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 73