Senate

Cruz wants to rename street in front of Cuban embassy

by Jordain Carney - 07/23/15 12:56 PM ET

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) wants to rename the street in front of the recently reopened Cuban embassy in Washington after a Cuban dissident.

Cruz, a 2016 presidential candidate, has introduced legislation to rename the street the embassy is on as “Oswaldo Payá Way,” after Cuban dissident Oswaldo Payá, who was killed in a car crash in 2012.

{mosads}Supports of Payá have suggested his death was part of a plot by the Cuban government, and Cruz’s resolution notes that the crash is “widely believed to have been carried out by the Castro regime.”

“The opening of the Cuban Embassy is yet another example of the Administration’s long, slow capitulation to oppressive dictatorships around the globe,” Cruz said in a statement.

“There is absolutely no reason to legitimize and enrich them now, and it is my hope that this gesture will reassure those fighting for freedom in Cuba that there are still some in the United States who stand with them.”

Cuba earlier this week reopened its Washington embassy, which had been closed since 1961. Cruz’s resolution would change the address of the Cuban embassy from 2630 16th St. NW to 2630 Oswaldo Payá Way.

Cruz, as well as Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) and Mario Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.), also sent a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry on Wednesday regarding reports that a family member of Payá was “harassed and threatened” at the State Department earlier this week.

Cruz said State Department spokesman John Kirby requested that Rosa Maria Payá, Oswaldo Payá’s daughter, as well as Cuban dissident Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo, “refrain from asking any questions or they would be forcibly removed” during a press conference.

The lawmakers also asked Kerry to hand over to Congress answers to several questions on the department’s policies regarding press conferences by August 3, including whether there is a policy on who can ask questions at press conferences, whether it is “standard State Department policy” to not allow political dissidents to ask questions and whether the department works with foreign governments to “exclude potentially unfriendly media.”

Tags Cuba Cuba–United States relations John Kerry Ted Cruz Ted Cruz