Activist fought for human rights in Cuba

MEXICO CITY -- Oswaldo Paya, an eloquent Cuban activist who spent decades trying to build a grassroots movement that would compel the government of Fidel and Raul Castro to allow more freedom and human rights, died Sunday in a car crash in eastern Cuba. He was 60. Cuban officials said the crash, near the eastern city of Bayamo, occurred when the driver lost control and hit a tree, killing Mr. Paya and another Cuban and injuring two passengers, one from Spain, the other from Sweden. But some Cuban dissidents said witnesses saw another vehicle hit Mr. Paya's. One of his three children, Rosa Maria Paya, 23, said in an interview she did not believe the crash was an accident. She said her family was still searching for details.

The family had struggled in recent years -- with pressure on dissidents increasing as economic hardships worsened -- but her father never gave up hope the country could be changed from within, she said. "He just wanted for Cubans to have their rights. That's all he ever wanted."

Mr. Paya, an engineer deeply inspired by his strong Roman Catholic faith, rose to prominence just over a decade ago as the main organizer of the Varela Project, a petition drive seeking to create a legal referendum for guarantees of freedom of speech and assembly, and other rights.

"What really distinguished him was that, unlike almost all the others, he engaged in retail politics," said Philip Peters, a Cuba expert with the Lexington Institute. "His Varela Project stands out as the only initiative of its time that enlisted citizen participation on a large scale."

In 2002, the European Union awarded Mr. Paya its top human rights prize, named after Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov. In his acceptance speech, he said the prize was "for all Cubans, because I believe that, in awarding it, Europe wishes to say to them: 'You, too, are entitled to rights.' "

Among a new generation of activists questioning the Cuban government, respect for Mr. Paya has been a constant, though that has begun to mingle with grief and outrage. "A faultless man just died," a young blogger Yoani Sanchez wrote on Twitter on Sunday. Without Paya on the island, she added, "we have become even more orphaned."

(2012-07-24/post-gazette)