IDENTIDADES 1 ENGLISH IDENTIDADES 8 ENGLISH | Page 73

United Nations. Having decided to
engage Cuba, the EU is not at all resigning to its principles. Human rights are to
“remain at the core of the relationship”
between the EU and Cuba - the words of
Catherine Ashton, the EU “Minister of
Foreign Affairs”4 in the spring of 2014.
This recent decision to re-engage Cuba
should not be understood as “a policy
change from the past”! The EU 1996
“Common Position”5 still remains in
force! Therefore, the only concession
made here is that the EU has agreed to
start this process under the existing
circumstances, despite the fact that the
current state of human rights in Cuba is,
for sure, far from satisfactory or even
acceptable. The Cuban Government
perceives the normalization of the relationship between the EU and Cuba
through its traditional ideological lens
and gives it an entirely different meaning. Departing from the sacrosanct
principle of “non-intervention into domestic affairs of sovereign states” it
sticks to the claim of having free hand to
handle the process of Cuban transition in
its own way; to keep in power all those
who have been ruling in Cuba for decades and are responsible for the current
highly unsatisfactory state of affairs on
the island and replace them gradually by
their heirs being recruited now among
loyal and “politically conscious” members of younger generations.
3. Sovereignty belongs to the Cuban
People!
From the point of view of the activists of
Cuban civil society the processes taking
place today in the realm of international

relations can play only a secondary - just
enabling and certainly not decisive –
role. The principal demand of those who
belong to the Cuban “parallel polis”6 the mix of traditional human rights
defenders, church activists, members of
independent political parties of all colors
from the left to the right; public intellectuals, journalists, artists or just openminded and freedom-loving people
without any specific skills or qualifications; blacks or whites, radicals or moderates – reminds us of the demands of
East and Central European peoples made
in the “miraculous year” of 1989. It is
not just a minor improvement of the
dysfunctional Cuban state. It is not just
an “actualization” of Cuban “socialism.”
It is the respect for inalienable human
rights and freedoms of Cuban citizens! It
is the re-opening of Cuban society being
closed for almost six decades by the
ruling regime! It is the restoration - by
peaceful means and without violence - of
sovereignty of the Cuban people! It is
the recognition that the Cuban nation as any other nation in the world – is
endowed with “inalienable right to alter
or change the shape of its Government”;7 that it is up to Cubans only – and
not in the hands of any foreign power or
outside player- to decide the future of
their homeland! There is obviously one
vital condition missing if the restoration
of sovereignty of the Cuban people is to
become reality and the process of democratization finally launched. It is the
restitution of the Cuban “political nation” – the re-birth of a body politic in
Cuba with a clear sense of purpose and

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