Facts about Cuba

Nevertheless Prнo carried out major reforms such as founding a National Bank and stabilizing the Cuban currency.

The Cuban Government adheres to socialist principles in organizing its largely state-controlled planned economy.

In August a peace treaty was signed under which Spain agreed to withdraw from Cuba.

Following the enactment of the Socialist Constitution of 1976, which was adopted without following the procedures laid out in the Constitution of 1940, the Republic of Cuba was defined as a socialist state.

Together they actively plotted to overthrow Batista, collecting guns and ammunition and finalizing their plans for an armed attack on Moncada Barracks, Batista's largest garrison outside Santiago de Cuba.

Both countries had 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.

Cubans began to leave their country in great numbers and formed a burgeoning expatriate community in Miami.

Cuba's major exports are sugar, nickel, tobacco, fish, medical products, citrus, coffee and skilled labor.

Historically, Cuba has had some of the highest rates of education and literacy in Latin America, both before and after the revolution.

The Cuban government abandoned its policy of atheism in the early 1990s; Castro welcomed a visit from Pope John Paul II in 1998, and two years later, religious holidays were reinstated.

The Supreme Court of Cuba serves as the nation's highest judicial branch of government.

The Soviets had been paying above-market prices for Cuban sugar, while providing Cuba with petroleum at below-market prices.

Cuba's national legislature, the National Assembly of People's Power (Asamblea Nacional de Poder Popular), is the supreme organ of State power and has 609 members who serve five-year terms.

Cuba also found new allies in President Hugo Chбvez of Venezuela and President Evo Morales of Bolivia, major oil and gas exporters.

The President of Cuba, who is also elected by the Assembly, serves for a five-year term and there is no limit to the number of terms of office.

The U.S. imposed a complete diplomatic and commercial embargo on Cuba.

The two countries signed an agreement in 1987 allowing 20,000 Cubans to emigrate annually to the United States.

Citizens of Cuba must obtain an exit permit before they may leave the country.

The main island of Cuba constitutes most of the nation's land area (105,006 kmІ or 40,543 square miles) and is the 17th-largest island in the world by land area.

Most Jewish Cubans are descendants of Polish and Russian Jews who fled pogroms at the beginning of the twentieth century.

During his rule, however, Cubans gained greater control over their own economy and major national development projects were undertaken.

Groups such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have issued reports on Cuban prisoners of conscience.

During 1963, relations deteriorated again as Castro moved Cuba towards a fully-fledged Communist system modeled on the Soviet Union.

Led by Evaristo Estenoz and Pedro Ivonet the African-Cuban community was organized to secure better jobs and more political patronage.

Castro's image was changed from that of a hothead into the youthful face of Cuba's future.

The Cuban community in the U.S. grew in size, wealth and power and politicized elements effectively opposed liberalization of U.S. policy towards Cuba.

Cuba is the dominant force in amateur boxing, consistently achieving high gold medal tallies in major international competitions.

By the late 1990s 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.

In 2006 Cuba exported $2.956 billion, and imported $9.51 billion in goods.

On October 28, Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev informed Kennedy that work on the missile sites would cease and missiles already in Cuba would be returned to the Soviet Union.

Other political parties campaign and raise finances internationally, while activity within Cuba by opposition groups is minimal and illegal.

In 1993 Cuba began to legalize small family-owned businesses, such as restaurants and encouraged private employment.

Recently, large reserves of oil were found in the North Cuba Basin sparking interest from other nations as well as calls from politicians in the U.S. to relax the Cuba trade embargo.

The U.S. government became increasingly hostile towards Cuba throughout 1959.

A pawn during the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States, a nuclear world war nearly broke out during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962.

The result was the Spanish-American War, in which U.S. forces landed in Cuba in June 1898 and quickly overcame the exhausted Spanish resistance.

Under the Platt Amendment, Cuba also agreed to lease to the U.S. the naval base at Guantбnamo Bay.

In 2004, Cuban officials publicly backed the Euro as a "global counter-balance to the U.S. dollar," and eliminated US currency from circulation in its stores and businesses.

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.

From 1975 until the late 1980s, massive Soviet military assistance enabled Cuba to upgrade its military capabilities.

The Cuban government sets most prices and rations goods to citizens.

The important religious festival "La Virgen de la Caridad del Cobre" is celebrated by Cubans annually on September 8.

The U.S. learned in July 1962 that the Soviet Union had begun missile shipments to Cuba.

Some advocates in the U.S. supported Cuban independence, while others argued for outright annexation.

Cuban culture is much influenced by the fact that it is a melting pot of cultures, primarily from Spain and Africa.

Castro was infuriated by the Soviets' withdrawal in the face of the U.S. ultimatum but Cuba alone did not have the power to act against either superpower.

The present subdivisions closely resemble those of Spanish military provinces during the Cuban Wars of Independence, when the most troublesome areas were subdivided.

Almost all adult Cubans participate in the community-based Committees for the Defense of the Revolution, which play a central role in daily life.

The Cuban government denies the International Committee of the Red Cross access to its prisons and many human rights groups including Amnesty International are denied entry to Cuba.

Cuba today does not celebrate May 20 as their date of independence, but instead October 10, as the first declaration of independence.

On November 26, 1956, Castro and his band of 81 rebels, mostly Cuban exiles, set out from Tuxpan, Mexico aboard the yacht Granma for Cuba.

The Cuban government has been accused of numerous human rights abuses, including torture, arbitrary imprisonment, unfair trials, extra-judicial executions.

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.

The African slave trade ended in 1865, though it took another 21 years before slavery was abolished in Cuba.

The rapid growth of tourism during the Special Period had widespread social and economic repercussions in Cuba.

In 1996, Cuba shot down two small aircraft piloted by a Florida-based anti-Castro group.

Cuban literature began to find its voice in the early nineteenth century.

Human Rights Watch has criticized the Cuban restrictions on emigration and its alleged keeping of children as "hostages" in order to prevent defection by Cubans traveling abroad.

A traditional Cuban meal would not be served in courses; rather all food items would be served at the same time.

Cuba is the nation's principal island, which is surrounded by four main groups of islands.

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.

According to Cuba's official 2002 Census, the Cuban population was 11,177,743, including 5,597,233 men and 5,580,510 women.

By the late 1950s, Cuba had developed one of the leading economies in Latin America.

The demise of the Soviet Union in 1991 dealt Cuba a giant economic blow.

Religious life has been unjustly repressed and controlled by his government and generations of Cuban religious adherents have suffered," Cromartie said.

The Roman Catholic Church is made up of the Cuban Catholic Bishops' Conference (COCC), led by the Cardinal Archbishop of Havana.

Immigration and emigration have had noticeable effects on the demographic profile of Cuba during the twentieth century.

Kennedy, in turn, committed that the U.S. would not invade Cuba, a fear founded on the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion.

On February 19, 2008, Fidel Castro announced that he was resigning as President of Cuba.

Forces in the U.S. favoring intervention in Cuba seized on this incident to accuse Spain of blowing up the ship, although there was no evidence of who had done the deed.

At the same time, the Kennedy administration authorized plans for an invasion of Cuba by Florida-based Cuban exiles, taking advantage of anti-Castro uprisings which were repressed.

The Chinese population in Cuba is descended mostly from laborers who arrived in the nineteenth century to build railroads and work in mines.

Cuba's future is best assured by fully protecting, in law and practice, the fundamental freedoms of religion, expression, association and other human rights.

Fidel Castro's nearly 50-year-long rule was marked by a stormy, and sometimes brutal, relationship with Cuba's religious communities, including arrests, deportations, and severe restrictions on religious activities.

Cuba also shelters a population of non-Cubans of unknown size.

The Episcopal Church of Cuba claims 10,000 adherents.

Black beans and rice, referred to as moros y cristianos (or moros for short), and plantains are staples of the Cuban diet.

Fidel Castro became Prime Minister of Cuba in February 1959, and held effective power in the country until formally handing it over to his brother, Raul Castro, in 2008.

All Cuban citizens over 16 years of age who have not been found guilty of a criminal offense can vote.

The religious landscape of Cuba is also strongly marked by syncretisms of various kinds.

Cuba soon became a point of departure for exploration on the North American mainland.

Cuban music is very rich and is the most commonly known expression of culture.

After the Industrial Revolution, many of these laborers stayed in Cuba because they could not afford return passage to China.

In 2003, 1.9 million tourists visited Cuba, predominantly from Canada and the European Union, generating revenue of $2.1 billion.

After the 1959 Cuban Revolution, citizens were not required to pay a personal income tax (their salaries being regarded as net of any taxes).

The present constitution also ascribes the role of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC) to be the "leading force of society and of the state."

Cuban forces were decisive in helping the MPLA forces win the Angolan Civil War in 1975.

The recorded history of Cuba began on October 28, 1492, when Christopher Columbus sighted the island during his first voyage of discovery and claimed it for Spain.

Due to historical associations with the United States, many Cubans participate in sports which share popularity in North America, rather than sports traditionally promoted in other Latin American nations.

Cuba's birth rate (11.44 births per thousand population in 2007) is one of the lowest in the Western Hemisphere.

At one time, Cuba was the world’s most important sugar producer and exporter.

In 1992, the United States tightened the trade embargo contributing to a drop in Cuban living standards which approached crisis point within a year.

Fourteen provinces and one special municipality (the Isla de la Juventud) now comprise Cuba.

During this time many Cubans began to question the future of socialism.

Magoon's governorship in Cuba was viewed in a negative light by many Cuban historians for years thereafter, believing that much political corruption was introduced during Magoon's years there.

The Cuban government operates a national health system and assumes full fiscal and administrative responsibility for the health care of its citizens.

Education has a strong political and ideological emphasis, and students progressing to higher education are expected to have a commitment to the goals of the Cuban government.

Dominant themes of independence and freedom were exemplified by Josй Martн, who led the Modernist movement in Cuban literature.

Cuba lies in the path of hurricanes, and these destructive storms are most common in September and October.

Historically, Cuba has long ranked high in numbers of medical personnel and has made significant contributions to world health since the nineteenth century.

Before the collapse of the Soviet Union, Cuba depended on Moscow for sheltered markets for its exports and substantial aid.

No political party is permitted to nominate candidates or campaign on the island, though the Communist Party of Cuba has held five party congress meetings since 1975.

The Tres was also invented in Cuba, but other traditional Cuban instruments are of African and/or Taнno origin such as the maracas, gьiro, marнmba and various wooden drums including the mayohuacan.

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.

Opponents claim the Cuban government represses free expression by limiting access to the Internet.

Cuban recipes share spices and techniques with Spanish cooking, with some Caribbean influence in spice and flavor.

Better known smaller towns include Baracoa which was the first Spanish settlement on Cuba, Trinidad, a UNESCO world heritage site, and Bayamo.

The Gomez administration, which lasted until 1913, set a pattern of graft, corruption, maladministration, fiscal irresponsibility, and social insensitivity—especially toward Afro-Cubans.

During this period, the rural poverty in Spain provoked by the Spanish Revolution of 1868 and its aftermath led to an even greater Spanish emigration to Cuba.

Increased US government 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.

Cuban cuisine is a fusion of Spanish and Caribbean cuisines.

The Cuban government, its supporters and other observers within and outside Cuba argue that Cuba has a form of democracy, citing the extensive participation in the nomination process at the national and municipal level.

Cuba was also hampered by its continuing dependency on sugar exports.

Cuba’s patron saint, La Virgen de la Caridad del Cobre (the Virgin of Cobre) is a syncretism with the Santerнa goddess Ochъn.

Instead, the Republic of Cuba gained formal independence on May 20, 1902, with the independence leader Tomбs Estrada Palma becoming the country’s first president.

Venezuela's assistance to 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.

By the 1970s, the ability of the U.S. to keep Cuba isolated was declining.

Cuba has a multitude of faiths reflecting the island’s diverse cultural elements.

Cuba has small communities of Jews, Muslims and members of the Bahб'н faith.

In 1996 tourism surpassed the sugar industry as the largest source of hard currency for Cuba.

The coast of Cuba was fully mapped by Sebastiбn de Ocampo in 1511, the same year the first Spanish settlement was founded by Diego Velбzquez de Cuйllar at Baracoa.

The Soviets were forced to provide further economic assistance by buying the entire Cuban sugar crop, even though they grew enough sugar beet to meet their own needs.

Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, consists of the island of Cuba (the largest of the Greater Antilles), the Isle of Youth and several adjacent small islands.

The removal of these subsidies sent the Cuban economy into a rapid depression known in Cuba as the Special Period.

In 2001, studies showed that the average Cuban's standard of living was lower than before the downturn of the post-Soviet period.

Attitudes towards the Cuban revolution both in Cuba and in the United States were changing rapidly.

Cuba is south of the eastern United States and the Bahamas, west of the Turks and Caicos Islands and Haiti and east of Mexico.

At the same time several Cuban military commanders sympathized with the rebellion or joined it.

All education is free of charge to Cuban citizens including university education.

Havana is the largest city and capital; other major cities include Santiago de Cuba and Camagьey.

The second largest island in Cuba is the Isla de la Juventud (Isle of Youth) in the southwest, with an area of 1180 square miles (3056 kmІ).

Cuba soon began to depend on the sugarcane industry as its main source of economy.

Sport is important, assisted by a climate that favors outdoor activities; 23.5 percent Australians over the age of 15 regularly participate in an organized sport.

Five days later, Raъl Castro was elected as the new President of Cuba.

Martн was killed at Dos Rios shortly after landing in Cuba.

In all, over 125,000 Cubans—some of them criminals released from prisons—emigrated to the United States before the flow of vessels ended on June 15.

By 1830 the Cuban sugar industry had become the most mechanized in the world.

Annual trade between Cuba and the United States had reached about $100 million, but in 1894 Spain canceled a Cuban-U.S. trade pact.

Cuba has a total land area of 42,803 square miles (110,860 kmІ), slightly smaller than the U.S. state of Pennsylvania.

The Commission calls on the U.S. government and its allies to send this message clearly to Cuba's new leadership.

Osvaldo Dorticуs Torrado, President of Cuba from 1959 to 1976, was a figurehead of little importance.

The Chinese population in Cuba is descended mostly from laborers who arrived in the nineteenth century to build railroads and work in mines.

The Cuban Ministry of Higher Education also operates a scheme of Distance Education which provides regular afternoon and evening courses in rural areas for agricultural workers.

The first secretary of the Communist Party is concurrently President of the Council of State (President of Cuba) and President of the Council of Ministers (sometimes referred to as Prime Minister of Cuba).

At this time U.S. influence in Latin America was strong enough to make the embargo very effective; Cuba was forced to direct virtually all its trade to the Soviet Union and its allies.

The U.S. responded by placing a naval blockade on Cuba in order to prevent the receipt of further Soviet missile shipments.

Cuba’s proximity to the U.S. has been a powerful influence on its history.

Cuba is perhaps the most well-known Caribbean nation due to its pivotal role in world politics in the twentieth century.

The most significant of these measures is the United States embargo against Cuba and the subsequent Helms-Burton Act of 1996.

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.

The typical meal could consist of plantain, black beans and rice, ropa vieja (shredded beef), Cuban bread, pork with onions, and tropical fruits.

Baseball in Cuba is by far the most popular; other sports and pastimes include basketball, volleyball and track.

Popular Cuban music of all styles has been enjoyed and praised widely across the world.

In August 1933, elements of the Cuban army staged a coup which deposed Machado and installed Carlos Manuel de Cйspedes, son of Cuba's founding father, as President.

Cuba presently holds debt in an amount estimated to be $13 billion.

Cuban-Americans soon formed a powerful political lobbying group in the United States.

Cuba is located in the northern Caribbean at the confluence of the Caribbean Sea, the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean.

Cuba is an archipelago of islands located in the Caribbean Sea.

Under Fidel Castro, Cuba became a highly militarized society.

Many Cuban citizens who had initially supported the revolution fled the country to join the growing exile community in Miami.

Sport is important, assisted by a climate that favors outdoor activities; 23.5 percent Australians over the age of 15 regularly participate in an organized sport.

In 1934, Batista and the army, who were the real center of power in Cuba, replaced Grau with Carlos Mendieta y Montefur.

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.

Cuba’s economic dependence on the Soviet Union was deepened by Castro’s determination to build his vision of a socialist society in Cuba.