oswaldo Paya was criticizing the honoring of the Iranian despot Mahmoud Ahmadinejad denouncing both his antisemitism and brutal human rights record:

"Tyrant lizard on the hill. Currently Ahmadinejad speaks at the University of Havana. It is an insult to the students and an outrage to the sacred remains of Father Varela and against the virtue and the homeland of the Cubans

Mahmoud, why do you deny the Holocaust? Would you repeat it? Never again against any people."

Today, over twitter as the United Nations Human Rights Council's independent expert on extrajudicial executions presented his report and countries and nongovernmental organizations raised questions on killings and atrocities taking place around the world we tweeted the following quotes with the hashtag #HRC23 to draw attention to the plight of Oswaldo and Harold two human rights defenders whose lives were snatched away from their loved ones by state security on July 22, 2012:

Today as the Independent expert on Extrajudicial killings presents report @ #HRC23 we remind the world of OswaldoPaya http://cubanexilequarter.blogspot.com/2013/05/remembering-oswaldo-paya-sardinas.html 

"Unless there is global solidarity, not only human rights but also the right to remain human will be jeopardized." - Oswaldo Paya #HRC23

"Cause of human rights is a single cause, just as the people of the world are a single people." - Oswaldo Paya http://cubanexilequarter.blogspot.com/2013/05/remembering-oswaldo-paya-sardinas.html #HRC23

"You are my brother. I do not hate you, but you are not going to dominate me by fear." - Oswaldo Paya http://cubanexilequarter.blogspot.com/2013/05/remembering-oswaldo-paya-sardinas.html … #HRC23 

"They have told me that they will kill me before this regime ends, but I will not flee." - Oswaldo Paya http://cubanexilequarter.blogspot.com/2013/05/remembering-oswaldo-paya-sardinas.html … #HRC23 

 Sadly, the case of Oswaldo and Harold was not mentioned by special rapporteur on extrajudicial executions but we did find that the Liberal International, representing a world federation of Liberal and progressive parties from around the world submitted a written statement to the United Nations Human Rights Council to investigate the deaths of these human rights defenders.

A Conversation with Rosa Maria Payá tonight at 9pm

Meeting of Rosa Maria Payá with exile organizations and those interested from the public

What: Democratic Thought "Oswaldo Payá" Circle
 
When: Friday April 12 at 9:00 pm.
 
Where: Event to be held in the Parish Hall of the Church of the Immaculate Conception. Located on 4497 W 1st. Avenue in Hialeah, FL. 33 012.

Rosa Maria Payá will be meeting with exile organizations, the public at large and those interested, so they can have testimony about real change and a reaffirmation to NO-fake change that the Cuban regime is trying to engineer.

There will also be announcements on the investigative efforts internationally to know the truth about the incident that cost the lives of Harold Cepero and Oswaldo Payá.

The meeting is being organized by the Christian Liberation Movement.

24 hour truth squad for Oswaldo and Harold

"Yes, Oswaldo Payá and Harold Cepero were killed, they were victims of an attack that cost them their lives and this we know from the first day by the reports that both victims and witnesses made reached their friends in and out of the island." - Regis Iglesias, February 19, 2013

Oswaldo and Harold

Seven months on July 22, 2012, Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas and Harold Cepero Escalante and two other passengers in a car were forced off the road deliberately and that the series of events during and following the collision led to the deaths of the two Cuban passengers riding in the vehicle. Oswaldo and Harold were killed and the families of these two men are demanding an international investigation into their deaths to get at the truth and to obtain justice.

Earlier this week at the Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy Rosa María Payá, Regis Iglesias and John Suarez reiterated the call for an international investigation into the deaths of Oswaldo and Harold: 

 Rosa Maria Payá Acevedo

 
Regis Iglesias

 
John Suarez

Take action and join the petition drive requesting an international investigation into the deaths of Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas and Harold Cepero Escalante and ask other people of good will to do the same. 

Meanwhile remind the world with a hash tag campaign over twitter on the seven month anniversary of these crimes that truth and justice are still needed. 

#JusticeforHaroldandOswaldo 

#JusticeForHCEandOWP 

#HCE 

#OWP 

#RememberHCEandOWP 

Oswaldo José Payá Sardiñas and Harold Cepero: Exemplars for Cubans everywhere

"Liberation is a task for the Cuban people – now with greater hope because we are definitely on the verge, on the threshold of truth and liberation. That is our hope." - Oswaldo Paya, March 29, 2012

Oswaldo José Payá Sardiñas died as he lived seeking the liberation of an island nation enslaved to communist totalitarianism for over 53 years. When asked in an interview whether Cuba was a dictatorship his response demonstrated his clear thinking. He said that Cuba was not a dictatorship but that there was a dictatorship in Cuba oppressing Cubans. He did not identify the Cuban nation or its identity with repression. He recognized the existence of the dictatorship but that it was also an aberration that needed to be overcome not a permanent part of the Cuban identity.

Harold Cepero was expelled from University for advocating and gathering signatures for the Varela Project. A citizen initiative that  was supposedly  legal according to the dictatorship's constitution. He began his activism as a youth leader of the Christian Liberation Movement.

They lived their lives resisting tyranny and advocating liberation and living the lives of a free men until the day they died. Oswaldo died at age 60 seeking nonviolent democratic change for over forty years. There is controversy surrounding the circumstances of his death and that of his young compatriot Harold Cepero in an accident that  may  have been a set up by Cuban State Security to murder these Cuban patriots.

We will join Oswaldo Paya's widow and all people of good will  in demanding that an international organization investigate with transparency the circumstances surrounding this accident and the deaths of these two great Cuban exemplars.

In the mean time we will not focus on how Oswaldo and Harold died but how they lived their lives to obtain the freedom of the Cuban people. We will honor their legacy by continuing the struggle for liberation.