Embassies & Human Rights Organizations Gather to Remember the One Hundred Million Victims of Communism/
On June 8th, sixteen embassies, four delegations, and representatives from thirty-nine ethnic and human rights organizations joined VOC for the 11th Annual Truman-Reagan Medal of Freedom & Roll Call of Nations Wreath-Laying Ceremony at the Victims of Communism Memorial on Capitol Hill, which this year honored slain Cuban dissident and democracy advocate Oswaldo Payá.
Executive Director Marion Smith noted that, despite efforts by contemporary pundits and totalitarian regimes to rehabilitate the bloody ideas of Karl Marx, “the real legacy of Marxism is this ceremony. It is the dozens of countries represented here by those who will lay wreaths to commemorate the lives of those killed in some 40 communist countries since 1917.”
VOC Awards Its Truman-Reagan Medal of Freedom to Oswaldo Payá, Cuban Freedom Fighter-
Almos six years ago, the people of Cuba lost a champion: Oswaldo Payá. Payá was the founder of the Movimiento Cristiano Liberación (MCL) and a 2002 laureate of the European Parliament’s Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought. He dedicated his life to peacefully opposing the authoritarian rule of the Communist Party of Cuba and advocating for pluralistic liberal democracy on an island that has languished under the iron fists of the Castro brothers for nearly half a century.
The Cuban regime was so afraid of Oswaldo’s work that they murdered him in a staged car accident in 2012. But his daughter Rosa María Payá is continuing the vital work her father began. Her organization, Cuba Decide, is trying to organize a plebiscite calling for free elections with full political participation on the island. For this reason, VOC is proud to present Oswaldo with our Truman-Reagan Medal of Freedom, to be accepted on his behalf by his wife Ofelia Acevedo and his daughter Rosa María.
VOC presents its Truman-Reagan Medal of Freedom to those individuals and institutions who have demonstrated a lifelong commitment to freedom and democracy and opposition to communism and all other forms of tyranny. Oswaldo Payá gave his life in service of these principles, and we are proud to honor him with this award.
Ofelia and Rosa María Payá accept the Truman-Reagan Medal of Freedom.
Remarks from Rosa María Payá.
Communism does not work in Cuba because communism has never worked for good. It has only worked as a mechanism of oppression, for an oligarchy to become rich, to have all the power and privilege while the majority is poor. And these poor people have no voice to say anything, not even that they are poor.”
Remarks from Board Chairman Dr. Lee Edward.
“According to our YouGov survey, one third of all Americans would prefer to live under socialism rather than capitalism,” remarked VOC’s Board Chairman, Dr. Lee Edwards, referring to VOC’s Annual Report on U.S. Attitudes Toward Socialism. “Why? Is it due to idealism, the desire for a classless society in which everyone is equal and envy does not exist because everything is owned in common? Is it a lack of knowledge, sheer ignorance? When asked how many people have died under communism, less than one third of Americans could provide the correct answer: over 100 million. Commented one millennial about his peers: ‘They haven’t seen socialism’s failures firsthand.”
Participants :
The participants from the diaspora, human rights, and diplomatic communities show that the struggle against communism did not end in 1989, and that the consequences and legacy of this deadly ideology continue to shape our world today
Embassy of the Republic of Albania
Embassy of the Republic of Armenia
Embassy of the Republic of Bulgaria
Embassy of Canada
Embassy of the Republic of Croatia
Embassy of the Czech Republic
Embassy of Estonia
Embassy of the Republic of Georgia
Embassy of the Republic of Hungary
Embassy of Latvia
Embassy of the Republic of Lithuania
Embassy of the Republic of Moldova
Embassy of the Republic of Poland
Embassy of Romania
Embassy of the Slovak Republic
Embassy of the Republic of Slovenia
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Delegation of the European Union to the United States
European Parliament Liaison Office with the US Congress
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Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the United States
The Office of Tibet
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Nearly forty other ethnic and human rights organizations.
The Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation is a Washington, DC-based, educational and human rights nonprofit devoted to commemorating the more than 100 million victims of communism around the world and to the freedom of those still living under totalitarian regimes.
To contact us via phone please call: (202) 629-9500
