Payá family to settle in South Florida like other Cubans, not seeking asylum

Posted on Monday, 06.10.13

Payá family to settle in South Florida like other Cubans, not seeking asylum
By Juan O. Tamayo
jtamayo@ElNuevoHerald.com

Seven relatives of the late Cuban dissident Oswaldo Payá who fled to
Miami out of fear of government persecution will settle in South Florida
like other Cuba arrivals and will not seek political asylum, family
members and supporters said Monday.

That means some of the new arrivals will be able to return to Cuba, if
needed to continue Payá's work, and will feel safer while they push
their allegations that government agents killed Payá almost a year ago,
the relatives and supporters added.

Payá's brother, Carlos, who lives in Spain, said the new Miami arrivals
will not apply for asylum and spent Monday looking for housing,
registering with the Social Security Administration and going through
the normal arrival process for Cubans.

Five family members flew to Miami on Thursday: His widow, Ofelia
Acevedo; daughter, Rosa Maria; son, Reinaldo; and Acevedo's 86-year-old
mother and a sister. A Payá sister and an aunt arrived May 30. His
eldest son, Oswaldo, arrived earlier this year.

The relatives began applying for passports and visas about one month
after Rosa Maria returned to Cuba on April 16 from a trip abroad, said
Julio Hernandez, a Miami member of the dissident group founded by Payá,
the Christian Liberation Movement (MCL).

During the two-month trip, Rosa Maria denounced her father's death
before the United Nations Human Rights Council in Switzerland, the
Organization of American States in Washington and dozens of other audiences.

"There were continuous intimidations and harassments against the entire
family" after Rosa María returned, Hernandez said, from midnight phone
callers who shouted death threats and obscenities to the State Security
agents who followed them almost everywhere they went.

The family was especially concerned about threats to Reinaldo, at 21 the
youngest and therefore perhaps the most susceptible to government
pressures, according to Hernandez. Reinaldo has been studying at the
University of Havana.

And while Rosa Maria's activism in the MCL and high-profile trip abroad
is believed to have given her a bit of protection from government
harassments, Reinaldo "did not have that kind of protection," Hernandez
told El Nuevo Herald.

By mid-May, the relatives were applying for passports and other
documents they needed to leave the island, Hernandez added, but kept
their plans quiet. It was not clear what documents they used to travel
to Miami, because some are Spanish citizens.

Under the U.S. government's so-called "dry-foot, wet-foot" policy holds,
illegal Cuban migrants are returned to the island if they are
intercepted at sea and those who set foot on U.S. territory cannot be
sent back. One year and one day after their arrival, the migrants can
obtain permanent U.S. residency under the Cuban Adjustment Act.

Payá's relatives could return to the island under a new Cuban migration
system in effect since Jan. 15. It allows Cubans to stay abroad for at
least 24 months before they lose their residence on the island. After
that, they need Havana's permission to return.

The safety of Miami also may allow the family to finally file a
long-threatened lawsuit against the Cuban government for Payá's death in
a Spanish court, Hernandez added. Payá obtained Spanish citizenship
because his father was Spanish-born.

Payá and MCL activist Harold Cepero were killed in a July 22 car CRASH
in eastern Cuba. Spanish politician Angel Carromero, who was driving,
and another passenger, Swedish politician Jens Aaron Modig, survived
with minor injuries.

A Cuban court ruled that Carromero lost control of the vehicle and
crashed into a tree, and sentenced him to four years in prison.
Carromero and Payá's family say his vehicle was rammed from behind and
forced off the road by another car carrying the State Security agents
who always tailed the dissident anywhere he went.

"This family suffered a tragedy, a crime committed by the state," Carlos
Payá said by phone from Madrid.

Payá is best known for organizing the Varela Project, which collected
more than 25,000 signatures demanding a referendum on freedom of speech
and other civil rights. He was awarded the European Parliament's
Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Conscience in 2002 and was nominated
several times for the Nobel Peace Prize.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/06/10/3443857/paya-family-to-settle-in-south.html