About the Speaker
Rosa
María Payá
Cuban pro-democracy activist and founder, Cuba Decide
Rosa María Payá, daughter of the late democracy activist Oswaldo Payá, is one of Cuba’s most vocal political dissidents. Payá serves as the president of the Latin American Network of Youth for Democracy and is a member of the Cuba Decides campaign. In April 2014, Payá was detained in Panama before the Summit of the Americas, in what has been criticized as a move of political intimidation. Since her father’s passing in a mysterious car accident in 2012, Payá has repeatedly called for a formal investigation into his death. She speaks around the world on his behalf, and in 2023, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights released a report stating that the Cuban regime was responsible for his murder.