2016 Country Review

Cuba 2016 Country Review http://www.countrywatch.com Table of Contents Chapter 1 1 Country Overview 1 Country Overview 2 Key Data 4 Cuba 5 Central America and the Caribbean 6 Chapter 2 8 Political Overview 8 History 9 Political Conditions 11 Political Risk Index 54 Political Stability 69 Freedom Rankings 84 Human Rights 96 Government Functions 99 Government Structure 101 Principal Government Officials 104 Leader Biography 105 Leader Biography 105 Foreign Relations 109 National Security 137 Defense Forces 141 Chapter 3 143 Economic Overview 143 Economic Overview 144 Nominal GDP and Components 147 Population and GDP Per Capita 148 Real GDP and Inflation 149 Government Spending and Taxation 150 Money Supply, Interest Rates and Unemployment 151 Foreign Trade and the Exchange Rate 152 Data in US Dollars 153 Energy Consumption and Production Standard Units 154 Energy Consumption and Production QUADS 156 World Energy Price Summary 157 CO2 Emissions 158 Agriculture Consumption and Production 159 World Agriculture Pricing Summary 162 Metals Consumption and Production 163 World Metals Pricing Summary 165 Economic Performance Index 166 Chapter 4 178 Investment Overview 178 Foreign Investment Climate 179 Foreign Investment Index 183 Corruption Perceptions Index 196 Competitiveness Ranking 208 Taxation 217 Stock Market 217 Partner Links 217 Chapter 5 219 Social Overview 219 People 220 Human Development Index 222 Life Satisfaction Index 226 Happy Planet Index 237 Status of Women 246 Global Gender Gap Index 249 Culture and Arts 259 Etiquette 260 Travel Information 261 Diseases/Health Data 271 Chapter 6 277 Environmental Overview 277 Environmental Issues 278 Environmental Policy 279 Greenhouse Gas Ranking 280 Global Environmental Snapshot 291 Global Environmental Concepts 303 International Environmental Agreements and Associations 317 Appendices 341 Bibliography 342 Cuba Chapter 1 Country Overview Cuba Review 2016 Page 1 of 354 pages Cuba Country Overview CUBA Cuba was the last major Spanish colony to gain independence, following a 50-year struggle begun in 1850. United States intervention during the Spanish-American War in 1898 assisted the Cubans in overthrowing Spanish rule, and the Treaty of Paris established Cuban independence from the United States in 1902. After independence, Cuba was often ruled by military figures who obtained or remained in power by force. In 1959, Fidel Castro led a rebel army to victory, ousting the United States-backed President Fulgencio Batista from power, confiscating private property, and declaring Cuba to be a socialist state in 1961. Castro ruled the country for nearly five decades until he stepped down in February 2008 when his younger brother Raul Castro took over as president. The relationship between Cuba and the United States froze in 1959 and by 1960, the United States had imposed a harsh sanctions regime on Cuba that no United State president was interested in changing for decades to follow. The year 1962 was marked by the Cuban missile crisis and reminded the world that the Cold War was in full force. In the next three decades, Cuba’s economy was characterized by heavy dependence on Soviet assistance, with the Soviet bloc countries providing guaranteed export markets for Cuba's main exports -- sugar and nickel. With the disappearance of Soviet aid following the collapse of the Soviet Union, government controls on the economy were relaxed in the 1990s, and major structural changes have expanded the role of the markets. Since the mid-1990s, tourism has surpassed sugar as the primary source of foreign exchange, and in recent years Cuba’s economic growth has accelerated, owing to new export markets and sources of external finance. In the late 2000, Venezuela provided Cuba oil on preferential terms; however, in recent years, Venezuela has been beset by its own economic crisis made worse by the slumping price of oil. In late 2014, United States President Obama announced that his government would seek to normalize ties with Cuba, and by the spring of 2015, the two countries were on a historic journey aimed at ending decades of antipathy and acrimonious relations. During the process of rapprochement, Cuba agreed to release scores of dissidents. These landmark moves heralded a Cuba Review 2016 Page 2 of 354 pages Cuba historic transformation in Cuba's modern history. Cuba Review 2016 Page 3 of 354 pages Cuba Key Data Key Data Region: Central America and the Caribbean Population: 11031433 Tropical; moderated by trade winds; dry season (November to April); rainy Climate: season (May to October). Languages: Spanish Currency: 1 Cuban peso (Cu$) = 100 centavos Holiday: Liberation Day is 1 January (1959), Revolution Day is 26 July Area Total: 110860 Area Land: 110860 Coast Line: 3735 Cuba Review 2016 Page 4 of 354 pages Cuba Cuba Country Map Cuba Review 2016 Page 5 of 354 pages Cuba Central America and the Caribbean Regional Map Cuba Review 2016 Page 6 of 354 pages Cuba Cuba Review 2016 Page 7 of 354 pages Cuba Chapter 2 Political Overview Cuba Review 2016 Page 8 of 354 pages Cuba History Although Cuba, like the rest of the Americas, was home to an indigenous population before colonial conquest and the arrival of European colonialists, most of the native people died as a result of imported disease from Europe. The Spanish were the initial colonial power to control Cuba in the late 15th century. Under Spanish dominion, settlers established sugar cane and tobacco as Cuba's primary products. As the indigenous population died out, the trans-Atlantic slave trade proliferated, and African slaves were imported to work on the plantations. This kind of "plantation society," typical of the colonial Caribbean, continued until slavery was abolished in 1886. Cuba was the last major Spanish colony to gain independence, following a 50-year struggle begun in 1850. The final push for independence began in 1895, when Jose Marti, Cuba's national hero, announced the "Grito de Baire" ("Call to arms from Baire"). In 1898, after the USS Maine sank in Havana harbor on February 15 due to an explosion of undetermined origin, the United States entered the conflict. In December of that year, Spain relinquished control of Cuba to the United States (U.S.) with the Treaty of Paris. On May 20, 1902, the United States granted Cuba its independence, but retained the right to intervene to preserve Cuban independence and stability under the Platt Amendment. In 1934, the amendment was repealed and the United States and Cuba reaffirmed the 1903 agreement that leased the Guantanamo Bay naval base to the United States. This treaty remains in force, and U.S. occupancy of the base, which shares a 29-km boundary with Cuba at the eastern tip of the island, can only be terminated by mutual agreement or abandonment by the United States. Until 1959, Cuba was often ruled by military figures who obtained or remained in power by force. At that time, however, the influence of Marxist revolutionary thought swept across Latin America. In particular, Che Guevara, a South American revolutionary, acted as a catalyst in the movement throughout the region and was a key player in the ensuing Cuban Revolution. Finally, Fulgencio Batista, who had risen from army sergeant to be Cuba's dictator for more than 25 years, fled on Jan. 1, 1959, as Fidel Castro's "26th of July Movement" gained control. Castro had established the movement in Mexico, where he was exiled after he led a failed attack on the Moncada army barracks at Santiago de Cuba on July 26, 1953. This date is referred to in the annals of Cuban revolutionary history as "Rebellion Day." In 1959, within months of taking power, Cuba Review 2016 Page 9 of 354 pages Cuba Castro moved to consolidate control by imprisoning or executing opponents. Hundreds of thousands of Cubans fled the island. Castro declared Cuba a socialist state on April 16, 1961. This move caused relations between Cuba and the West, especially the United States, to deteriorate. For the next 30 years, Castro pursued close relations with the Soviet Union until the advent of "perestroika" (restructuring) and the subsequent demise of the U.S.S.R. During that time Cuba received substantial economic and military assistance from the U.S.S.R, estimated at $5.6 billion annually, which kept Cuba's economy afloat and enabled it to maintain an enormous military establishment. Also in April 1961, virtually coterminous with Castro's official declaration that Cuba was a one- party socialist state, a force of rather ill-equipped anti-communist Cuban exiles, backed by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, made an abortive attack on Cuba in an incident that became known as the Bay of Pigs invasion. The operation was apparently launched under a misconception that it would spark an island-wide popular revolt against Castro. In any case, the effort proved a total failure within 72 hours, with more than 100 of the attackers killed and others imprisoned for years to come in Cuban jails. The serious breach in U.S.-Cuban relations that it exposed widened further a year and a half later, in a two-week-long episode of nuclear brinkmanship since referred to as the Cuban missile crisis. In 1962, a year after direct bilateral relations between Cuba and the United States had been severed altogether, Cuban-Soviet ties led to a confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union over the installation of nuclear-equipped missiles in Cuba. The U.S. imposed a naval blockade, intercepting all ships bound for the island. The crisis was resolved when the U.S.S.R. agreed to withdraw the missiles and other offensive weapons. In the 1970s, attempts were made to regularize bilateral relations between the United States and Cuba, but normalization talks ended in 1975 when Cuba launched a large-scale intervention in Angola.

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