MADRID, Spain.- Cuban exiles, activists and relatives of the deceased opposition leader Oswaldo Payá, led by his daughter Rosa Maria Payavisited the United States Capitol on Tuesday, September 10, to request the approval of a bill in the House of Representatives. The initiative seeks to rename 16th Street, where the Cuban Embassy in Washington is located, in honor of the dissident, as a symbolic gesture of support for human rights and democracy on the Island.
Rosa María Payá, promoter of the “Cuba Decides” platform, He explained during a live broadcast From Congress, the activist said that the objective of the visit was to convince legislators to support the project. “We came to visit office by office, congressman by congressman, to ask them to approve the law to change the name of 16th Street, where the dictatorship’s Embassy is located, and name it after Oswaldo Payá,” said the activist.
The project, known as the “Oswaldo Payá Way Law,” was unanimously approved in the Senate in June 2023 and is now awaiting approval by the House of Representatives. According to Rosa María Payá, “renaming the street in front of the Cuban embassy would be a powerful symbol of the United States’ commitment to those fighting for human rights and democracy.”
The initiative has bipartisan support and was introduced by Republican Senators Ted Cruz (R-TX), Marco Rubio (R-FL), and Rick Scott (R-FL), along with Democrats Bob Menendez (D-NJ), Dick Durbin (D-IL), and Ben Cardin (D-MD).
The approval came shortly after the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) published a report holding the Cuban regime responsible for the deaths of Oswaldo Payá and Harold Cepero, which occurred on July 22, 2012 in the province of Granma. The report, identified as Case 14.196, concludes that the Cuban State violated the rights to life, honor and freedom of expression of both victims.
The IACHR found “serious and sufficient evidence to conclude that state agents participated in the deaths of Payá and Cepero,” highlighting that the events occurred in the context of state persecution and repression against dissidents and human rights defenders in Cuba.
In July 2022, a section of the avenue LeJeune In Miami, the new highway was renamed Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas Way, spanning from Northwest 11th Street to Northwest 14th Street. The groundbreaking ceremony was held on July 21, and the bill was sponsored by Miami-Dade Commissioners Rebeca Sosa and José “Pepe” Díaz, with support from local and state politicians. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed the bill on the eve of the 20th anniversary of the handover of the Cuban Parliament to the Cuban Parliament. Varela Projectpromoted by Payá to push for political and economic reforms on the island.
Oswaldo Payá died on July 22, 2012, along with Harold Cepero while they were traveling to Granma province. The car, driven by Spaniard Ángel Carromero, a youth leader of the Popular Party of Madrid, was taken off the road after being hit by a vehicle belonging to Cuban State Security, according to Carromero. The aforementioned 87-page report, presented by the Human Rights Foundation (HRF) to the IACHR at the end of 2021, concluded that the deaths of Payá and Cepero were caused by an attack, not a traffic accident as the Cuban regime claimed.
