The National Democratic Institute is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization working to support and strengthen democratic institutions worldwide through citizen participation, openness and accountability in government.

The Washington Post editorial board writes that the message of the late Cuban dissident Oswaldo Payá that democratic change has not yet come to Cuba lives on, as his daughter Rosa María seeks an international investigation of the car crash that killed him.

“For many Cubans who worked with Mr. Payá, these are dangerous times, as the government continues to repress alternative voices and harass those who demand basic rights. There are signs that some people are shedding their fears, Ms. Payá observed, but it is not because the state has loosened its grip. Ms. Payá and her family have been targets of death threats. ‘We need the international community to pay attention,’ she said, not avert its gaze.”

“For the last few weeks, permitted to travel abroad, Ms. Payá has spoken out courageously in support of her father’s dream of a participatory democracy in Cuba. She has echoed his oft-expressed wish for forgiveness, but Cuba’s future cannot be built on a falsified past or an obliterated truth. The first step is to fully and completely investigate the death of Oswaldo Payá and then to see Cuba toward the new horizon of freedom Mr. Payá envisioned and his daughter so eloquently describes.”