Rosa María Payá Acevedo is a Cuban activist and the founder of the Cuba Decide platform. She was born in Havana in 1989 and actively promotes human rights in Cuba, continuing the legacy of her father, Oswaldo Payá, the renowned opposition leader to the Cuban government and author of the Varela Project.

She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Physics from the University of Havana and is a graduate of the Global Competitive Leadership Program at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.

Rosa María leads the citizen initiative Cuba Decide, which advocates for democratic change on the island. Her father, Oswaldo Payá, was the founder of the Christian Liberation Movement and the author of the Varela Project, through which he collected the required signatures, in accordance with the Cuban Constitution, to submit a petition calling for legislative changes through a national referendum. However, the petition was never addressed by the government.

In 2002, Oswaldo Payá was awarded the Andrei Sakharov Prize for Human Rights by the European Parliament and was repeatedly nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Following Oswaldo Payá’s assassination on July 22, 2012, Rosa María focused on demanding an independent investigation to uncover the true circumstances surrounding her father’s death and chose to continue her work as an activist in defense of democracy in Cuba.

She is currently the Executive Director of the Pan American Democracy Foundation and a former President of the Latin American Youth Network for Democracy. She leads the Cuba Decide citizen initiative, honoring her father’s legacy and working tirelessly to defend the rights and freedoms of the Cuban people.