CUBA

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Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba (Spanish: Cuba or República de Cuba, 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 country 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 the Caribbean Sea and its location between water bodies also make Cuba prone to frequent hurricanes.

Map of Cuba - Caribbean Sea

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 by Amerindian peoples known as the Taíno and Ciboney whose ancestors had come from South America several centuries before. 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 Sebastián 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 throughout the Americas, oppressed and enslaved the approximately 100,000 indigenous people on the island. Within a century they had all but disappeared as a result of the combined effects of disease, forced labor and genocide. The settlers then introduced African slaves, who soon made up a significant proportion of the inhabitants.

Geography

Cuba is an archipelago of islands located in the Caribbean Sea, with the geographic coordinates 21°3N, 80°00W. Cuba is the principal island, which is surrounded by four main groups of islands. These are the Colorados, the Camagüey, the Jardines de la Reina and the Canarreos. The main island of Cuba constitutes most of the nation's land area (105,006 km² or 40,543 square miles) and is the seventeenth-largest island in the world by land area. The second largest island in Cuba is the Isla de la Juventud (Isle of Youth) in the southwest, with an area of 3056 km² (1180 square miles). Cuba has a total land area of 110,860 km².

The main island consists mostly of flat to rolling plains.At the southeastern end is the Sierra Maestra, a range of steep mountains whose 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. The average temperature is 21°C in January and 27°C in July. Cuba lies in the path of hurricanes, and these destructive storms are commonest in September and October. Havana is the largest city and capital; other major cities include Santiago de Cuba and Camagüey. Better known smaller towns include Baracoa which was the first Spanish settlement on Cuba, Trinidad, a UNESCO world heritage site, and Bayamo.

Fidel Castro

LINKS

• Cuban Legislation

• Cuban Penal Code

• Cuban Electoral Code

• Cuban Family Code

• Granma — International edition of Communist Party of Cuba Newspaper 

• 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)

• Cuba´s Political and election System

• Cuban Constitution in English

• Cuba Holiday Advice

• 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

• Arrebatus.com — A different oppinion about Cuba. Foro. Chat. Videos. Photos. Downloads.

• 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

• [2] — 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

• [3] — 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

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