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:

0.83 male(s)/female

total population:

0.99 male(s)/female (2010 est.)

degree of risk:

intermediate

food or waterborne diseases:

bacterial diarrhea and hepatitis A

vectorborne diseases:

dengue fever (2009)

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;
• the blue bands refer to the three old divisions of the island: central, occidental, and oriental;
• the white bands describe the purity of the independence ideal;
• the triangle symbolizes liberty, equality, and fraternity, while the red color stands for the blood shed in the independence struggle;
• the white star, called La Estrella Solitaria (the Lone Star) lights the way to freedom and was taken from the flag of Texas

note: design similar to the Puerto Rican flag, with the colors of the bands and triangle reversed

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;
• national fiber-optic system under development;
• 95% of switches digitized by end of 2006;
• mobile-cellular telephone service is expensive and must be paid in convertible pesos, which effectively limits subscribership

domestic:

fixed-line density remains low at less than 10 per 100 inhabitants; mobile-cellular service expanding but remains less than 5 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) (2009)

• government owns and controls all broadcast media with private ownership of electronic media prohibited;
• government operates 4 national TV networks and many local TV stations;
• government operates 6 national radio networks, an international station, and many local radio stations;
• Radio-TV Marti is beamed from the US (2007)

total:

8,598 km

country comparison to the world: 24

standard gauge:

8,322 km 1.435-m gauge (176 km electrified)

narrow gauge:

276 km 1.000-gauge

note: 4,533 km of the track is used by sugar plantations; 4,257 km is standard gauge; 276 km is narrow gauge (2006)

total:

60,858 km

country comparison to the world: 75

paved:

29,820 km (includes 638 km of expressway)

unpaved:

31,038 km (2000)

• Revolutionary Armed Forces (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias, FAR): Revolutionary Army (Ejercito Revolucionario, ER, includes Territorial Militia Troops (Milicia de Tropas de Territoriales, MTT));
• Revolutionary Navy (Marina de Guerra Revolucionaria, MGR, includes Marine Corps);
• Revolutionary Air and Air Defense Forces (DAAFAR), Youth Labor Army (Ejercito Juvenil del Trabajo, EJT) (2010)

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

males age 16-49:

3,078,049

females age 16-49:

3,004,713 (2010 est.)

males age 16-49:

2,516,543

females age 16-49:

2,450,902 (2010 est.)

male:

74,084

female:

70,445 (2010 est.)

• the collapse of the Soviet Union deprived the Cuban military of its major economic and logistic support and had a significant impact on the state of Cuban equipment;
• the army remains well trained and professional in nature;
• while the lack of replacement parts for its existing equipment has increasingly affected operational capabilities, Cuba remains able to offer considerable resistance to any regional power (2010)

current situation:

• Cuba is principally a source country for children subjected to trafficking in persons, specifically commercial sexual exploitation within the country;
• the scope of trafficking within Cuba is difficult to gauge due to the closed nature of the government and sparse non-governmental or independent reporting

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;
• in a positive step, the Government of Cuba shared information about human trafficking and its efforts to address the issue;
• the government did not prohibit all forms of trafficking during the reporting period, nor did it provide specific evidence that it prosecuted and punished trafficking offenders, protected victims of all forms of trafficking, or implemented victim protection policies or programs to prevent human trafficking (2010)

• 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 (2008)