Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas was a Cuban human rights and democracy advocate. Payá was one of the most important leaders of the Cuban opposition due to his influence founding and leading the Varela Project, a draft bill that—through a massive collection of signatures and in observance of requirements set by the Cuban Constitution—proposed a referendum in which Cubans would decide on legal reforms that would establish the effective respect of their fundamental rights.
On July 22, 2012, Oswaldo Payá was traveling by car from Havana to Santiago de Cuba. Cuban pro-democracy activist Harold Cepero, Spanish youth party leader Ángel Carromero, and Swedish politician and chairman of the Young Christian Democrats Jens Aron Modig, were traveling with him.
According to the Cuban government, at approximately 1:50 p.m., Ángel Carromero lost control of the vehicle and crashed into a tree on the side of Las Tunas-Bayamo highway, near the town of La Gabina, about 22 kilometers from the city of Bayamo, a province of Granma. According to the Cuban government, Payá and Cepero died in the crash, while Carromero and Modig suffered only minor injuries. The government concluded that the crash happened for two reasons: first, the speed at which Carromero was driving; and second, the fact that the brakes were hit abruptly when the vehicle was on a slippery surface.
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