Cuba

• tropical;
• moderated by trade winds;
• dry season (November to April);
• rainy season (May to October)

total:

8.2 cu km/yr (19%/12%/69%)

per capita:

728 cu m/yr (2000)

• air and water pollution;
• biodiversity loss;
• deforestation

party to:

Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands

signed, but not ratified:

Marine Life Conservation

at birth:

1.06 male(s)/female

under 15 years:

1.06 male(s)/female

15-64 years:

1 male(s)/female

65 years and over:

0.84 male(s)/female

total population:

0.99 male(s)/female (2008 est.)

degree of risk:

intermediate

food or waterborne diseases:

bacterial diarrhea and hepatitis A

vectorborne diseases:

dengue fever (2008)

noun:

Cuban(s)

adjective:

Cuban

• illicit emigration is a continuing problem;
• Cubans attempt to depart the island and enter the US using homemade rafts, alien smugglers, direct flights, or falsified visas;
• Cubans also use non-maritime routes to enter the US including direct flights to Miami and over-land via the southwest border

conventional long form:

Republic of Cuba

conventional short form:

Cuba

local long form:

Republica de Cuba

local short form:

Cuba

name:

Havana

geographic coordinates:

23 07 N, 82 21 W

time difference:

UTC-5 (same time as Washington, DC during Standard Time)

daylight saving time:

+1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last Sunday in October

• 14 provinces (provincias, singular - provincia) and 1 special municipality* (municipio especial);
• Camaguey, Ciego de Avila, Cienfuegos, Ciudad de La Habana, Granma, Guantanamo, Holguin, Isla de la Juventud*, La Habana, Las Tunas, Matanzas, Pinar del Rio, Sancti Spiritus, Santiago de Cuba, Villa Clara

• based on Spanish civil law and influenced by American legal concepts, with large elements of Communist legal theory;
• has not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction

• none;
• note - Cuba has an Interests Section in the Swiss Embassy, headed by Principal Officer Jorge BOLANOS Suarez;
• address:
  • Cuban Interests Section,
  • Swiss Embassy,
  • 2630 16th Street NW,
  • Washington,
  • DC 20009
  ;
• telephone: [1] (202) 797-8518;
• FAX: [1] (202) 797-8521

• none;
• note - the US has an Interests Section in the Swiss Embassy, headed by Chief of Mission Jonathan D. FARRAR;
• address:
  • USINT,
  • Swiss Embassy,
  • Calzada between L and M Streets,
  • Vedado,
  • Havana
  ;
• telephone: [53] (7) 833-3551 through 3559 (operator assistance required);
• FAX: [53] (7) 833-1653;
• protecting power in Cuba is Switzerland

• five equal horizontal bands of blue (top, center, and bottom) alternating with white;
• a red equilateral triangle based on the hoist side bears a white, five-pointed star in the center

agriculture:

20%

industry:

19.4%

services:

60.6% (2005)

lowest 10%:

NA%

highest 10%:

NA%

general assessment:

• greater investment beginning in 1994 and the establishment of a new Ministry of Information Technology and Communications in 2000 has resulted in improvements in the system;
• wireless service is expensive and must be paid in convertible pesos which effectively limits mobile cellular subscribership

domestic:

• national fiber-optic system under development;
• 95% of switches digitized by end of 2006;
• fixed telephone line density remains low, at less than 10 per 100 inhabitants;
• domestic cellular service expanding but remains at only about 2 per 100 persons

international:

• country code - 53;
• fiber-optic cable laid to but not linked to US network;
• satellite earth station - 1 Intersputnik (Atlantic Ocean region) (2007)

total:

4,226 km

standard gauge:

4,226 km 1.435-m gauge (140 km electrified)

note: an additional 7,742 km of track is used by sugar plantations; about 65% of this track is standard gauge; the rest is narrow gauge (2006)

total:

60,858 km

paved:

29,820 km (includes 638 km of expressway)

unpaved:

31,038 km (2000)

total:

11

by type:

bulk carrier 2, cargo 3, passenger 1, petroleum tanker 3, refrigerated cargo 2

foreign-owned:

1 (Spain 1)

registered in other countries:

13 (Bahamas 1, Cyprus 1, Netherlands Antilles 1, Panama 10) (2008)

• 17-28 years of age for compulsory military service;
• 2-year service obligation;
• both sexes subject to military service (2006)

males age 16-49:

3,094,388

females age 16-49:

3,024,876 (2008 est.)

males age 16-49:

2,543,044

females age 16-49:

2,481,823 (2008 est.)

male:

79,945

female:

76,014 (2008 est.)

• the collapse of the Soviet Union deprived the Cuban Army of its major economic and logistic support, and had a significant impact on equipment numbers and serviceability;
• the army remains well trained and professional in nature;
• while the lack of replacement parts for its existing equipment and the current severe shortage of fuel have increasingly affected operational capabilities, Cuba remains able to offer considerable resistance to any regional power (2008)

current situation:

• Cuba is principally a source country for women and children trafficked within the country for the purpose of commercial sexual exploitation and possibly for forced labor;
• the country is a destination for sex tourism, including child sex tourism, which is a problem in many areas of the country;
• some Cuban nationals willingly migrate to the United States, but are subsequently exploited for forced labor by their smugglers;
• Cuba is also a transit point for the smuggling of migrants from China, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Lebanon, and other nations to the United States and Canada

tier rating:

• Tier 3 - Cuba does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so;
• exact information about trafficking in Cuba is difficult to obtain because the government does not acknowledge or condemn human trafficking as a problem in Cuba;
• tangible efforts to prosecute offenders, protect victims, or prevent human trafficking activity do not appear to have been made during 2007;
• Cuba has not ratified the 2000 UN TIP Protocol (2008)

• territorial waters and air space serve as transshipment zone for US- and European-bound drugs;
• established the death penalty for certain drug-related crimes in 1999