Ángel Carromero on the crash that killed Cuba's Oswaldo Payá

Ángel Carromero on the crash that killed Cuba's Oswaldo Payá
Published: March 5

Ángel Carromero, a leader of Spain's ruling party, was visiting Cuba
last July when a car he was driving crashed, killing Cuban dissidents
Oswaldo Payá and Harold Cepero. Mr. Carromero was convicted of vehicular
homicide; in December, he was released to Spain to serve out his term.
This week he agreed to be interviewed by The Washington Post about the
crash. Mr. Carromero, 27, holds a law degree and has taken a business
course at Fordham University in New York.

What happened that day?

Oswaldo Payá asked me to take him to visit some friends, since he didn't
have the means to travel around the island. There were four of us in the
car: Oswaldo and Harold Cepero in the back, [Jens] Aron Modig [of
Sweden] in front, and me driving. They were following us from the
beginning. In fact, as we left Havana, a tweet from someone close to the
Cuban government announced our departure: "Payá is on the road to
Varadero." Oswaldo told me that, unfortunately, this was normal.

But I really became uneasy when we stopped to get gas, because the car
following us stopped, waited in full view until we were finished and
then continued following. When we passed provincial borders, the
shadowing vehicle would change. Eventually it was an old, red Lada.

And then another, newer car appeared and began to harass us, getting
very close. Oswaldo and Harold told me it must be from "la Comunista"
because it had a blue license plate, which they said is what the
government uses. Every so often I looked at it through the rearview
mirror and could see both occupants of the car staring at us
aggressively. I was afraid, but Oswaldo told me not to stop if they did
not signal or force us to do so. I drove carefully, giving them no
reason to stop us. The last time I looked in the mirror, I realized that
the car had gotten too close — and suddenly I felt a thunderous impact
from behind.

I lost control of the car, and also consciousness — or that is what I
believe, because from that point my memories are unclear, perhaps from
the medications they gave me. When I recovered consciousness, I was
being put into a modern van. I don't know how it had gotten there, but
neither Oswaldo nor Harold nor Aron was inside. I thought it was strange
that it was only me, and I figured that the rest of them didn't need to
go to the hospital.

I began to yell at the people driving the van. Who were they? Where were
they taking me? What were they doing with us? Then, woozy, I again lost
consciousness.

What happened after that?

The next time I awakened, I was on a stretcher, being carried into a
hospital room. The first person who talked to me was a uniformed officer
of the Ministry of the Interior. I told her a car had hit our vehicle
from behind, causing me to lose control.

She took notes and, at the end, gave me my statement to sign. The
hospital, which was civilian, had suddenly been militarized. I was
surrounded by uniformed soldiers. A nurse told me they would put in an
IV line to take blood and sedate me. I remember that they kept taking
blood from me and changing the line all the time, which really worried
me. I still have the marks from this. I passed the next few weeks
half-sedated and without knowing exactly what they were putting in me.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/angel-carromero-speaks-out-on-cuba-crash-that-killed-oswaldo-paya/2013/03/05/1080077a-85b6-11e2-98a3-b3db6b9ac586_story.html