Oswaldo Payá Remembered On The Anniversary Of His Birth

Oswaldo Payá Remembered On The Anniversary Of His Birth / 14ymedio
Posted on February 29, 2016

14ymedio, Havana, 29 February 2016 – A Mass in memory of the 64th
anniversary of Oswaldo Payá's birth was held Monday afternoon in the
parish of El Salvador del Mundo in the Havana neighborhood of
Cerro. Celebrating the Mass was the Auxiliary Bishop of Havana,
Monsignor Alfredo Petit Vergel.

The ceremony was attended by the daughter of the deceased opponent of
the Castro regime, Rosa María Payá, who is now the president of the
Latin American Network of Youth for Democracy and who traveled to the
island for the occasion. She was accompanied by numerous friends and
activists from Cuba's independent civil society, and the Mexican
Congresswoman Cecilia Romero.

Rosa María Payá told 14ymedio that her presence on the island is also
intended to promote the initiative of the citizen platform, Cuba
Decides, demanding a plebiscite so that "Cuban citizens will have the
opportunity to choose their leaders, through free and multi-party
elections."

This is the second trip that Rosa María Payá has made to Cuba after
settling in Miami with her family in 2013.

After the liturgy Rosa María Payá addressed the attendees and read a
text of Oswaldo Payá's where he said, "God puts you in a place and at a
time with a neighbor who is around you. Who is my neighbor? It is not an
abstract being: my neighbor is the Cuba of today, here and now."

Oswaldo Payá, founding leader of the Christian Liberation Movement died
on 22 July 2012, along with the young activist Harold Cepero, on the
road leading to the city of Bayamo. The incident has been described by
the family as a deliberate crime organized by the political police, but
the authorities have refused to review the case and maintain the version
of it having been a car accident.

Source: Oswaldo Payá Remembered On The Anniversary Of His Birth /
14ymedio | Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/oswaldo-paya-remembered-on-the-anniversary-of-his-birth-14ymedio/