News is coming through of yet another suspicious death at the likely hands of the police after we hear of the probable murder of Oswaldo Paya in a 'car crash' over the weekend. 
Oswaldo, founder of the Varela Project - a campaign to gather signatures in support of a referendum on laws guaranteeing civil rights was travelling home when police claim he drove into a tree. Somewhat suspicious as firstly Oswalso could not drive and secondly according to locals the tree was some 30 meters from the road ! 

This death (murder ?) comes soon after the death of dissident Laura Pollan who died in October last year as a result of contracting Dengue fever and then being denied medicines by the government. 

In 2002, Oswaldo won the Sakharov Prize - the European Union's human rights award - for his work with the Varela Project, which was created in 1998. In May 2002, he presented Cuba's National Assembly with a petition of more than 10,000 signatures calling for an end to four decades of one-party rule. He has since repeatedly delivered petitions to the body, including one in 2007 calling for an amnesty for non-violent political prisoners. He has worked for the cause of Democracy and Human Rights in Cuba since a child and was first imprisoned in 1968 when he published photos of Fidel Castro's luxury villa and again in 1969 when he was sent to a work camp for publishing a pamphlet calling for free elections. 

In 1992, Payá publicly announced for the first time his intention to run for representative to Cuba’s national legislative body, the National Assembly of Popular Power. Two days before the deadline to register his candidacy at the Assembly of Postulation, he was detained by police at his home and taken to a “Committee for the Defense of the Revolution” center, where he was awaited by officers of the Cuban Communist Party (CCP). The CCP conducted a closed session of the Assembly that lasted only a few minutes and included CCP supporters only. 

In 1997, Payá and other members of the Christian Liberation Movement collected hundreds of signatures in support of their candidacy to the National Assembly. It was the first time that citizens had presented themselves as candidates with popular support and without the government’s backing; however, the electoral commission did not accept their candidacies. 

In 1998, together with other members of the Christian Liberation Movement Payá founded the Varela Project and was its most prominent member. The Varela Project collected more than 10,000 signatures from Cubans on the island to present an appeal to the government for legislative changes via a national referendum. Cuba’s constitution empowers citizens to put to a national referendum any proposal that receives at least 10,000 signatures from registered Cuban citizens. These changes, had they been accepted by the government and approved by popular vote, would have introduced in Cuba freedom of association, freedom of expression, freedom of press, free elections, the right to operate private businesses, and amnesty for the political prisoners. In 2002, Payá presented in person over 11,000 signatures supporting the Varela Project to the National Assembly, and in 2004 he presented 14,000 additional signatures. However, the National Assembly has ignored this constitutional request. 

Despite always refusing aid from the US or US based groups he was routingly described by the Cuban government as "in the pay of the CIA", a charge that is made against all dissidents. 

In the past year Oswaldo and his family have been under survailence 24 hours a day with electrical power to his home cut off at 7pm every night, he has been followed and beaten up by police on eight occasions, it seems the police decided they could tolerate his dissent no longer. 

RIP Oswaldo Payá