ICYMI: Cruz, Díaz-Balart: “The memory of Payá will endure. It is our collective duty to ensure as much”

MIAMI, Fla. – U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and U.S. Rep. Mario Díaz-Balart (R-Fla.) published an op-ed commemorating the life and legacy of Oswaldo Payá and highlighting a bill they have introduced to rename the street in front of the Cuban embassy in Washington D.C. ‘Oswaldo Payá Way.’ The op-ed was published in the Miami Herald and can be read here.

In the piece, Sen. Cruz and Rep. Díaz-Balart wrote:

“Payá’s fight for freedom made him a target. The regime harassed him, tried to intimidate him and arrested him numerous times. Ultimately, they succeeded in killing him. And it’s impossible to neglect this stark irony — Payá, a man dedicated to nonviolence, was murdered for promoting freedom and peace. The regime hoped his movement would die with him and the world would forget.

“But the memory of Payá will endure. It is our collective duty to ensure as much.

“We have introduced a bipartisan, bicameral bill to name the street in front of the Cuban embassy in Washington, D.C. ‘Oswaldo Payá Way.’ This will send a powerful message to the Cuban people.”

Read the full text below: 

On July 22, 2012, the leader of Cuba’s Christian Liberation Movement, Oswaldo Payá, left his house with three other people to go visit friends.

From the start of the journey, his car was followed and, on Twitter, someone with ties to the Cuban regime tweeted that Payá had left his house and was on the road. Once they left Havana, a car with blue “official” license plates slammed into the back of the car carrying Payá. He and Harold Cepero, a young pro-democracy activist, died. The crash is widely believed to have been orchestrated by the Castro regime.

Payá’s life and legacy are enduring lessons in the strength, resilience and power of dissidents.

Payá had long been a thorn in the Castros’ side, even from a young age. He was the only person at his school who refused to join the Communist Youth. As a teenager, he publicly opposed the communist crackdown on protesters in Czechoslovakia, who were fighting for freedom, and was punished with three years in prison.

Undeterred, Payá later founded the Varela Project, which sought a referendum on Cuba’s communist system. The demands were simple: democratic government, religious liberty, freedom of expression and the freedom to start businesses.

Ángel Carromero, the friend who was driving the car in which Payá died, says that when he awoke after the crash, the hospital was flooded with uniformed military personnel and he was greeted by a regime operative. The regime’s thugs tortured him into signing papers absolving them of murdering Payá.

Payá’s fight for freedom made him a target. The regime harassed him, tried to intimidate him and arrested him numerous times. Ultimately, they succeeded in killing him. And it’s impossible to neglect this stark irony — Payá, a man dedicated to nonviolence, was murdered for promoting freedom and peace. The regime hoped his movement would die with him and the world would forget.

But the memory of Payá will endure. It is our collective duty to ensure as much.

We have introduced a bipartisan, bicameral bill to name the street in front of the Cuban embassy in Washington, D.C. “Oswaldo Payá Way.” This will send a powerful message to the Cuban people.

In 1984, during the Reagan administration, the street in front of the Soviet embassy was renamed after Andrei Sakharov, the famed Soviet dissident. When the street was renamed, it meant that anytime a Soviet citizen had to write to their embassy in Washington, D.C., they had to write Sakharov’s name. It meant that anytime someone called the Soviet embassy to find its address, the Soviets on the phone had to say the dissident’s name.

Renaming the street in front of the Cuban embassy after Payá would shine a light on the truth about the communist regime. It would be a powerful tool in bringing down the machinery of oppression in Cuba in the nonviolent, but resolute, way Payá championed.

When one of us, Sen. Cruz, introduced this bill in 2021, it passed the Senate but was not brought up in the House. Together, we are pushing for the bill to be passed by both chambers in the 118th Congress in the coming weeks.

Oswaldo Payá fought for a free Cuba; a Cuba built on human decency and individual liberty, where fundamental rights are respected and citizens are heard — not killed. Let’s come together and honor him by ensuring that the Cuban people will forever remember his name.

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