(EFE) .- The Spanish politician Ángel Carromero, convicted in Cuba for the death in an alleged car accident of the opponents Oswaldo Payá and Harold Cepero, assured this Tuesday that the trial to which he was subjected on the island was “a farce” to cover the responsibility of the regime.
Carromero, who lives in Spain, was one of the witnesses in the virtual hearing held before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) for the complaint of the relatives of Payá and Cepero against the Cuban State for their alleged responsibility in what happened on the 22nd. July 2012 on a Cuban highway.
That day, Carromero, from the conservative Popular Party, was driving a car at full speed, with Payá, Cepero and a Swedish politician, Jens Aron Modig, as passengers, which ran off the road and crashed into a tree.
The Spanish said on Tuesday that during the entire trip they were watched by State Security vehicles, which followed them, and that one of them took them off the road with a blow that caused a crash
However, the Spaniard said on Tuesday that during the entire trip they were watched by State Security vehicles, which followed them, and that one of them took them off the road with a blow that caused a crash. He recalled that that day Payá had identified by the color of the license plates that they were “communist” vehicles, that is, the regime.
“They were following us closer and closer, they beat us and took us off the road, they took me out of the car, they took me away, I lost consciousness,” he recalled.
Carromero stated that he woke up beaten on the head and surrounded by the military and held incommunicado in a hospital and that afterwards they made him read a confession in which he pleaded guilty to the accident.
At the hearing before the IACHR, Ofelia Acevedo, widow of Payá, founder of the Christian Liberation Movement and ideologue of the Varela Project, and Rosa María Payá, their daughter, also testified.
Both urged with tears in their eyes that justice be done by recognizing that the Castro regime “assassinated” both opponents, as, they said, the evidence presented shows. They stressed that before and after Payá’s death, the family was harassed and threatened by State Security.
Payá’s widow said that even before the “murder” they loosen the nuts on the vehicle in which the family was traveling on several occasions and that, thanks to how careful the opposition leader was when driving, they were able to avoid accidents.
For his part, the Spaniard said that his trial in Cuba was a “farce”, a “set up against two of the main opponents against the Government”
For his part, the Spaniard said that his trial in Cuba was a “farce”, a “set up against two of the main opponents of the government.”
Carromero added that in Cuba he did not have an independent lawyer because they are all subscribed to the State and that during the visits made by the Spanish consul “he never managed to be alone” with the diplomat, as they were always accompanied by a lieutenant.
“I could not speak with him freely (…). I could not communicate privately with anyone,” he said. He stressed that he did not have the opportunity to make an independent expert opinion on the tests, not even on the vehicle, which was the most important thing.
Carromero pointed out that “he was kidnapped by the regime (…) a tremendous six months” and that he never made a confession but was “forced” to read it on camera, even with words and jargon that are not used in Spain.
The Spaniard was accused of reckless driving resulting in death and sentenced to 4 years in prison in Cuba, although most of his sentence was served in Spain thanks to an agreement between governments. “I will never forget what those days in the dungeon were like,” he stressed.
In addition, he pointed out that he has also been threatened and harassed in Spain, among others, by political movements related to the Cuban regime. “Shortly after returning to my country, I was being subjected to ‘possible actions’, it was very unpleasant,” he said.
The newspaper The world wakefulnessWhile Carromero was still in Cuba, when the accident occurred the politician had no points on his driving license, since he had accumulated 42 traffic offenses in Spain, which had motivated the withdrawal of the document. This circumstance earned him numerous criticisms in his country.
Carromero also said that he had an encounter after the accident with the Swedish politician who was traveling with them in which they commented that they thought they were going to kill them. But Modig, said the Spaniard, “after two or three days they let him go” thanks to a pact of silence.
Payá’s family reiterated that it was an attack and pointed out that so far they have not had any official written report from the Cuban Government on the events.
During the hearing, Payá’s family reiterated that it was an attack and pointed out that so far they have not had any official written report from the Cuban government on the events.
Payá’s family, along with Cepero’s, filed the complaint with the IACHR, which took nine years to convene the first public hearing. Payá told Efe on Monday that yesterday’s hearing was the occasion for the presentation of the parties’ final arguments and predicted that the IACHR would not take long to pronounce.
The IACHR clarified that the Cuban State still has the opportunity to present its part, if it wishes, in writing.
Cuba, which has not spoken to the organization, is subject to the IACHR despite being suspended from the Organization of American States (OAS) for decades. The same is not the case with the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR), which is why the Payá case will not lead to a trial in that court.
But the daughter of the opponent told Efe that if, as they hope, the IACHR determines that the Cuban State was responsible for the deaths of her father and Cepero, they will insist before the UN and the Organization of American States (OAS) on the need to ” stop the impunity “of the island’s regime.
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