[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 114 (Tuesday, July 21, 2015)]
[Senate]
[Page S5214]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  SENATE RESOLUTION 226--EXPRESSING THE SENSE OF THE SENATE THAT THE 
 STREET BETWEEN THE INTERSECTIONS OF 16TH STREET, NORTHWEST AND FULLER 
    STREET, NORTHWEST AND 16TH STREET, NORTHWEST AND EUCLID STREET, 
NORTHWEST IN WASHINGTON, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, SHOULD BE DESIGNATED AS 
                          ``OSWALDO PAYA WAY''

  Mr. CRUZ submitted the following resolution; which was referred to 
the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs:

                              S. Res. 226

       Whereas Fidel Castro and Raul Castro have been the 
     autocratic rulers of the Republic of Cuba for 56 years;
       Whereas Fidel Castro and Raul Castro have relentlessly and 
     consistently oppressed any efforts to bring democratic 
     freedoms and human rights to the people of the Republic of 
     Cuba for this 56-year period;
       Whereas Oswaldo Paya was a Cuban political dissident 
     dedicated to promoting democratic freedoms and human rights 
     in the Republic of Cuba;
       Whereas the Communist Party of Cuba has always viewed such 
     commitment to freedom as a threat to its existence;
       Whereas on July 22, 2012, a violent car crash, widely 
     believed to have been carried out by the Castro regime, took 
     the lives of Paya and Harold Cepero, another dissident;
       Whereas the official investigation into the crash has been 
     demonstrated to be compromised and the Castro regime has 
     offered no plausible evidence of its innocence, leaving the 
     circumstances of the death of Paya unknown;
       Whereas opposition by Paya to the Communist Party of Cuba 
     began at a young age, when he refused to become a member of 
     the Young Communist League as a primary school student, and 
     continued through high school when he publically criticized 
     the invasion of Czechoslovakia by the Soviet Union;
       Whereas the Communist Party of Cuba responded to the 
     opposition by Paya to the invasion of Czechoslovakia by the 
     Soviet Union by sending Paya to a labor camp for 3 years;
       Whereas Paya forewent a chance to escape the Republic of 
     Cuba in the 1980 Mariel boatlift, deciding instead to 
     continue the fight for democracy in the Republic of Cuba, 
     saying, ``This is what I am supposed to be, this is what I 
     have to do.'';
       Whereas by creating the Varela Project in 1998, Paya 
     demonstrated his staunch commitment to peacefully advocating 
     for freedom of speech and freedom of assembly for his fellow 
     Cubans;
       Whereas in recognition of his determination for political 
     reforms through peaceful protests, Paya was awarded the 
     Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought by the European 
     Parliament in 2002, the W. Averell Harriman Democracy Award 
     from the National Democratic Institute for International 
     Affairs in 2003, and was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize 
     by former Czech President Vaclav Havel in 2005; and
       Whereas renaming the street in front of the Embassy of the 
     Republic of Cuba in the District of Columbia after Paya 
     serves as an expression of solidarity between the people of 
     the United States and the people of the Republic of Cuba who 
     are engaged in a long, non-violent struggle for fundamental 
     human rights: Now, therefore, be it
       Resolved, That it is the sense of the Senate that--
       (1) the street between the intersections of 16th Street, 
     Northwest and Fuller Street, Northwest and 16th Street, 
     Northwest and Euclid Street, Northwest in Washington, 
     District of Columbia, should be designated as ``Oswaldo Paya 
     Way'', and any reference in a law, map, regulation, document, 
     paper, or other record to that area should be deemed to be a 
     reference to ``Oswaldo Paya Way'';
       (2) the address of 2630 16th Street, Northwest, Washington, 
     District of Columbia, should be redesignated as 2630 Oswaldo 
     Paya Way, and any reference in a law, map, regulation, 
     document, paper, or other record of the United States to that 
     address should be deemed to be a reference to 2630 Oswaldo 
     Paya Way; and
       (3) the Administrator of General Services should construct 
     street signs that--
       (A) contain the phrase ``Oswaldo Paya Way'';
       (B) are similar in design to the signs used by Washington, 
     District of Columbia, to designate the location of Metro 
     stations; and
       (C) should be placed on--
       (i) the parcel of Federal property that is closest to 
     Oswaldo Paya Way (as described in paragraph (2)); and
       (ii) the street corners of 16th Street, Northwest and 
     Fuller Street, Northwest and 16th Street, Northwest and 
     Euclid Street, Northwest in Washington, District of Columbia.

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