I 
118TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 1239 
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 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
FEBRUARY 28, 2023 
Mr. DIAZ-BALART (for himself, Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ, Mr. GIMENEZ, 
Ms. SALAZAR, and Ms. MALLIOTAKIS) introduced the following bill; which 
was referred to the Committee on Oversight and Accountability 
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-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds that— 
(1) the revolution led by Fidel Castro in Cuba 
in 1959 started 64 years of an ongoing dictatorship, 
systemic human rights abuses, and a lack of basic 
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freedom of press, religion, assembly, and association 
that continue to this day under the Communist rule 
of Rau´l Castro and his successor, Miguel Dı´az- 
Canel; 
(2) Oswaldo Paya´ Sardin˜as was a Cuban polit-
ical dissident and activist dedicated to promoting 
democratic freedoms and human rights in Cuba; 
(3) the Communist Party of Cuba has always 
viewed individuals with a commitment to democracy 
and freedom as a threat to the existence of the Com-
munist Party of Cuba; 
(4) on July 22, 2012, a violent car crash, wide-
ly believed to have been carried out by the Castro re-
gime, took the lives of Oswaldo Paya´ and Harold 
Cepero, another democratic activist; 
(5) Cuba’s official investigation into the crash 
has been demonstrated to be compromised, and the 
Cuban regime has blocked all efforts to conduct a 
credible and independent investigation into the 
crash, leaving the circumstances of the death of 
Oswaldo Paya´ unknown; 
(6) opposition by Oswaldo Paya´ to the Com-
munist Party of Cuba began at a young age, when 
he refused to become a member of the Young Com-
munist League as a primary school student, and 
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continued through high school, when he publicly 
criticized the invasion of Czechoslovakia by the So-
viet Union; 
(7) the Communist Party of Cuba responded to 
the opposition by Oswaldo Paya´ to the invasion of 
Czechoslovakia by the Soviet Union by sending 
Oswaldo Paya´ to a labor camp for 3 years; 
(8) Oswaldo Paya´ forewent a chance to escape 
Cuba in the 1980 Mariel boatlift, deciding instead to 
continue the fight for democracy in Cuba, saying, 
‘‘This is what I am supposed to be, this is what I 
have to do.’’; 
(9) by creating the Varela Project in 1998, 
Oswaldo Paya´ demonstrated his staunch commit-
ment to peacefully advocating for freedom of speech 
and freedom of assembly for his fellow Cubans; 
(10) in recognition of his determination for po-
litical reforms through peaceful protests, Oswaldo 
Paya´ was awarded the Sakharov Prize for Freedom 
of Thought by the European Parliament in 2002 
and the W. Averell Harriman Democracy Award 
from the National Democratic Institute for Inter-
national Affairs in 2003 and was nominated for the 
Nobel Peace Prize by former Czech President 
Va1clav Havel in 2005; 
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