[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 109 (Thursday, June 22, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Page S2213]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              OSWALDO PAYA

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, last week the Senate passed legislation I 
helped lead with Senators Cruz, Menendez, and others that renames the 
street in front of the Cuban Embassy for Oswaldo Paya.
  Paya led a heroic and decades-long effort to bring basic democratic 
reforms to Cuba, which resulted in years of harassment that culminated 
in his death in 2012 when his car was run off the road by government 
thugs.
  And also last week, after years of urging by me and several 
colleagues, the InterAmerican Commission on Human Rights released its 
verdict on this tragic event, confirming what we suspected all along, 
that the Cuban Government was responsible for his tragic death.
  This important judgement is a reminder that Paya's work and that of 
so many other brave Cubans fighting for basic freedoms remains a work 
in progress, one which I will continue to support.

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