Swede in Cuba car crash worried about driver

Posted on Friday, 08.10.12

Swede in Cuba car crash worried about driver
By LOUISE NORDSTROM
Associated Press

STOCKHOLM -- A Swedish politician who survived a car crash in Cuba that
killed dissident Oswaldo Paya and another government opponent has
described an intense five-day grilling about why he was in the country
and said he is deeply worried about the fate of a Spanish colleague
charged with vehicular manslaughter.

Aron Modig said in an interview published Friday that he doesn't
remember what led to the crash and recalls only fragments of how the car
suddenly swerved off the road and how he regained consciousness in an
ambulance. He said he fears for Angel Carromero, who was driving the
rental car when it crashed on July 22 and could face up to 10 years in a
Cuban jail.

"Nobody knows what's happening to him there," he said.

In videotaped testimony, Carromero said he lost control of the car when
it suddenly entered an unpaved area of road under construction and he
slammed on the brakes, causing it to skid and hit a tree. A Cuban
investigation found that Carromero was speeding and failed to heed
traffic signs warning of construction.

Paya, 60, was for many years one of Cuba's most powerful voices of
dissent against the communist government of Fidel and Raul Castro,
though his influence has waned in recent years as younger activists
gained prominence. He died along with another dissident, Harold Cepero
Escalante. Both were riding in the back seat of the car and were not
wearing seatbelts.

Prior to leaving for Cuba, Carromero had been fined for speeding and
Spanish authorities had been working since May to revoke his driver's
license. It was finally revoked on Thursday, Madrid regional authorities
said in a statement.

Paya's family has said it has doubts about the official explanation by
Cuban authorities.

Modig, the 27-year-old head of the youth party of Sweden's conservative
Christian Democrats, returned home July 31 after what he said were days
of high-pressure questioning in a windowless room in Havana by Cuban police.

"The questions are always the same: 'Why are you here? Who sent you?'
They switched between asking questions and scolding: 'Don't come to our
country and interfere'," Modig told the daily Dagens Nyheter in the
interview. "In a dictatorship that's no good. Of course I got worried."

No questions were posed about the accident, he said.

Cuban media have reported that Carromero and Modig entered the country
July 19 on tourist visas and brought (EURO)4,000 ($4,900) for Paya's
organization to help organize dissident youth wings. Paya's family
denies that he received any money from the Europeans. The government
considers the small opposition to be subversive and objects to
foreign-based efforts to support them.

"I went there with good intentions to contribute to a freer Cuba, but
was jailed and questioned. Cubans are treated like that every day," he said.

The car crash happened while the four were on their way to Santiago de
Cuba, the island's second largest city. Soon after the accident,
speculation spread that a second vehicle was pursuing the rented car and
might even have run it off the road.

Carromero, an activist with a conservative Spanish party, and Modig have
both said no other car was involved, but Paya's family has asked for an
independent investigation.

Modig's party had initially scheduled a news conference upon his return
to Sweden two weeks ago, but canceled it at the last minute, citing the
ongoing legal case in Cuba. The interview in Dagens Nyheter is the first
he has given since his return; he was not immediately available for more
comment.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/08/10/2943883/swede-in-cuba-car-crash-concerned.html