Republic of Cuba República de Cuba
Flag Coat of arms of Cuba Coat of arms
Motto: Spanish: Patria y Libertad (English: "Homeland and Freedom")
Anthem: La Bayamesa (The Bayamo Song)
Capital and largest city	Havana
Official languages	Spanish
Government	Socialist republic[1]
Independence
• Water (%)	negligible
Population
• 2005 estimate	11,345,670 (70th)
• 2002 census	11,177,743
GDP (PPP)	2004 estimate
• Total	$33.9 billion (89th)
• Per capita	$3,000 (126th)
HDI (2005)	0.817 very high (52nd)
Currency	Peso (CUP) Convertible peso 1 (CUC)
Time zone	UTC-5 (EST)
• Summer (DST)	UTC-4 ((Starts April 1, end date varies))
Calling code	53
ISO 3166 code	CU
Internet TLD	.cu
1 1993–2004, the U.S. dollar was used in addition to the peso until the dollar was replaced by the convertible peso.

The Republic of Cuba (Spanish: República de Cuba, IPA: [re'puβlika ðe ˈkuβa]) consists of the island of Cuba (the largest of the Greater Antilles), the Isle of Youth and adjacent small islands. Cuba is located in the northern Caribbean at the confluence of the Caribbean Sea, the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean. Cuba is south of the eastern United States and the Bahamas, west of the Turks and Caicos Islands and Haiti and east of Mexico. The Cayman Islands and Jamaica are to the south.

Cuba is the most populous island in the Caribbean. Its culture and customs draw from several sources including the period of Spanish colonialism, the introduction of African slaves, and to a lesser extent, its proximity to the United States. The island has a tropical climate that is moderated by the surrounding waters; the warm currents of Caribbean Sea and its location between water bodies also make Cuba prone to frequent hurricanes. Cuba’s relationship with the neighboring United States has often involved political conflict.

History

The recorded history of Cuba began on 24 October 1492, when Christopher Columbus sighted the island during his first voyage of discovery and claimed it for Spain. The island had been inhabited for at least several thousand years by Amerindian peoples known as the Taíno and Ciboney. The Taíno were farmers and the Ciboney were hunter-gatherers. The name Cuba is derived from the Taíno word cubanacán, meaning "a central place".

The coast of Cuba was fully mapped by Sebastian de Ocampo in 1511, and in that year Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar founded the first Spanish settlement at Baracoa. Other towns, including Havana (founded in 1515), soon followed. The Spanish, as they did everywhere in the Americas, oppressed and enslaved the indigenous population which, within a century, died out as a result of the combined effects of disease and mistreatment. The settlers then introduced African slaves, who soon made up a significant proportion of the inhabitants.

Colonial Cuba

Cuba was a Spanish possession for 388 years, ruled by a governor in Havana, with an economy based on plantation agriculture and the export of sugar, coffee and tobacco to Europe and later to North America. It was seized by the British in 1762, but restored to Spain the following year. The Spanish population was boosted by settlers leaving Haiti when that territory was ceded to France. As in other parts of the Spanish Empire, a small land-owning elite of Spanish-descended settlers held social and economic power, served by a mixed-race population of small farmers, laborers and slaves.

In the 1820s, when the other parts of Spain’s empire in Latin America rebelled and formed independent states, Cuba remained loyal, although there was some agitation for independence. This was partly because the prosperity of the Cuban settlers depended on their export trade to Europe, partly through fears of a slave rebellion (as had happened in Haiti) if the Spanish withdrew and partly because the Cubans feared the rising power of the United States more than they disliked Spanish colonial rule.

Cuba’s proximity to the U.S. has been a powerful influence on its history. Southern politicians in the U.S. plotted the island’s annexation as a means of strengthening the pro-slavery forces in the U.S. throughout the 19th century, and there was usually a party in Cuba which supported such a policy. In 1848 a pro-annexationist rebellion was defeated and there were several attempts by annexationist forces to invade the island from Florida. There were also regular proposals in the U.S. to buy Cuba from Spain, but Spain always refused to consider ceding its last possession in the Americas.

After the American Civil War apparently ended the threat of pro-slavery annexationism, agitation for independence revived, leading to a rebellion in 1868. This resulted in a prolonged conflict known as the Ten Years' War between pro-independence forces and the Spanish allied with their local supporters. There was much sympathy in the U.S. for the independence cause, and some unofficial aid was sent, but the U.S. declined to intervene militarily. In 1878 the Peace of Zanjon ended the conflict, with Spain promising greater autonomy.

The island was exhausted after this long conflict and pro-independence agitation temporarily died down. There was also a prevalent fear that if the Spanish withdrew or if there was further civil strife, the increasingly expansionist U.S. would step in and annex the island. Partly in response to U.S. pressure, slavery was abolished in 1886, although the African-descended minority remained socially and economically oppressed, despite formal civic equality granted in 1893. During this period, rural poverty in Spain led to a substantial Spanish emigration to Cuba—among those arriving were the parents of Fidel Castro.

During the 1890s pro-independence agitation revived, fueled by resentment of the restrictions imposed on Cuban trade by Spain and hostility to Spain’s increasingly oppressive and incompetent administration of Cuba. On 15 July 1895 rebellion broke out and the independence party, led by Tomás Estrada Palma and the poet José Martí, proclaimed Cuba an independent republic—Martí was killed shortly thereafter and has become Cuba’s undisputed national hero. The Spanish retaliated with a campaign of suppression, herding the rural population into what were described by international observers as "fortified towns". Estimates that between 200,000 and 400,000 Cubans died from emaciation and disease during this period. These numbers were verified by both the Red Cross and the US Senator Proctor. When reports of the suppression spread to Europe and the U.S., there were fierce protests against Spain’s behavior.

In 1897, fearing U.S. intervention, Spain moved to a more conciliatory policy, promising home rule with an elected legislature. The rebels rejected this offer and the war for independence continued. Shortly afterwards, on 15 February 1898, the U.S. battleship Maine was mysteriously blown up in Havana harbor, killing 266 men. Forces in the U.S. favoring intervention in Cuba seized on this incident to accuse Spain of blowing up the ship (although Spain had no motive for doing so and there was no evidence of Spanish culpability). Swept along on a wave of nationalist sentiment, the U.S. Congress passed a resolution calling for intervention and President William McKinley was quick to comply.

The result was the Spanish-American War, in which U.S. forces landed in Cuba in June 1898 and quickly overcame Spanish resistance. In August a peace treaty was signed under which Spain agreed to withdraw from Cuba. Some advocates in the U.S. supported Cuban independence, while others argued for outright annexation. As a compromise, the McKinley administration placed Cuba under a 20-year U.S. trusteeship. The Cuban independence movement bitterly opposed this arrangement, but unlike the Philippines, where events had followed a similar course, there was no outbreak of armed resistance.

Independent Cuba

Theodore Roosevelt, who had fought in the Spanish-American War and had some sympathies with the independence movement, succeeded McKinley as President of the United States in 1901 and abandoned the 20-year trusteeship proposal. Instead, the Republic of Cuba gained formal independence on 20 May 1902, with the independence leader Tomás Estrada Palma becoming the country’s first president. Under the new Cuban constitution, however, the U.S. retained the right to intervene in Cuban affairs and to supervise its finances and foreign relations. Under the Platt Amendment, Cuba also agreed to lease to the U.S. the naval base at Guantánamo Bay.

Independent Cuba soon ran into difficulties as a result of factional disputes and corruption among the small educated elite and the failure of the government to deal with the deep social problems left behind by the Spanish. In 1906, following disputed elections to choose Estrada Palma’s successor, an armed revolt broke out and the U.S. exercised its right of intervention. The country was placed under U.S. occupation and a U.S. governor took charge for two years. In 1908 self-government was restored when José Miguel Gómez was elected President, but the U.S. retained its supervision of Cuban affairs. Despite frequent outbreaks of disorder, however, constitutional government was maintained until 1925, when Gerardo Machado y Morales, having been elected President, suspended the constitution and made himself Cuba’s first dictator.

Machado was a Cuban nationalist and his regime had considerable local support despite its violent suppression of critics. During his tenure, Cubans gained greater control over their own economy and some important national development projects were undertaken. His hold on power was weakened by the Great Depression, which drove down the price of Cuba’s agricultural exports and caused widespread poverty. In August 1933, elements of the Cuban army staged a coup which deposed Machado and installed Carlos Manuel de Céspedes as President. In September, however, a second coup led by Sergeant Fulgencio Batista overthrew Céspedes and replaced him with Carlos Mendieta y Montefur.

One of the objectives of the “sergeants’ revolt” was to restore Cuban sovereignty and in 1934 the new administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt agreed to end the formal U.S. role in Cuban affairs as part of its Good Neighbor Policy towards Latin America. Batista and the army became the real center of power in Cuba, behind a series of transient presidents. In 1940 Batista decided to run for President himself. The leader of the constitutional liberals Ramón Grau San Martín refused to support him, so he turned instead to the Communist Party of Cuba, which had grown in size and influence during the 1930s.

With the support of the Communist-controlled labor unions, Batista was elected President and his administration carried out major social reforms and introduced a new progressive constitution. Several members of the Communist Party held office under his administration. Batista's administration formally took Cuba into World War II as a U.S. ally, declaring war on Japan on Dec 9, 1941, then on Germany/Italy on Dec 11, 1941; Cuba, however, did not significantly participate militarily in WWII hostilities. At the end of his term in 1944, in accordance with the constitution, Batista stood down and Ramón Grau was elected to succeed him. Grau initiated increased government spending on health, education and housing. But Grau’s liberals were bitter enemies of the Communists and Batista opposed most of Grau’s program.

In 1948 Grau was succeeded by another liberal, Carlos Prío Socarrás, who had been Grau’s minister of labor and was particularly hated by the Communists. Prío was a less principled liberal than Grau and under his administration corruption increased. This was partly a result of the postwar revival of U.S. wealth and the consequent influx of gambling money into Havana, which became a center of mafia operations. Nevertheless Prío carried out major reforms such as founding a National Bank and stabilizing the Cuban currency. The influx of North American money fueled a boom which did much to raise living standards, although the gap between rich and poor became wider and more obvious.

From Batista to Castro

The 1952 election was contested between Roberto Agramonte of the liberals and Batista, who was seeking a return to office. When it became apparent that Batista had no chance of winning, he staged a coup on 10 March 1952 and held power with the backing of a nationalist section of the army and of the Communists, as a “provisional president” for the next two years. In 1954, under pressure from the U.S., he agreed to elections. The liberals put forward ex-President Grau as their candidate, but he withdrew amid allegations that Batista was rigging the elections in advance. Batista could now claim to be an elected President. His regime was marked by severe corruption and poverty. Batista's police force was well-known for their harsh tactics and violence against the population. Cuban poverty increased greatly under Batista's leadership.

This changed in 1956, when a party of rebels, mostly idealistic young nationalists, including Fidel Castro, landed in a boat from Mexico and tried to start a resistance movement in the Sierra Maestra Mountains. (Castro had gone to Mexico after being released from prison, where he was serving a sentence for his part in a 1953 rebel attack on the Moncada Barracks in Santiago de Cuba.) Batista’s forces killed most of the rebels, but enough survived to maintain a low-level insurgency in the mountains. In response, Batista made the mistake of launching a campaign of repression against the opposition, which only served to increase support for the insurgency.

Through 1957 and 1958 opposition to Batista grew, among the middle class and the students, in the Catholic Church and in the rural areas. The United States government imposed an arms embargo on the Cuban government on March 14, 1958. The urban trade unions, however, were under the control of either Communists or the mafia, both strong supporters (for different reasons) of Batista’s regime and attempts to organise general strikes against Batista always failed. By late 1958, the rebels had succeeded in breaking out of the Sierra Maestra and launched a general insurrection, joined by hundreds of students and others fleeing Batista’s crackdown on dissent in the cities. When the rebels captured Santa Clara, east of Havana, Batista decided the struggle was futile and fled the country to exile in Portugal and Spain. Castro’s rebel forces entered the capital on 1 January 1959.

Cuba Following Revolution

Fidel Castro became Prime Minister of Cuba in February 1959 and has held effective power in the country ever since. (As of 2006 he is the world’s longest-ruling head of government.) He was a constitutional liberal and nationalist, even if a radical one and his victory was generally welcomed both in Cuba and in the U.S., although the summary execution of about 500 police officers and others accused of being agents of the Batista regime, aroused immediate disquiet. During 1959 Castro’s government carried out popular measures such as land reform, the nationalization of public utilities and the ruthless suppression of corruption, including closing down the gambling industry and evicting the American mafiosi.

Unbeknown to most outsiders, however, was the powerful influence within Castro’s government of Ernesto “Che” Guevara, an Argentinian Marxist and one of Castro’s closest advisers. Guevara formed an alliance with Castro’s ambitious brother, Raul to persuade Fidel Castro to align himself with the Communists and thus with the Soviet Union. Guevara also played the key role in persuading the Cuban Communist leader Blas Roca Calderío to abandon his hostility to Castro and work instead to gain control of the revolutionary government from within. Roca was persuaded and he informed the Soviet leadership of the possibility of winning Castro over. The Soviets at once seized the chance of gaining a political foothold in the Americas and promised unlimited aid and support if Castro declared himself for Communism.

Meanwhile, attitudes towards the Cuban revolution in the U.S. were changing rapidly. While the Eisenhower administration had initially welcomed Batista’s fall, the nationalization of U.S. owned companies (to an estimated value of US$1 billion) and the expulsion of many political conservatives with influential friends in the U.S., aroused immediate hostility and the Cuban exiles soon became the powerful lobby group in the U.S. that they have been ever since. Although Castro himself was not believed to be a Communist, the U.S. was well informed about the role of Guevara and the rapid warming of relations between Castro and the Cuban Communists. Thus the U.S. became increasingly hostile to Castro during 1959. This in turn served to drive Castro away from the liberal elements of his revolutionary movement and into the arms of the Communists.

In October 1959 Castro declared himself to be friendly towards Communism, though not yet a Communist himself, and the liberal and other anti-Communist elements of the government were purged, with many who had initially supported the revolution fleeing the country to join the growing exile community in Miami. In March 1960 the first aid agreements were signed with the Soviet Union. In the context of the Cold War, the U.S. saw the establishment of a Soviet base of influence in the Americas as intolerable and plans were approved to remove Castro from power (see The Cuban Project). In late 1960 a trade embargo was imposed, which naturally drove Castro further towards the Soviet alliance. At the same time the administration authorized plans for an invasion of Cuba by Florida-based exiles, timed to coincide with an anti-Castro rising. The result was the Bay of Pigs Invasion of April 1961—the rising did not take place and the invasion force was routed. This prompted Castro to clearly declare Cuba a socialist republic, and himself a Marxist-Leninist, which he did in May 1961.

Communist Cuba

The immediate result of the Cuban-Soviet alliance was the Soviet decision to place intermediate range ballistic missiles in Cuba, which precipitated the Cuban missile crisis of 1962, during which President John F. Kennedy threatened the Soviet Union with nuclear war unless the missiles were withdrawn. Castro urged the Soviets to take an aggressive stance. Eventually the Soviets backed down. In the aftermath of this, there was a resumption of contacts between the U.S. and Castro, resulting in the release of the anti-Castro fighters captured at the Bay of Pigs in exchange for a package of aid. But during 1963, relations deteriorated again as Castro moved Cuba towards a fully-fledged Communist system modeled on the Soviet Union. The U.S. imposed a complete diplomatic and commercial embargo on Cuba. At this time U.S. influence in Latin America was strong enough to make the embargo very effective and Cuba was forced to direct virtually all its trade to the Soviet Union and its allies.

In 1965 Castro merged his revolutionary organizations with the Communist Party, of which he became First Secretary, with Blas Roca as Second Secretary—later to be succeeded by Raúl Castro, who as Defense Minister and Fidel’s closest confidant became and has remained the second most powerful figure in the government. Raúl Castro’s position was strengthened by the departure of Che Guevara to launch an unsuccessful attempt at an insurrectionary movement in Bolivia, where he was killed in 1967. Osvaldo Dorticós Torrado, President of Cuba from 1959 to 1976, was a figurehead of little importance. Castro introduced a new constitution in 1976 under which he became President himself, while remaining chairman of the Council of Ministers.

During the 1970s Castro moved onto the world stage as a leading spokesperson for Third World “anti-imperialist” governments and anti-Americanism generally. On a more concrete level, he provided invaluable military assistance to pro-Soviet forces in Angola, Ethiopia, Yemen and other African and Middle Eastern trouble spots. Cuban forces were decisive in helping the MPLA forces win the Angolan civil war in 1975. Although the bills for these expeditionary forces were paid by the Soviets, they placed a considerable strain on Cuba’s economy and manpower resources. Cuba was also hampered by its continuing dependency on sugar exports. The Soviets were forced to provide further economic assistance by buying the entire Cuban sugar crop, even though the Soviet Union grew enough sugar beet to meet its own needs. In exchange the Soviets had to supply Cuba with all its fuel, since it could not import oil from any other source.

Cuba’s economic dependence on the Soviet Union was deepened by Castro’s determination to build his vision of a socialist society in Cuba. This entailed the provision of free health care and education for the entire population. Through the 1970s and ‘80s, the Soviets were prepared to subsidise all this in exchange for the rather dubious strategic asset of an ally under the noses of the United States and the undoubted propaganda value of Castro’s considerable prestige in the developing world.

By the 1970s, the ability of the U.S. to keep Cuba isolated was declining. Cuba had been expelled from the Organization of American States in 1962 and the OAS had cooperated with the U.S. trade boycott for the next decade, but in 1975 the OAS lifted all sanctions against Cuba and both Mexico and Canada defied the U.S. by developing closer relations with Cuba. Both countries said that they hoped to foster liberalization in Cuba by allowing trade, cultural and diplomatic contacts to resume—in this they were disappointed, since there was no appreciable easing of repression against domestic opposition. Castro did stop openly supporting insurrectionary movements against Latin American governments, although pro-Castro groups continued to fight the military dictatorships which then controlled most Latin American countries.

The Cuban exile community in the U.S. grew in size, wealth and power and politicized elements effectively opposed liberalization of U.S. policy towards Cuba. However, the efforts of the exiles to foment an anti-Castro movement inside Cuba, let alone a revolution there, met limited success. Although many Cubans receive money from, and maintain warm connections with, relatives in the U.S., Cubans in Cuba have not been widely supportive of the broad political goals of exile organizations ^{[citation needed]}. Respect or deference for Castro, his successful exploitation of anti-American sentiment, and the material benefits which the Cuban version of socialism brought, particularly to the poor, maintain his personal popularity ^{[citation needed]}.

On Sunday, April 6, 1980, 7,000 Cubans stormed the Peruvian embassy in Havana seeking political asylum. On Monday, April 7, Fidel Castro granted permission for the emigration of Cubans seeking refuge in the Peruvian embassy.[6] On April 16 10,000 Cuban citizens left the Peruvian Embassy for Costa Rica. On April 21 many of those Cubans started arriving in Miami via private boats and were halted by the State Department on April 23 The boat lift continued, however, since Castro allowed anyone who desired to leave the country to do so through the port of Mariel and this emigration became known as the Mariel boatlift. In all, over 125,000 Cubans immigrated to the United States before the flow of vessels ended on June 15. [7]

Post-Cold War Cuba

The fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 dealt Cuba a giant economic blow. It led to another unregulated exodus of asylum seekers to the United States in 1994, but was eventually slowed to a trickle of a few thousand a year by the U.S.-Cuban accords. It has again increased in 2004-06 although at a far slower rate than before. [8] Castro’s popularity was severely tested by the aftermath of the Soviet collapse, which led to a cutoff in aid, the loss of a guaranteed export market for Cuban sugar and the loss of a source of cheap imported oil. It also caused, as in all Communist countries, a crisis in confidence for those who believed that the Soviet Union was successfully “building socialism” and providing a model that other countries should follow. In Cuba, however, these events were not sufficient to persuade Cuban Communists that they should voluntarily give up power.

By the later 1990s the situation in the country had stabilized. By then Cuba had more or less normal economic relations with most Latin American countries and had improved relations with the European Union, which began providing aid and loans to the island. China also emerged as a new source of aid and support, even though Cuba had sided with the Soviets during the Sino-Soviet split of the 1960s.^{[citation needed]} Cuba also found a new ally in President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, a major oil exporter. Some economists, however, doubt Cuba’s ability to continue maintainance of its extensive system of state-provided health care and education.^{[citation needed]}

In some ways the Cuban regime remained politically isolated. In the 1960s and ‘70s defenders of his government had been able to claim that even if Cuba were not be a democracy, neither were most other countries in Latin America and the Cuban model at least combined authoritarianism with social justice. On this argument, Castro compared favorably with rulers such as Augusto Pinochet of Chile or the military rulers of Brazil and Argentina. By the turn of the millenium, however, critics argued the comparison had lost its force, since almost every other country in Latin America had become a democracy. With the eclipsing of right-wing dictatorships as a feature of Latin American politics, Castro seemed to some an anachronistic figure.

Culture

• Music of Cuba
  • Cuban musicians, Cuban singers, Cuban-American entertainers
• Cuban literature
  • Cuban writers
• Cuban cinema
  • Cuban film directors, Cuban actors, Cuban-American actors
• Public holidays in Cuba

Cuban culture is much influenced by the fact that it is a melting pot of cultures, primarily from Spain and Africa. It has produced more than its fair share of literature, including the output of non-Cubans Stephen Crane, and Ernest Hemingway.

Present State of Cuban Literature

Cuban authors continue to produce large amounts of government-supported printed and electronic work inside the island [9]. However, according to the US State Department's website, the present Cuban constitution states that all print and electronic media are inalienably state property"[10] The Cuban government also funds a large number of booths at book fairs in Latin America. A good number of university presses in the United States continually present scholarly volumes on various Cuban topics. Authors both for and against the present Cuban government present their views in the U.S. Cuba/Printed sources.

Sampling of Cuban Literature

• García, Calixto 1973 El Negro en la Narrativa Cubana. PhD. Thesis. The City University of New York. UMI Dissertation Services, Ann Arbor, Michigan [11] This Calixto García Iñiguez, was grandson of Calixto Garcia and was very familiar with the political and ethnic scene of Cuba in the 1940s and 1950s especially in Oriente Province.
• Lazo, Rodrigo 2005 Writing to Cuba Filibustering and Cuban Exiles in the United States. University of North Carolina Press, ISBN 0807855944

Cuban music

Cuban music is very rich and is the most commonly known expression of culture. The "central form" of this music is Son, which has been the basis of many other musical styles like samba, salsa, rumba and mambo and a slower derivation of mambo, the cha-cha-cha. Rumba music originated in early Afro-Cuban culture. The Tres was also invented in Cuba, but other traditional Cuban instruments are of African and/or Neo-Taíno nations, multination indigenous origins such as the maracas, güiro, marímba and various wooden drums such as the mayohuacan (Zayas y Alfonso, 1914) Alfredo Zayas. Popular Cuban music of all styles has been enjoyed and praised widely across the world. Cuban classical music, which includes music with strong African and European influences, and features symphonic works as well as music for soloists, has also received international acclaim thanks to composers like Ernesto Lecuona. One of the most recognized Cuban singers, Celia Cruz, is considered the "Queen of Salsa."

Cuban Cuisine

Common Cuban foods include pork, black beans and rice, and tropical fruits.

Religion

Cuba has a multitude of faiths reflecting the island’s diverse cultural elements. Catholicism, which was brought to the island by Spanish colonialists at the beginning of the 16th century, is the most prevalent professed faith. The Roman Catholic Church is made up of the Cuban Catholic Bishops' Conference (COCC), led by Jaime Cardinal Ortega, Archbishop of Havana. It has eleven dioceses, 56 orders of nuns and 24 orders of priests. In January 1998, Pope John Paul II paid an historic visit to the island, invited by the Cuban government and Catholic Church.

After the revolution, Cuba became an officially atheistic state and restricted religious practice. Since 1991, restrictions have been eased. However, the Catholic Church is still not permitted to operate independent printing presses, nor to train as many priests as it wishes to.

The religious landscape of Cuba is also strongly marked by syncretisms of various kinds. This diversity derives from West and Central Africans who were transported to Cuba, and in effect reinvented their African religions. They did so by combining them with elements of the Catholic belief system. Catholicism is often practised in tandem with Santería, a mixture of Catholicism and other, mainly African, faiths that include a number of cult religions. Cuba’s patron saint, La Virgen de la Caridad del Cobre (the Virgin of Cobre, Cuba's patron saint) is a syncretism with the Santería goddess Ochún. The important religious festival "La Virgen de la Caridad del Cobre" is celebrated by Cubans annually on 8 September. Other religions practised are Palo Monte, and Abakuá, which have large parts of their liturgy in African languages.

Protestantism, introduced from the United States in the 18th century, has seen a steady increase in popularity. 300,000 Cubans belong to the island’s 54 Protestant denominations. Pentecostalism has grown rapidly in recent years, and the Assemblies of God alone claims a membership of over 100,000 people. Cuba has small Jewish population, with even smaller Muslim and Bahá'í populations [12]. Havana has three active synagogues and one mosque. Most Jewish Cubans are descendants of Polish and Russian Jews who fled pogroms at the beginning of the 20th Century. In the 1960s almost 8,000 Jews left for Miami. In the 1990s approximately 400 Jewish Cubans relocated to Israel in a co-ordinated exodus using visas provided by nations sympathetic to their desire to move to Israel.

Society

Education

School attendance is compulsory from ages 6 to 16 and all students, regardless of age or gender, wear school uniforms with the color denoting grade level. The curriculum in primary and secondary schools is based upon principles of hard work, self-discipline and love of country. Students are required to work in agriculture three times a week. At the end of basic secondary education, pupils can choose between pre-university education and technical and professional education.

All higher education and university education is public and available free of charge. The University of Havana, Cuba's oldest university, was founded in 1721. Other official universities included Universidad de Oriente (founded in 1947) and Universidad Central de Las Villas (founded in 1857). Private universities, which were nationalized without reimbursement along with private schools in 1961, include Universidad Católica de Santo Tomás de Villanueva (founded in 1946); Universidad Masónica, and the Universidad de la Salle in Nuevo Vedado.

Historically, Cuba has had some of the highest rates of education and literacy in Latin America, both before and after the revolution. In the 1950s, Cuba's literary rate of 76% ranked fourth in the region. By 1995, and after a literacy campaign coordinated, rates had risen to 96%. Alongside Argentina, this was the highest of thirteen Latin American countries surveyed.[13] A 1998 study by UNESCO[14] reported that Cuban students showed a high level of educational achievement. Cuban third and fourth graders scored 350 points, 100 points above the regional average in tests of basic language and mathematics skills. The report indicated that the test achievement of the lower half of students in Cuba was significantly higher than the test achievement of the upper half of students in other Central and South American countries in the study group.[15]

Public health

The Cuban government operates a national health system and assumes full fiscal and administrative responsibility for the health care of its citizens. Cuba is in the top quintile in worldwide comparisons of major health indicators such as doctors per capita, life expectancy, infant mortality; possibly worse in nutritional quality. As well as its national health coverage, Cuba attracts paying "health tourists" who wish to obtain medical services, often at lower cost than the same procedures in their home countries. Some complaints arise that such monied foreigners receive a higher quality of care than do Cuban citizens.

Cuba has over 71,000 doctors, one of the highest doctor to patient ratios in the world [16] and currently has more doctors serving internationally than the World Health Organization.^{[citation needed]} All fiscal and administrative aspects of health care in Cuba are run by the state; no private hospitals or clinics are permitted, and medical workers are required to work for the state. Historically, Cuba has long ranked high in numbers of medical personnel; in 1957, before the revolution, it ranked third in Latin America and ahead of many European nations.[17]

Life expectancy and infant mortality rates in Cuba have been comparable to Western industrialized countries since the 1950s.^[5] Among adults less than 49 years old, accidents are the leading cause of death, though occupational accidents have declined significantly in the last decade. Among older adults heart disease and cancer predominate as causes of mortality. The suicide rate of 18.2 per 100,000 is higher and the homicide rate of 7.0 per 100,000 is lower than that of other Latin Caribbean nations. General mortality has been "characterized by a marked predominance of causes associated with chronic noncommunicable diseases," according to the Pan American Health Organization.^[3]

Cuba has entered into agreements with United Nations agencies specializing in health: PAHO/WHO, UNICEF, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the United Nation’s Population Fund (UNFPA), and the United Nations Development Fund (UNDP). Since 1989, this collaboration has played a very important role in that Cuba, in addition to obtaining the benefits of being a member country, has strengthened its relations with institutions of excellence and has been able to disseminate some of its own advances and technologies [18]. Cuban doctors have played a role in many regions of the world. Cuba's missions in 68 countries are manned by 25,000 Cuban doctors, and medical teams have assisted victims of both the South Asian Tsunami and the Pakistan earthquake. Cuba currently export considerable health services and personnel to Venezuela in exchange for subsidized oil. [19]. Since the Chernobyl nuclear plant exploded in 1986, more than 20,000 children from Ukraine, Belarus and Russia have traveled to Cuba for treatment of radiation sickness and psychologically based problems associated with the radiation disaster[20].

Critics argue that nutritional quality has declined in Cuba. In the 1950s ranked third in Latin America in per capita caloric consumption from 1948-1997 it has decreased by 11.47 percent, though raw calorie intake remains higher than in the U.S.[21]. The U.S. State Department argues that Cuba has a poorer food supply situation than all the other Latin American countries save for Venezuela and Honduras. Per capita consumption of cereals, tubers, and meat are today all below 1950's levels.[22]

The Cuban American National Foundation claims that Cuba masks the truth behind the Cuban health care system. They argue that real Cuban healthcare is abysmal and that what is shown to non-Cuban foreigners is a healthcare system unavailable to the average Cuban.[23] The National Review has made similar criticisms.

Government and politics

Cuba is a socialist republic^[1] whose government is controlled by the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC). The PCC leader, Fidel Castro, is both President of the Council of State (President of Cuba) and President of the Council of Ministers (Prime Minister of Cuba). The President of Cuba is chosen by the National Assembly for a five-year term. There is no limit to the number of terms the President can hold office and Castro has been President since the adoption of the current Constitution in 1976.

The Cuban constitution states: "the Communist Party of Cuba... is the superior guiding force of society and the state". No other political parties are permitted. The Constitution guarantees of freedom of speech and assembly, though these rights are limited by Article 62, which states that "None of the freedoms which are recognized for citizens can be exercised contrary to... the existence and objectives of the socialist state, or contrary to the decision of the Cuban people to build socialism and communism. Violations of this principle can be punished by law".

Cuba's national legislature, the National Assembly of People's Power (Asamblea Nacional de Poder Popular), has 609 members who serve five-year terms. All Cuban citizens over sixteen years of age who have not been found guilty of a criminal offense can vote. Article 131 of the Constitution states that voting shall be "through free, equal and secret vote". Article 136 states: "In order for deputies or delegates to be considered elected they must get more than half the number of valid votes cast in the electoral districts".

The voting process itself is free^{[citation needed]} but the process for nominating candidates for election to the National Assembly has been effectively controlled by the PCC and grass-roots organizations and people affiliated, sympathetic or controlled by it. As a result, in the National Assembly elections of January 2003, more than 70% of the candidates were members of the PCC and the remainder were favorable to the PCC. Many believe the Cuban government does not meet minimal standards of a democracy, especially in lacking multi-party contests for seats. The Cuban government and its supporters within and outside Cuba argue that Cuba has a form of democracy, evidenced by the fact that elections and nominations are held by secret ballots and that all voters have the right to reject any and all candidates.^[2]

Human rights

The Cuban government has been accused of numerous human rights abuses, including torture, arbitrary imprisonment, unfair trials, and extra-judicial executions.[24]. Dissidents complain of harassment and torture.[25] While the Cuban Government placed a moratorium on capital punishment in 2001, it made an exception for perpetrators of an armed hijacking 2 years later. Groups like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have issued reports on Cuban prisoners of conscience.[26]. Cuba denies the International Committee of the Red Cross access to its prisons.^[6] Freedom House gives Cuba the worst possible score, 7 out of 7, for both political rights and civil liberties.[27]

Cuban workers have the right to join trade unions, and ninety eight per cent choose to join one of the 19 trade unions in Cuba. Unions do not register with any state agency, and are self financed from monthly membership dues; union officers are elected on an open basis, and differing political views are found within each of the unions. An official worker's central trade union organisation, The Worker's Central of Cuba (Central de Trabajadores de Cuba, CTC) is routinely consulted by central government when new laws are being considered.[28] However, some critics view unions as a mere arm of the state (Alba 1968; see Cuba/Printed sources). Human righs watch, for example, argues that "Independent labor unions are denied formal status and their members are harassed... Under restrictive labor laws, the authorities have a prominent role in the selection, payment, and dismissal of workers, effectively denying workers the right to bargain directly with employers over benefits, promotions, and wages."[29]

Demographics

According to the CIA's World Factbook, Cuba is 51% mulatto (mixed white and black), 37% white, 11% black, and 1% Chinese. DNA studies have suggested that the contribution of indigenous neo-Taíno Nations to the general population is more significant than formally believed.^{[citation needed]}

The Chinese population in Cuba derives mostly from laborers who arrived in the 19th century to build railroads and work in mines. Most stayed in Cuba, as they could not afford a return passage to China. Historical papers show that, while considered inferior to Cubans of European descent, they were considered superior to blacks due to their paler skin, and were considered more docile until their stubborn resistance in the Wars of Independence erased that notion (e.g. Jimenez Pastrana 1983 in Cuba/Printed sources).

There is internal illegal immigration to Havana seeking greater opportunities; these internal illegals are known as "palestinos." Cuba also shelters a population of non-Cubans of unknown size. This population includes political refugees from the US e.g. Phillip Agee [30] and foreign activists of various radical causes [31]. In addition there are a several thousand North African teen and pre-teen refugees undergoing military training [32].

Cuba's birth rate (11.6 births per thousand population in 2003)[33] is one of the lowest in the Western hemisphere. Its overall population has increased continuously from around 7 million in 1961 to over 11 million now, but the rate of increase has slowed in the last decades. The decrease in fertility rate-from 3.2 in 1970 to 1.5 in 1992-is third greatest in the Western Hemisphere, with only Guadeloupe and Jamaica showing larger decreases.[34] Cuba, which has unrestricted access to legal abortion, has an abortion rate of 58.6 per 100 pregnancies in 1996 compared to a Caribbean average of 35, a Latin American average of 27 (the latter mostly illegally performed), and a European average of 48^[4] Additionally, contraceptive use is estimated at 79% (in the upper third of Western Hemisphere countries)^[3].

Immigration and emigration have had noticeable effects on the demographic profile of Cuba during the 20th century. Between 1900 and 1930 close to a million Spaniards arrived from Spain. Cuba has historically been more heavily European than other Caribbean islands, and in 1950 was said to have a 75% white majority. Since 1959, over a million Cubans have left the island, primarily to Miami, Florida where a vocal, well educated and economically very successful anti-Castro community exists (Cuban-American lobby). [35] The emigration that occurred immediately after the Cuban Revolution was primarily of the upper and middle classes that were predominantly white, thus contributing to a demographic shift along with changes in birth rates and racial identifications among the various ethnic groups. After the chaos that accompanied the Mariel boatlift, Cuba and the United States (commonly called the 1994 Clinton-Castro accords [36]) have agreed to limit emigration to the United States. Under this, the United States grants a specific number of visas to those wishing to emigrate (20,000 since 1994) while those Cubans picked up at sea trying to emigrate without a visa are returned to Cuba. However, U.S. law [37] grants U.S. residency to any Cuban who arrives on U.S. soil without a visa, thus there is still an unofficial exodus [38]; these escapes are often daring and most ingenious e.g. [39] [40]. The number of Cubans who leave by sea is still about 2,000 a year but the trend is upward at present [41] [42]. In 2005 an additional 7,610 Cuban emigrants from Cuba entered through the "southern border in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30".[43] According to the Miami Herald, "Unlike most countries, Cuba requires its citizens to obtain exit permits when leaving the country; there are 533 Cubans with valid US visas not allowed to leave".[44]. Human Rights Watch has criticzed the Cuban restrictions on emigration and its allegedly keeping children as "hostages" in order to prevent defection by Cuban's traveling abroad.[45]

Provinces

Fourteen provinces and one special municipality (the Isla de la Juventud) now comprise Cuba. These in turn were formerly part of six larger historical provinces: Pinar del Río, Habana, Matanzas, Las Villas, Camagüey and Oriente. The present subdivisions closely resemble those of Spanish military provinces during the Cuban Wars of Independence, when the most troublesome areas were subdivided.

1	Isla de la Juventud (Isle of Youth)
2	Pinar del Río	9	Ciego de Ávila
3	La Habana (Havana)	10	Camagüey
4	Ciudad de la Habana (Havana City)	11	Las Tunas
5	Matanzas	12	Granma
6	Cienfuegos	13	Holguín
7	Villa Clara	14	Santiago de Cuba
8	Sancti Spíritus	15	Guantánamo

Geography

Geologically Cuba was once in the Pacific, and crossing between North and South America before they were joined, "crashed" into what is now Florida [46]. Cuba, 65 million years ago, also received part of the impact of Chicxulub Crater with tsunami kilometers high reaching at least 500 kilometres (300 mi) away to the middle provinces [47], [48] and beyond.^[7]

The Cayman Islands south of Cuba and not part of the country is built up by coral growing over a submerged western extension of the Sierra Maestra is north on the Cuban side of the Deep of Bartlett (Cayman Trough) and Jamaica an independent state is on the Caribbean plate is on the other side of this great "trench" south of seismically active eastern Cuba [49] [50] [51].

The elongated island (approx. 760 miles or 1,220 km long) of Cuba is the largest island in the Caribbean and is bounded to the north by the Straits of Florida and the greater North Atlantic Ocean, to the northwest by the Gulf of Mexico, to the west by the Yucatan Channel, to the south by the Caribbean Sea, and to the east by the Windward Passage. The Republic comprises the entire island, including many outlying islands such as the Isla de la Juventud (Isle of Youth), previously known as the Isla de los Pinos (Isle of Pines). The Cayman Islands mainly coral reefs covering submerged ice age peaks of the Sierra Maestra range [52]) and Jamaica which is geologically related to Central America are south of eastern Cuba. Guantánamo Bay, is a naval base that has been leased by the United States since 1903, a lease that has been contested since 1960 by Castro.

The main island is the world's 16th largest. The island consists mostly of flat to rolling plains, with more rugged hills and mountains primarily in the southeast and the highest point is the Pico Real del Turquino at 2,005 metres (6,578 ft). The local climate is tropical, though moderated by trade winds. In general (with local variations), there is a drier season from November to April, and a rainier season from May to October.

Havana is the largest city and capital; other major cities include Santiago de Cuba and Camagüey. Some of the well-known smaller towns are Baracoa which was the first Spanish settlement on Cuba, Trinidad, a UNESCO world heritage site, and Bayamo.

Economy

The Cuban Government adheres to socialist principles in organizing its largely state-controlled planned economy. Most of the means of production are owned and run by the government and most of the labor force is employed by the state. There is a trend towards more private sector employment. In the year 2000, the public sector employment was 77.5% and the private sector at 22.5% compared to the 1981 ratio of 91.8% to 8.2% [53]. Capital investment is restricted and requires approval by the government. The Cuban government sets most prices and rations goods to citizens.

In the early 1990s, the end of Communist rule in Eastern Europe meant the end of Soviet subsidies for Cuba's state-run economy. Before the collapse of the Soviet Union, Cuba depended on Moscow for sheltered markets for its exports and substantial aid. The Soviets had been paying above-market prices for Cuban sugar, while providing Cuba with petroleum at below-market prices. The removal of these subsidies sent the Cuban economy into a rapid depression. In 1992 The United States tightened the trade embargo contributing to a drop in Cuban living standards which approached crisis point within a year. [54].

Like some other Communist and post-Communist states following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Cuba took limited market-oriented measures to alleviate severe shortages of food, consumer goods, and services to make up for the ending of Soviet subsidies. These steps included allowing some self-employment in certain retail and light manufacturing sectors, the legalization of the use of the U.S. dollar in business, and the encouragement of tourism. In 1996 tourism supassed the sugar industry as the largest source of hard currency for Cuba. Cuba has tripled its market share of Caribbean tourism in the last decade, with large investment in tourism infrastructure this growth rate is predicted to continue [55]. 1.9 million tourists visited Cuba in 2003 predominantly from Canada and the European Union, generating revenue of $2.1 billion [56].

In recent years, since the rise of Venezuela's democratic socialist President Hugo Chavez, Venezuelan economic aid has enabled Cuba to improve economically. Venezuela's assistance of the Cuban economy comes chiefly through its supply of up to 80,000 barrels of oil per day in exchange for professional services and agricultural products. In the last several years, Cuba has rolled back the market oriented measures undertaken in the 1990s. In 2004 Cuban officials publicly backed the Euro as a "global counter-balance to the U.S. dollar", and eliminated the US currency from circulation in its stores and businesses. Increased US restrictions on travel by Cuban Americans and on the numbers of dollars they could transport to Cuba strengthened Cuban government control over dollars circulating in the economy. The Cuban state has also restricted donations from and Cuban-American families seeking to support relatives and friends. In the last decade, Cubans had received between US$600 million and US$1 billion annually, mostly from family member in the U.S.[57]

Despite Venezuelan assistance and external financing from trading partners such as the European Union and China, the average Cuban's standard of living remains at a lower level than before the downturn of the post-Soviet period. State salaries continue to fail to meet personal needs under a state rationing system chronically plagued with shortages. As the variety and amount of rationed goods available declines, Cubans increasingly turn to the black market to obtain basic food, clothing, household, and heath amenities. In addition, pretty corruption in state industries, such as the pilferage of state assets to sell on the black market, is common.[58]

In 2005 Cuba exported $2.4 billion, ranking 114 of 226 world countries, and imported $6.9 billion, ranking 87 of 226 countries.[59] Its major export partners are the Netherlands, Canada and China; major import partners are Venezuela, Spain and the United States.[60] Cuba's major exports are sugar, nickel, tobacco, fish, medical products, citrus, coffee and skilled labor[61]; imports include food, fuel, clothing, and machinery. Cuba presently holds debt in an amount estimated to be $13 billion [62], approximately 38% of GDP. [63] According to the Heritage Foundation, Cuba is dependent on credit accounts that rotate from country to country.[64] Cuba's prior 35% supply of the world's export market for sugar has declined to 10% due to a variety of factors, including a global sugar commodity price drop making Cuba less competitive on world markets.[65] Cuba holds 6.4% of the global market for nickel [66] which constitutes about 25% of total Cuban exports.[67]

According the US State Department, the number of automobiles in Cuba has fallen since the 1950's—the only country in Latin America for which this is the case. The number of telephone lines in Cuba also has remained at 1950's levels.[68] Cuba television ownership per capital fell from highest in Latin America to ninth.[69] Cuba's development of electrical power since the 1950's also ranks behind other Latin American nations. Cuba’s rice production has seen a minor increase above the 1950s levels. Finally, the current government nationalized, and largely eliminated, the independent media sector of the 1950's, when the relatively small country had 58 daily newspapers of differing political hues and ranked eighth in the world in number of radio stations.[70]

See also

Template:Topics related to Cuba

Notes

External links

Caribbean portal

Official

• Cuban Legislation
• Cuban Penal Code
• Cuban Electoral Code
• Cuban Family Code
• Granma — Communist Party of Cuba Newspaper (in English)
• Republic of Cuba — (in English)
• List of members of the Council of State
• Prensa Latina — Cuban World News (in English)
• Cuban News Agency — Cuban News (in English)
• Trabajadores — Newspaper of the Cuban trade union movement (in English)

General

• Cuba´s Political and election System
• Cuban Constitution in English
• Cuba Holiday Advice
• Cuban Constitution in Spanish
• Caribbean Net News — Daily Caribbean news for Cuba
• U.S.-Cuban Relations: An Analytic Compendium of U.S. Policies, Laws & Regulations — Occasional Paper (March 2005) by Dianne E. Rennack and Mark P. Sullivan from the Atlantic Council of the US.
• Information about Cuba — Culture, history, demography, geography, religion, etc.
• The Real Cuba website — An anti-Castro website with pictures from Cuba with commentary
• Center for Cuban Business Studies — The Cuba Center at Ohio Northern University
• Cuba Solidarity — British campaign "for the defence of Cuba and its peoples' right to self-determination and national sovereignty." - favors current government
• Trinidad & Tobago Cuba Solidarity — a campaigning group, based in Trinidad and Tobago, that supports Cuba and the Cuban Revolution.
• Cuba Maps — Maps of all the provinces of Cuba, and maps of the major cities.
• Taste of Cuba Cuban cuisine and photos of Havana
• CUBANET — An anti-Castro site including news articles from Cuba's independent journalists and a digest of Cuban news by international newspapers
• Encuentro en la Red — Independent news and cultural site on Cuban matters
• Discover Cuba through a collection of old Photos & Vintage Postcards.
• Photos of people and Sights
• Congressional Research Service (CRS) Reports regarding Cuba
• Cuba Pictures — Photos from all 14 Cuban provinces, plus the city of Havana
• Paseos por La Habana — Havana guide (in Spanish) and travel information. Details of culture, history, traditions, routes, hotels, restaurants and bars.
• Cuba Cultura — A database (in Spanish) of Cuban History, Culture and Architecture from the Pre-Columbian to the Special Period.
• Travel Advisories for Cuba — With an updated section on travel dangers.
• Link guide to Cuba. — Discover Cuba through a collection of sorted links.
• Cuba AIDS Project — HIV and AIDS in Cuba
• [71] — Cuba Linda (French site)
• Spain and the Spaniard — A contemporary opinion of the Cuban uprising
• UN HDI — Human Development Index for Cuba from UN
• IFEX — Freedom of expression in Cuba from IFEX
• The Electoral process in Cuba — Democracy in Cuba
• Cuba's Political and electoral system
• U.S. Department of State — Cuba, from the U.S. government's point of view
• U.S. Treasury - Office of Foreign Assets Control - Cuba Sanctions — An overview of the Cuban Assets Control Regulations Title 31 Part 515 of the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations
• The Infoportal of Cuba — Information in English, French and German
• The Cuban Constitution
• [72] — Allinson, Sidney. Military History Undercover: Ernest Hemingway
• Essay by director of film Bye Bye Havana — A detailed look at life in Cuba from street interviews in 2004
• CubaSolidarity.com — Website of the (U.S.) National Network on Cuba; news, speeches, travel info, events, and exhaustive list of Cuban websites
• Salsa in Cuba
• Cuba Inside Out — History, currents, commentary, resources
• Cuba Flags — A historical insight into the flag and emblems of Cuba
• Rock Around the Blockade — A group based in Britain offering material and political solidarity to the Cuban revolution.
• The Cuba Page — A Cuba metadirectory

Printed sources

• Cuba/Printed sources

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