To promote a nonviolent transition to a Cuba that respects human rights, political and economic freedoms, and the rule of law.
Ofelia Acevedo, the widow of Cuban human rights defender Oswaldo Payá, files lawsuit against former U.S. diplomat accused of spying for the communist dictatorship in Cuba
Ofelia Acevedo, the widow of the late Cuban human rights defender Oswaldo Payá, filed a lawsuit in Dade County, Florida, against Victor Manuel Rocha, a former American diplomat. The U.S. Attorney General recently revealed Rocha's four-decade collaboration with the Cuban dictatorship as one of the most significant foreign agent breaches of the United States government. In 2012, the Castro regime killed Payá and Harold Cepero. At the same time, Rocha was working with Havana, giving advice to U.S. national security authorities, and gaining access to the most sensitive intelligence held by the United States. “I seek what I have sought all along: for the truth, for justice, and for the regime and its accomplices of to stop acting with impunity,” said Acevedo.
Ofelia Acevedo sits with hunger striker Alexis Gomez, the on day 15 of a hunger strike for Cuban refugees held in the Bahamas in August 2013.
Christian Liberation Movement founder Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas was born on this day 72 years ago on February 29, 1952.
Oswaldo Payá was sixty years old when he was murdered by Castro regime agents. He was a family man and lay Catholic from Havana, an engineer, who in September 1988 founded the Christian Liberation Movement with fellow Catholics in the Havana neighborhood of El Cerro. Over the next 23 years he carried out important campaigns to support human rights and a transition to democracy in Cuba. He spoke out against human rights violations and demanded dignity for victims, even if it meant criticizing the United States for the mistreatment of Al Qaeda prisoners at the Guantanamo Naval Base prison in 2002. Oswaldo was a consistent defender of human rights. He was awarded the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought by the European Parliament in 2002.
Oswaldo was extrajudicially executed in Cuba by Castro's secret police on July 22, 2012 along with the movement's youth leader Harold Cepero. Ten years ago Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights petitioned the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) to examine the evidence around the deaths of Oswaldo and Harold on July 22, 2012. On June 12, 2023 the IACHR published their report on the merits that found Cuban government agents responsible for the deaths of the two pro-democracy leaders and Christian Liberation Movement leaders.
This is why it is surprising to see that the article by journalists JOSHUA GOODMAN and JIM MUSTIAN is headlined "Family of Cuban dissident who died in mysterious car crash sues accused American diplomat-turned-spy." The NGO Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights correctly describes the incident that took place on July 22, 2012 as a "car crash provoked by Cuban state agents". Respectfully to the Associated Press, but a more accurate headline would have been: "Family of Cuban dissident who died in a car crash provoked by Cuban state agents sues accused American diplomat-turned-spy."
