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CUBA
The Republic of Cuba
 Area:
110,860 sq. km (42,803 sq. miles)
Population: 11.2 million
Capital City: Havana (population 2.2 m)
People: Ethnically mixed population (white 66%; mixed
race 22%; black 12%), Chinese 1%
Language: Spanish
Religion: The State is secular in Cuba; the main
religions are, Catholicism, Santeria (an informal mixture of
Christianity and African religions brought over by slaves), and
Protestantism.
Basic Economic Facts:
Currency:
Cuban Peso (Moneda
Nacional and Convertible Peso (CUC)
Nominal GDP (billion US$):
30.239
billion (2003 actual)
Nominal GDP per head (US$): 2,695 (2003 actual)
Inflation rate: 6% (2004 est)
Main industries: tourism, sugar, nickel, tobacco, and
agriculture.
Major Political Parties:
Only party
– Cuban Communist Party or PCC (Fidel CASTRO Ruz, First
Secretary)
Government: Cuba has a one party system of government and
is the only country in the Western Hemisphere with a Communist
government. Over 46 years after the Cuban revolution, Fidel
Castro remains Head of State and leader of the Communist Party.
The Vth Party Congress in October 1997 reaffirmed the
Revolution's political direction and named Raul Castro as
Fidel's chosen successor.
President of the Council of State: Commander-in-Chief, Dr
Fidel Castro Ruz (since 1959)
First Vice-President of the Council of State: General of the
Army, Raul Castro Ruz
Foreign Minister: Felipe Perez Roque
Membership of international groups/organizations: Cuba's
memberships include United Nations (UN), Organization of
American States (OAS – excluded from formal participation since
1962), IAEA, WHO, WTO, WO and others.
DID YOU KNOW?
- Cuba was a Spanish possession for 388
years.
- Fidel Castro is the world’s longest
ruling leader.
- Historically, Cuba has had some of the
highest rates of education and literacy in Latin America,
both before and after the revolution. Before the revolution
its literary rate of 76% ranked fourth in the region (50
percent in rural areas). By 1995, and after a literacy
campaign coordinated by the Cuban government, rates had
risen to 96%. Alongside Argentina, this was the highest of
the thirteen Latin American countries surveyed.
- According to Cuban government
statistics, Cuba has over 71,000 doctors
[24], with 20,000 health workers in Venezuela, and 5,000
more spread around the world in over 60 additional
countries, as it views such missions an important part of
its foreign policy
[25]. They offer medical services to 85,154,748 people;
34,700,000 in Latin America and the Caribbean and 50,400,000
in Africa and Asia.
MEDIA AND
COMMUNICATIONS
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