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The Cuban activist Carolina Barrero, president and executive director of Cidadanía y Libertad, is participating this Tuesday in the Copenhagen Democracy Summit 2026, the annual high-level forum organized by the Alliance of Democracies Foundation, taking place on May 12 and 13 at the Royal Danish Playhouse in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Barrero is part of the panel "Overthrowing Dictatorships" alongside Iranian activist Masih Alinejad, Ugandan opposition leader Bobi Wine, Venezuelan opposition leader Leopoldo López, and Nobel Peace Prize winner and Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado.
The panel will be moderated by Damon Wilson, president of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED).
"It is an honor to participate alongside key political figures in the fight for freedom, voices that from different latitudes demand that the democratic world rises to the occasion for those who risk their lives for liberty," Barrero wrote on his social media when announcing his participation.
The activist plans to focus her intervention on the question she considers most urgent at this moment: “How does political pressure translate into real transformation? Because international attention alone is not a change program. Turning it into one requires strategic clarity, political will, and above all, listening to the Cuban civil society that has been building alternatives from within and from exile for years.”
His presence in Copenhagen comes at a time of heightened pressure from the Trump administration on the Cuban regime. Since January 2026, Washington has imposed over 240 sanctions against the dictatorship, reintegrated Cuba into the list of state sponsors of terrorism on January 20, signed two executive orders, and on May 7 imposed direct sanctions on GAESA, the military conglomerate that controls between 40% and 70% of the Cuban economy.
Barrero's participation in the Danish forum is a continuation of the intense diplomatic offensive that Ciudadanía y Libertad has launched in recent months.
In April, Barrero and the program coordinator Amelia Calzadilla traveled to Brussels to urge the EU to suspend the Political Dialogue and Cooperation Agreement with Cuba and impose individual sanctions against military leaders and the Castro family.
After those meetings, the European Union initiated an internal review process of the agreement, and yesterday European parliamentarians announced a resolution to pressure the regime.
On May 8, Barrero also publicly warned that the fall of the dictatorship does not automatically guarantee democracy in Cuba, emphasizing the need for a clear strategy for the transition period.
The Copenhagen Democracy Summit explicitly excludes dictators and brings together political leaders, activists, and global decision-makers.
The theme of this year's edition is articulated around “Building an Alliance of Democracies in a New World (Dis)Order” at a time when, according to Barrero, “democracies must decide what they are willing to defend and at what cost.”
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