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At an event held last month at “Patria y Vida” Plaza, located at 800 West 29th Street in Hialeah, public officials, members of Congress, the family of Oswaldo Payá, and prominent political activists gathered to honor the late Cuban opposition leader.
The inauguration took place on June 11, exactly 22 years after Payá and activists from the Christian Liberation Movement submitted the first 11,020 signatures of Cubans supporting the Varela Project, which greatly angered the regime and led to its Black Spring in 2003.
The first mural, a bronze sculpture, captures the image of Oswaldo Payá in an emotional bust created by the talented artist Natalie Plasencia. The second mural depicts a hand forming the letter “L” for the word “Libertad” (Freedom), an iconic symbol that Payá used as a fervent call for freedom for his beloved Cuba. This mural was painted by renowned artist Sergio Lastre.
The event included members of the Payá family, including his daughter Rosa María and his wife and widow, Ofelia Payá, who shared their heartfelt reflections on Oswaldo Payá’s legacy and his tireless struggle for freedom and democracy in Cuba.
Among other things, Payá was the coordinator of the Christian Liberation Movement and the promoter of the so-called “Varela Project,” which proposed a referendum for a democratic and peaceful transition on the island and was presented in 2002 to Parliament with the support of 11,000 signatures. He was also the first Cuban dissident to receive the European Parliament’s Sakharov Prize for Human Rights and Freedom of Thought in 2002, in recognition of his work in favor of the transition to democracy in the Caribbean country.
On July 22, 2012, Oswaldo died in a traffic accident in La Gavina (a locality near the city of Bayamo), along with another Cuban freedom activist, Harold Cepero, when the vehicle they were traveling in lost control and crashed into a tree. Although everyone knew he had been killed by the regime, the question of how Oswaldo Payá died was finally answered on June 12, 2023, more than 10 years later, when the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) held the Cuban government responsible for his and Cepero’s deaths.
Cuba Decide is a citizen and international mobilization initiative to change the system towards democracy and the rule of law. It seeks to subject the regime to the sovereign will of the people at the polls and pave the way for change. Now you also know the reality and the proposal. You can be part of the change and support the right of the Cuban people to decide. The change is in your hands. Join us.
