crash was not an accident and that a government report could not be trusted. U.S. President Barack Obama released a statement praising Payá as "a tireless champion for greater civic and human rights in Cuba". U.S. Senator Marco Rubio and Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney called for an independent investigation into the crash, imploring the international community to "demand that the facts concerning Paya's death be accurately determined and that the surviving witnesses be protected". The European Union issued a statement recognizing Payá's dedication "to the cause of democracy and human rights in Cuba". Elizardo Sanchez, president of the Cuban Commission for Human Rights, stated that "This is tragic for the family and the human rights and pro-democracy movement in Cuba ... Payá was considered the most notable political leader of the Cuban opposition." Ladies in White president Berta Soler described the death as "a terrible blow". Payá's funeral was held on 24 July 2012. Dissident groups reported that dozens of activists were arrested on their way to the funeral, including Félix Navarro Rodríguez and Guillermo Fariñas. A scuffle also broke out between activists and state security agents at the funeral itself. Amnesty International and the U.S. criticized the arrests, with the White House describing them as "a stark demonstration of the climate of repression in Cuba." The dissidents arrested in Payá's funerals were freed the following day. Oswaldo Payá's daughter Rosa Maria has continued his activism for democratic reforms in Cuba. Awards and recognition The Homo Homini Award of People in Need, a Czech NGO, 1999 The Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought of the European Parliament, 2002 W. Averell Harriman Democracy Award from U.S. National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, 2003 Honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Columbia University in New York, 2005 Nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by the former Czech President Václav Havel, with fellow Cuban dissidents Raul Rivero and Óscar Elías Biscet See also Heinrich Maier Grigoris Lambrakis, Greek democratic activist who was assassinated in 1963 in the Kingdom of Greece (present-day Greece) Christian Democracy Censorship in Cuba Human rights in Cuba References External links Official website 1952 births 2012 deaths Cuban democracy activists Cuban dissidents Cuban human rights activists Cuban Roman Catholics Nonviolence advocates Opposition to Fidel Castro Road incident deaths in Cuba Cuban anti-abortion activists Cuban anti-communists Sakharov Prize laureates