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 Washington, District of Columbia, as "Oswaldo Paya Way".

II 116TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION S. 4267 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 JULY 22, 2020 Mr. CRUZ (for himself, Mr. MENENDEZ, Mr. RUBIO, and Mr. DURBIN) intro- duced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Com- mittee 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 61 years of an ongoing dictatorship, 6 systemic human rights abuses, and a lack of basic 7 VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:31 Aug 05, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4267.IS S4267 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 2 •S 4267 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 dedicated to promoting democratic 6 freedoms and human rights in Cuba; 7 (3) the Communist Party of Cuba has always 8 viewed that commitment to democracy and freedom 9 as a threat to the existence of the Communist Party 10 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 dissident; 15 (5) the official investigation into the crash has 16 been demonstrated to be compromised, and the Cas- 17 tro regime has offered no plausible evidence of the 18 innocence of the Castro regime in the crash, leaving 19 the circumstances of the death of Oswaldo Paya´ un- 20 known; 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 VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:31 Aug 05, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4267.IS S4267 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 3 •S 4267 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 VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:31 Aug 05, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4267.IS S4267 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 4 •S 4267 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-party 6 investigation into the circumstances surrounding his 7 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 the Cuba, who are engaged in a long, non- 13 violent struggle for fundamental human rights. 14 SEC. 2. DESIGNATION OF OSWALDO PAYA´ WAY. 15 (a) DESIGNATION OF WAY.— 16 (1) IN 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) REFERENCES.—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 VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:31 Aug 05, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4267.IS S4267 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 5 •S 4267 IS graph (1) shall be deemed to be a reference to 1 Oswaldo Paya´ Way. 2 (b) DESIGNATION OF ADDRESS.— 3 (1) DESIGNATION.—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) REFERENCES.—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) SIGNS.—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 VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:31 Aug 05, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\S4267.IS S4267 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS