During the 1970s through the late 1980s, Cuba intervened in numerous conflicts in support of anti-colonial and Marxist governments or movements across Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East. According to a CIA declassified report, Cuba had received $33 billion in Soviet aid by 1984. Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Cuba faced a severe economic downturn in the 1990s, known as the Special Period. In 2008, Castro retired after 49 years; Raúl Castro was elected his successor. Raúl retired as president of the Council of State in 2018, and Miguel Díaz-Canel was elected president by the National Assembly following parliamentary elections. Raúl retired as First Secretary of the Communist Party in 2021, and Díaz-Canel was elected thereafter, becoming Cuba's first leader to have been born after the Cuban Revolution.
Cuba has one of the world's few planned economies, and its economy is dominated by tourism and the exports of skilled labor, sugar, tobacco, and coffee. Cuba has historically—before and during communist rule—performed better than other countries in Latin America and the Caribbean in literacy. After the 1959 revolution, Cuba performed better than other Latin American countries in infant and maternal mortality, and life expectancy. According to a 2012 study, Cuba is the only country in the world to meet the conditions of sustainable development put forth by the WWF. Cuba has a universal health care system that provides free medical treatment to all Cuban citizens, although challenges include low salaries for doctors, poor facilities, poor provision of equipment, and the frequent absence of essential drugs. (Full article...)
Havana Central (Spanish: La Habana Central; the "Central Railway Station", Estación Central de Ferrocarriles) is the main railway terminal in Havana and the largest railway station in Cuba. It serves as the hub of the rail system in the country. It handles the arrival and departure of national and divisional commuter trains, and is home to the national railway company, Ferrocarriles Nacionales de Cuba (FFCC), the only intercity passenger rail transport operating in the Caribbean.
Image 2Mariel refugees on boat to Florida (1980). (from History of Cuba)
Image 3Cuban refugees picked up at sea by the USS USS Whibdey Island (from History of Cuba)
Image 4Rebel leaders engaged in extensive propaganda to get the U.S. to intervene, as shown in this cartoon in an American magazine. Columbia (the American people) reaches out to help oppressed Cuba in 1897 while Uncle Sam (the U.S. government) is blind to the crisis and will not use its powerful guns to help. Judge magazine, 6 February 1897. (from History of Cuba)
Image 7Protests against the visit of soviet diplomat Anastas Mikoyan, dispersed by a policeman firing his gun. (February 5, 1960) (from History of Cuba)
Image 8Capablanca playing chess with his father José María Capablanca in 1892 (from Culture of Cuba)
Image 14A 1736 colonial map by Herman Moll of the West Indies and Mexico, together comprising "New Spain", with Cuba visible in the center. (from History of Cuba)
... that Cuba's Girardinus fish may have evolved into different species because the island's rivers are often interrupted by waterfalls or vanish underground?
... that Cuban swimmer Rafael Polinario had to defect to Canada instead of Spain after Fidel Castro's brother got on his plane?
... that Indonesian diplomat Linggawaty Hakim assisted the Bahamas government in determining its maritime border with Cuba?
... that after his movement's victory in the Cuban Revolution, television broadcasts showed Camilo Cienfuegos freeing parrots from birdcages, declaring that the birds had "a right to liberty"?
...that when the Banking sector in Cuba came under the control of the new regime after the Cuban Revolution of 1959, Fidel Castro asked if there were an economista in the room during an inaugural meeting? And that Che Guevara put his hand up mistakenly believing the request was for a communista, and subsequently became President of the National Bank of Cuba?
...that Havana Club is sold outside Cuba in conjunction with the Pernod Ricard drinks company, but is not sold in the United States due to the ongoing embargo on Cuban products?
...that the music for the song Guantanamera is regularly attributed to José Fernández Díaz in the 1920s, but that pianist Herminio "El Diablo" García Wilson also claimed to have written the song? And that the matter was only resolved decades later, when García's heirs lost their case at the Supreme Court of Cuba?
I am in daily danger of giving my life for my country and duty, for I understand that duty and have the courage to carry it out-the duty of preventing the United States from spreading through the Antilles as Cuba gains its independence, and from overpowering with that additional strength our lands of America. I have lived in the monster and I know its entrails; my sling is David's."
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