UNITED NATIONS: US ambassador Samantha Power has asked Cuban foreign minister Bruno Rodriguez Parilla to investigate the death ofCuban dissident Oswaldo Paya last year.
Paya was the lead organizer of the Varela Project, a signature-gathering drive regarded as the largest nonviolent campaign to change the system Fidel Castro established in 1959. The government said he died when his car struck a tree but his family insists the crash was not an accident and has pressed for an international investigation.
Power, who recently took over as US ambassador to the UN, said in a tweet Tuesday: “Oswaldo Paya stood up for freedom. Just raised with the Cuban FM the need for a credible investigation into his death.”