Cuba

Cuba is a country made up of the island of Cuba as well as Isla de la Juventud and several small archipelagos. Cuba is located at the junction of the northern Caribbean, the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean. Cuba is located in the east of the Yucatan Peninsula (Mexico), south of the US state of Florida and the Bahamas, west of Hispaniola (Haiti / Dominican Republic) and north of Jamaica and the Cayman Islands. Havana is the largest city and capital; other major cities include Santiago de Cuba and Camaguey. The official area of ​​the Republic of Cuba is 109,884 km2 (42,426 sq mi) (excluding territorial waters). The main island of Cuba is the largest island in Cuba and the Caribbean, with an area of ​​104,556 km2 (40,369 sq mi). Cuba is the second most populous country in the Caribbean after Haiti, with a population of over 11 million.

The area that is now Cuba was inhabited by the Chibonei Taino people from the 4th millennium BC to Spanish colonization in the 15th century. It was a Spanish colony from the 15th century until the Spanish-American War of 1898, when Cuba was occupied by the United States and gained nominal independence as a de facto United States protectorate in 1902. A fragile republic in 1940, Cuba. tried to consolidate his democratic system, but growing political radicalization and social strife culminated in a coup and subsequent dictatorship under Fulgencio Batista in 1952. Overt corruption and oppression under Batista's rule led to his expulsion in January 1959 by the July 26 Movement, which subsequently established communist rule under the leadership of Fidel Castro. Since 1965, the state has been ruled by the Cuban Communist Party. The country was the subject of controversy during the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States, and during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, a nuclear war nearly erupted. Cuba is one of the few surviving Marxist-Leninist socialist states where the role of the vanguard of the Communist Party is enshrined in the Constitution. Under Castro, Cuba participated in a wide range of military and humanitarian activities in both Africa and Asia.

Culturally, Cuba is considered part of Latin America. It is a multinational country whose peoples, cultures and customs come from a variety of sources, including the Taino Chiboni peoples, the long period of Spanish colonialism, the emergence of enslaved Africans and the close relationship with the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

Cuba is a founding member of the United Nations, the Group of 77, the Non-Aligned Movement, the Organization of African, Caribbean and Pacific States, ALBA and the Organization of American States. It is currently one of the world's only centrally planned economies and is dominated by the tourism industry and the export of skilled labor, sugar, tobacco and coffee. Cuba has historically - both before and during communist rule - fared better than other countries in the region on several socioeconomic indicators such as literacy, infant mortality and life expectancy.

Cuba has a one-party authoritarian regime in which political opposition is not allowed. There are elections in Cuba, but they are not democratic. Censorship of information (including restrictions on Internet access) is widespread and independent journalism is suppressed in Cuba; Reporters Without Borders described Cuba as one of the worst countries in the world in terms of press freedom.