A bipartisan group of Florida members of Congress filed a bill that would rename the street in front of the Cuban Embassy in Washington as “Oswaldo Payá Way,” in honor of the late Cuban activist.
The bill, sponsored by Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, was filed on Monday, the anniversary of what would have been Payá’s birthday, Feb. 29. It was co-sponsored in the House of Representatives by Reps. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, Maria Elvira Salazar, Carlos Gimenez, Stephanie Murphy and Albio Sires of New Jersey. The Senate version of the bill was introduced in part by U.S. Sens. Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, passed by unanimous consent last summer.
Payá was an anti-regime activist and founder of the Christian Liberation Movement, a dissident political party formed in 1987 to challenge the only political party on the island, the Cuban Communist Party. He also spearheaded the Varela Project, a petition that called for a national referendum that would set up a multi-party system in Cuba and guarantee freedom of speech and assembly.
He died at 60 years old, on July 22, 2012, in a car crash that Cuban authorities claimed was an accident, an account that was later challenged by his family and an eyewitness, who said he made false statements under duress from Cuban officials. Another fellow activist, Harold Cepero, also died in the crash.
“Oswaldo Payá dedicated his life to promoting democracy, religious freedom, and human rights in Cuba, and so he became a target of the Cuban dictatorship. Yet, despite the Cuban regime’s threats and harassment, Oswaldo Payá maintained his commitment to a free and democratic Cuba,” Diaz-Balart said in a statement.
He thanked Payá’s daughter, Rosa Maria Payá, a well-known activist for Cubans’ human rights in Miami.
“Payá paid for ‘Proyecto Varela’ with his own life. The Castros never forgave him for the pro-democracy uprising he caused on the island through the Movimiento Cristiano Liberación,” said Salazar in a statement. “On the 70th anniversary of Payá’s birth, there is no better way to honor his legacy than naming the street across from the Cuban Embassy after him.”
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