ICYMI: Houston Chronicle: ‘Ted Cruz Calling Out Cuban Regime With Street Renaming Legislation’

HOUSTON, Texas – In Case You Missed It: The Houston Chronicle published a story about legislation by U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) that would rename the street in front of the Cuban embassy in honor of Cuban dissident Oswaldo Payá, who was murdered by the Communist Cuban regime. The story can be read here.

Read an excerpt below:

Ted Cruz seeks to call out Cuban dictatorship by renaming street in front of D.C. embassy

Cuban dictator Fidel Castro died over a decade ago, but U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz and others in Congress with ties to the island nation are still trying to find new ways to confront the oppression of its Communist government.

“Castro is dead but the brutal repressive regime remains,” Cruz said. “The machinery for crushing dissent remains.”

That’s why Cruz says he’s again touting legislation to upset the Cuban government by renaming the street in front of Cuba’s embassy in Washington, D.C., in honor of the late Oswaldo Payá, a dissident whose death a decade ago triggered accusations the Cuban government had him killed. The government has said his car lost control leading to a fatal crash, while his daughter Rosa María Payá contends the car was deliberately rammed off the road.

“On one level, a street naming may not seem all that consequential,” Cruz said. “But it means that if anybody wants to write the embassy, they have to write out the name of the dissident. If anyone wants to look up directions, they have to see the name of the dissident. There is power in forcing the Cuban regime to acknowledge the courage, the heroism of Oswaldo Payá.”

Sen. Cruz previously wrote an op-ed with U.S. Rep. Mario Díaz-Balart (R-Fla.) about the legislation.

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