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Ted Cruz Pushes to Rename Street Outside Cuban Embassy After Slain Dissident
Daily Signal ^ | July 22, 2015 | Ana Quintana

Posted on 07/23/2015 8:51:02 AM PDT by SoConPubbie

On Wednesday, Sen. Ted Cruz introduced a resolution to rename the street in front of Cuba’s embassy in Washington, D.C. after slain Cuban dissident Oswaldo Payá.

Often described as the Nelson Mandela of Cuba, Payá, along with fellow dissident Harold Cepero, was killed in a car accident in 2012. Payá’s death is widely believed to have been a premeditated attack by the Cuban government.

This is not the first time the Texas Republican has stood up to authoritarian regimes. Last year during the 25th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre, Cruz requested to rename the area in front of China’s embassy the “Liu Xiaobo Plaza” after an imprisoned Chinese human rights activist.

Cruz isn’t alone in supporting the Payá family or Cuba’s dissidents. Earlier this year, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., invited Payá’s daughter, Rosa Maria, to be his guest at the State of the Union speech. House Speaker John Boehner similarly invited a former political prisoner and Cuban activist, Jorge Luis Garcia Perez, commonly known as Antunez.

Wednesday marks the third anniversary of Payá’s death. To this day, there has never been an independent investigation into his and Cepero’s deaths, and the Cuban government has never been held accountable. The Castro regime’s complicity and downright attacks against human rights activists have become all too common.

Payá was known throughout the world as Cuba’s leading pro-democracy figure. In 2002, the European Parliament awarded him the Sakharov Prize, and in 2005, he was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by Václav Havel, the former president of the Czech Republic.

The Cuban government’s complicity in the attack against Payá has been speculated about even at the highest levels of government. Secretary John Kerry himself said, “Given the Cuban government’s ongoing harassment of Mr. Payá, an impartial, third-party investigation into the circumstances surrounding the death of Oswaldo Payá is necessary.” The Human Rights Foundation recently concluded the first ever legal investigation into the case of Payá, which found:

… the events of July 22, 2012 were not an accident—as quickly claimed by authorities in the state-owned media monopoly and later rubber stamped by Cuba’s totalitarian court system—but instead the result of a car crash directly caused by agents of the State, acting (1) with the intent to kill Oswaldo Payá and the passengers in the vehicle he was riding (2) with the intent to inflict grievous bodily harm to them[.]

As of yet, the Obama administration has not included Payá’s case in its normalization bid with the Cuban government despite numerous pleas by the Payá family.


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: cruz; tedcruz
"If we must have an enemy at the head of Government, let it be one whom we can oppose, and for whom we are not responsible, who will not involve our party in the disgrace of his foolish and bad measures." - Alexander Hamilton
 
"We don't intend to turn the Republican Party over to the traitors in the battle just ended. We will have no more of those candidates who are pledged to the same goals as our opposition and who seek our support. Turning the Party over to the so-called moderates wouldn’t make any sense at all." -- President Ronald Reagan
 
"A thing moderately good is not so good as it ought to be. Moderation in temper is always a virtue; but moderation in principle is always a vice." - Thomas Paine 1792
 
"It does not take a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men." - Samuel Adams
 
"If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or your arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen." - Samuel Adams
 

1 posted on 07/23/2015 8:51:02 AM PDT by SoConPubbie
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To: SoConPubbie; Kale; Jarhead9297; COUNTrecount; notaliberal; DoughtyOne; MountainDad; aposiopetic; ...
    Ted Cruz Ping!

    If you want on/off this ping list, please let me know.
    Please beware, this is a high-volume ping list!

    CRUZ or LOSE!

2 posted on 07/23/2015 8:51:29 AM PDT by SoConPubbie (Mitt and Obama: They're the same poison, just a different potency)
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To: SoConPubbie

The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. - Thomas Jefferson


3 posted on 07/23/2015 8:54:00 AM PDT by stars & stripes forever
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To: SoConPubbie

At a time when the democrats are trying to erase history, this is a good way to force them to remember some.


4 posted on 07/23/2015 9:01:52 AM PDT by cripplecreek (Sad fact, most people just want a candidate to tell them what they want to hear)
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To: SoConPubbie

As someone who used to work a few blocks away I’m actually against this. The street is 16th st. NW, DC is hard enough to navigate without messing up the numbering/lettering scheme. Like NY, an address in DC isn’t just a location, it can tell you how to get there. Coming from Virginia for instance I know I can take the 15st. exit from 395 and go one block over.


5 posted on 07/23/2015 9:16:56 AM PDT by Raymann
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To: All

If I had a choice, I’d rename the street after Air Force Col. Earl Cobeil.

He was shot down over North Vietnam in 1967.

He was more or less beaten to death by a Cuban interrogator who was training the North Vietnamese how to obtain confessions.

http://archive.frontpagemag.com/readArticle.aspx?ARTID=7920


6 posted on 07/23/2015 9:18:06 AM PDT by MplsSteve
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To: SoConPubbie

You can PING this one if you like:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3315515/posts


7 posted on 07/23/2015 9:22:28 AM PDT by Biggirl ("One Lord, one faith, one baptism" - Ephesians 4:5)
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To: SoConPubbie

What’s not to like about Ted? I know, not as flashy as Trump, but just one ground single after another.


8 posted on 07/23/2015 9:32:28 AM PDT by DaxtonBrown (http://www.futurnamics.com/reid.php)
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To: SoConPubbie

I’m sure O’Venal will push to have the street name changed...

... to ‘Ernesto “Che” Guevara’ Boulevard!


9 posted on 07/23/2015 9:35:32 AM PDT by A Formerly Proud Canadian (I once was blind but now I see...)
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To: SoConPubbie

Oh, sweet! Force the commies to publish the address of their embassy as “NNN Guy That We Murdered Avenue”!


10 posted on 07/23/2015 10:06:45 PM PDT by Still Thinking (Freedom is NOT a loophole!)
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