Rosa Maria Payá Acevedo recognized for work promoting democracy in Cuba

Daughter of late Cuban dissident receives commendation in Miami

MIAMI – Miami-Dade County is recognizing a political activist for her work promoting democracy in Cuba.

Commissioner Esteban Bovo gave a commendation to Rosa Maria Payá Acevedo Tuesday morning in Miami.

This comes after she received the UN Watch's 2019 Morris Abram human rights award in Geneva, Switzerland last week.

Payá Acevedo is one of Cuba's leading pro-democracy activists and the daughter of the late dissident Oswaldo Payá.

For years, she's been calling for free and democratic elections in Cuba.

"I think there a lot of actions that can be taken not just by the American government, but by almost everybody -- all the democracies in the region -- in order to support human rights in Cuba," Payá Acevedo said. 

Payá Acevedo is going to Colombia next week to encourage people there to put pressure on the Cuban government.

"We are going to be there trying to inspire them to make this call to pressure the regime in order for the representative of the dictatorship has to do what they have to do in the first place, which is to submit themselves to the will of the Cuban people," she said.