II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 218
To designate the area between the intersections of 16th Street, Northwest
and Fuller Street, Northwest and 16th Street, Northwest and Euclid
Street, Northwest in Washington, District of Columbia, as ‘‘Oswaldo
Paya´Way’’.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
JANUARY23, 2025
Mr. C
RUZ(for himself, Mr. DURBIN, Mr. CURTIS, and Mr. SCOTTof Florida)
introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the
Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
A BILL
To designate the area between the intersections of 16th
Street, Northwest and Fuller Street, Northwest and 16th
Street, Northwest and Euclid Street, Northwest in Wash-
ington, District of Columbia, as ‘‘Oswaldo Paya´Way’’.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. FINDINGS. 3
Congress finds that— 4
(1) the revolution led by Fidel Castro in Cuba 5
in 1959 started 64 years of an ongoing dictatorship, 6
systemic human rights abuses, and a lack of basic 7
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•S 218 IS
freedom of press, religion, assembly, and association 1
that continue to this day under the Communist rule 2
of Rau´l Castro and his successor, Miguel Dı´az- 3
Canel; 4
(2) Oswaldo Paya´Sardin˜as was a Cuban polit-5
ical dissident and activist dedicated to promoting 6
democratic freedoms and human rights in Cuba; 7
(3) the Communist Party of Cuba has always 8
viewed individuals with a commitment to democracy 9
and freedom as a threat to the existence of the Com-10
munist Party of Cuba; 11
(4) on July 22, 2012, a violent car crash, wide-12
ly believed to have been carried out by the Castro re-13
gime, took the lives of Oswaldo Paya´and Harold 14
Cepero, another democratic activist; 15
(5) the official investigation conducted by the 16
Cuban regime into the crash has been demonstrated 17
to be compromised, and the Cuban regime has 18
blocked all efforts to conduct a credible and inde-19
pendent investigation into the crash, leaving the cir-20
cumstances of the death of Oswaldo Paya´unknown; 21
(6) opposition by Oswaldo Paya´to the Com-22
munist Party of Cuba began at a young age, when 23
he refused to become a member of the Young Com-24
munist League as a primary school student, and 25
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•S 218 IS
continued through high school, when he publicly 1
criticized the invasion of Czechoslovakia by the So-2
viet Union; 3
(7) the Communist Party of Cuba responded to 4
the opposition by Oswaldo Paya´to the invasion of 5
Czechoslovakia by the Soviet Union by sending 6
Oswaldo Paya´to a labor camp for 3 years; 7
(8) Oswaldo Paya´forewent a chance to escape 8
Cuba in the 1980 Mariel boatlift, deciding instead to 9
continue the fight for democracy in Cuba, saying, 10
‘‘This is what I am supposed to be, this is what I 11
have to do.’’; 12
(9) by creating the Varela Project in 1998, 13
Oswaldo Paya´demonstrated his staunch commit-14
ment to peacefully advocating for freedom of speech 15
and freedom of assembly for his fellow Cubans; 16
(10) in recognition of his determination for po-17
litical reforms through peaceful protests, Oswaldo 18
Paya´was awarded the Sakharov Prize for Freedom 19
of Thought by the European Parliament in 2002 20
and the W. Averell Harriman Democracy Award 21
from the National Democratic Institute for Inter-22
national Affairs in 2003 and was nominated for the 23
Nobel Peace Prize by former Czech President Va´clav 24
Havel in 2005; 25
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•S 218 IS
(11) on April 11, 2018, the Senate unanimously 1
passed S. Res. 224, recognizing the sixth anniver-2
sary of the death of Oswaldo Paya´Sardin˜as, com-3
memorating his legacy and commitment to demo-4
cratic values and principles, and calling on the 5
Cuban Government to allow an impartial, third- 6
party investigation into the circumstances sur-7
rounding his death; and 8
(12) renaming the street in front of the Em-9
bassy of Cuba in the District of Columbia after 10
Oswaldo Paya´serves as an expression of solidarity 11
between the people of the United States and the peo-12
ple of Cuba, who are engaged in a long, nonviolent 13
struggle for fundamental human rights. 14
SEC. 2. DESIGNATION OF OSWALDO PAYA
´
WAY. 15
(a) D
ESIGNATION OFWAY.— 16
(1) I
N GENERAL.—The area between the inter-17
sections of 16th Street, Northwest and Fuller 18
Street, Northwest and 16th Street, Northwest and 19
Euclid Street, Northwest in Washington, District of 20
Columbia, shall be known and designated as 21
‘‘Oswaldo Paya´Way’’. 22
(2) R
EFERENCES.—Any reference in a law, 23
map, regulation, document, paper, or other record of 24
the United States to the area referred to in para-25
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•S 218 IS
graph (1) shall be deemed to be a reference to 1
Oswaldo Paya´Way. 2
(b) D
ESIGNATION OFADDRESS.— 3
(1) D
ESIGNATION.—The address of 2630 16th 4
Street, Northwest, Washington, District of Colum-5
bia, shall be redesignated as 2630 Oswaldo Paya´ 6
Way. 7
(2) R
EFERENCES.—Any reference in a law, 8
map, regulation, document, paper, or other record of 9
the United States to the address referred to in para-10
graph (1) shall be deemed to be a reference to 2630 11
Oswaldo Paya´Way. 12
(c) S
IGNS.—The District of Columbia shall construct 13
2 street signs that shall— 14
(1) contain the phrase ‘‘Oswaldo Paya´Way’’; 15
(2) be placed immediately above existing signs 16
at the intersections of 16th Street, Northwest and 17
Fuller Street, Northwest and 16th Street, Northwest 18
and Euclid Street, Northwest in Washington, Dis-19
trict of Columbia; and 20
(3) be similar in design to the signs used by the 21
District of Columbia to designate the location of 22
Metro stations. 23
Æ
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