Sens. Cruz, Durbin, Bipartisan Group of Senators Release Statement Following Inter-American Commission on Human Rights Findings in Oswaldo Payá Death
WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) along with Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Sens. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Mark Warner (D-Va.), and Bill Cassidy (R-La.) released a joint statement after the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights released its findings in the suspicious death of Cuban pro-freedom leader Oswaldo Payá.
The senators said, “At last, we have a clear verdict on what was suspected all along. After years of petty and cowardly harassment of Cuban patriot and democracy activist Oswaldo Payá, responsibility for his tragic death and that of his colleague, Harold Cepero, rests with the Cuban dictatorship.
“Payá led a heroic and brave nonviolent movement that gathered thousands of signatures to petition for basic political freedoms under a plebiscite allowed under the Cuban constitution. Instead of respecting the people’s demands for basic human freedoms, the Cuban dictatorship cravenly altered the constitutional provision allowing for the public to petition for such change. The Castro regime harassed Payá and Cepero relentlessly, leading to the tragic end of their lives.
“The culpability for Payá’s and Cepero’s death also speaks to the many Cuban prisoners of conscience and political prisoners who have been and continue to be censored, jailed, harassed, or tortured for simply demanding even a semblance of political or economic freedom enjoyed by most of the Latin American and Caribbean region.
“It is long overdue for the Cuban dictatorship to honor Payá’s and Cepero’s dream for a more open society and to stop blaming the Cuban people’s suffering on anyone but their own cruel ineptitude, mismanagement, and self-enrichment.”
BACKGROUND:
An outspoken activist for free speech, democracy, and human rights, Payá was killed in a suspicious car crash on July 22, 2012. This week, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights found that the Castro regime was responsible for Payá’s death.
Sen. Cruz has long fought to honor the legacy of Oswaldo Payá and has led a bipartisan effort to rename the street in front of the Cuban Embassy since 2015. Sen. Cruz has worked closely with Payá’s daughter, Rosa María, to continue her father’s legacy and the fight for democracy for all freedom-loving Cubans oppressed by the Castro regime, and in November of 2019, met with her on National Victims of Communism Day to call for freedom and democracy to be restored to Cuba.
Sen. Cruz also joined a bipartisan resolution, which passed the Senate in April of 2018, honoring the legacy of Oswaldo Payá and calling for an impartial investigation into the circumstances surrounding his death. In July of 2021, Sen. Cruz and a bipartisan group of his Senate colleagues sent a letter to Tania Reneaum Panszi, then-newly appointed Executive Secretary of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. Together they urged the commission to advance its efforts on his case without further delay.
Sen. Cruz also wrote an op-ed with U.S. Rep. Mario Díaz-Balart (R-Fla.) about the legislation.
Read the bill here.
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