I 
117TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 6867 
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, 2022 
Mr. DIAZ-BALART (for himself, Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ, Ms. SALAZAR, Mr. 
SIRES, Mr. GIMENEZ, and Mrs. MURPHY of Florida) introduced the fol-
lowing bill; which was referred to the Committee on Oversight and Re-
form 
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 dictatorship imposed by Fidel Castro in 
Cuba in 1959 started 61 years of an ongoing dicta-
torship, systemic human rights abuses, and a lack of 
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basic freedom of press, religion, assembly, and asso-
ciation that continue to this day under Communist 
rule; 
(2) Oswaldo Paya´ Sardin˜as was a Cuban pro-
democracy activist dedicated to promoting demo-
cratic freedoms and human rights in Cuba; 
(3) the Communist Party of Cuba has always 
viewed that commitment to democracy and freedom 
as a threat to the existence of the Communist 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 prodemocracy activist; 
(5) the regime in Cuba has offered no plausible 
evidence of the innocence of the Castro regime in the 
crash, leaving the circumstances of the death of 
Oswaldo Paya´ suspicious; 
(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 
continued through high school, when he publicly 
criticized the invasion of Czechoslovakia by the So-
viet Union; 
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(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) Oswaldo Paya´ repeatedly demonstrated his 
staunch commitment to peacefully advocating for 
freedom of speech, religious liberty, 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 Va´clav 
Havel in 2005; 
(11) on April 11, 2018, the Senate unanimously 
passed S. Res. 224, recognizing the sixth anniver-
sary of the death of Oswaldo Paya´ Sardin˜as, com-
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memorating his legacy and commitment to demo-
cratic values and principles, and calling for an im-
partial, third-party investigation into the cir-
cumstances surrounding his death; and 
(12) renaming the street in front of the Em-
bassy of Cuba in the District of Columbia after 
Oswaldo Paya´ serves as an expression of solidarity 
between the people of the United States and the peo-
ple of Cuba, who are engaged in a long, nonviolent 
struggle for fundamental human rights. 
SEC. 2. DESIGNATION OF OSWALDO PAYA´ WAY. 
(a) DESIGNATION OF WAY.— 
(1) IN GENERAL.—The area between the inter-
sections of 16th Street, Northwest and Fuller 
Street, Northwest and 16th Street, Northwest and 
Euclid Street, Northwest in Washington, District of 
Columbia, shall be known and designated as 
‘‘Oswaldo Paya´ Way’’. 
(2) REFERENCES.—Any reference in a law, 
map, regulation, document, paper, or other record of 
the United States to the area referred to in para-
graph (1) shall be deemed to be a reference to 
Oswaldo Paya´ Way. 
(b) DESIGNATION OF ADDRESS.— 
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