Losing your activist father after he was assassinated by a communist dictatorship would cause many children to think twice about following the same path, but Rosa Maria Paya is not one of them. She has courageously continued her father’s legacy both on the island and around the world.
Jay Nordlinger in National Review:
In Cuba
Inevitably, Rosa María Payá is identified as the daughter of Oswaldo Payá. That is how it should be. He was one of the greatest democracy champions of our time (murdered by the Cuban regime in 2012). But Rosa María is a formidable democracy leader in her own right. Her father would be very pleased.
She and I have recorded a podcast, a Q&A, here.
Rosa María, born in 1989, is the founder of “Cuba Decides.” (I have rendered the name of the organization in English.) She is poised, sharp, delightful, and brave. On our podcast, we discuss a number of key issues, starting with political prisoners.
Carlos Michael Morales is on hunger strike. He decided he was either going to win his release, through that strike, or die. He is sick of being imprisoned and tortured. He is an independent journalist. A heroic person.
So is José Daniel Ferrer, a veteran democracy campaigner. He worked with Oswaldo Payá. He is in an isolation cell. Rosa María says that months go by without any word on Ferrer — whether he is dead or alive. When international pressure builds, his wife or daughter is permitted to stand at the door of his cell, to confirm that he is still alive.
José Barrios is dead. He died, in prison, last November, at 37.
How many political prisoners are there? At least 1,100, says Rosa María. That is the approximate number determined by civic organizations. But there are thousands of others, especially young people, imprisoned on the charge of “pre-criminal social dangerousness.” In other words, you haven’t committed a crime yet. But you may be disposed that way.
(I thought of this earlier this year when reading a report from Meduza, the Russian news organization in exile. “At the request of Russia’s Internal Affairs Ministry, the Health Ministry has drafted a bill that would grant law enforcement access to confidential medical records if patients are deemed ‘prone to committing socially dangerous acts.’”)
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