Cuba - Simple English Wikipedia

# Cuba

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Map of Cuba in the World

Cuba is a small country and at the same time the biggest island of the Greater Antilles. Located in the middle of the Caribbean Sea and just to the south of the United States, it has a very warm climate. The official language is Spanish and the currency is the Cuban Peso. But Cubans have to buy almost everything in the black market for their survival, and to do it they need American dollars sent to them by relatives living in the United States. (there are more than two million Cuban political exiles currently living outside their country)

Formerly, Cuba was a Spanish colony but it got its independence in 1898. It became a republic in 1902 with an Amendment to its constitution (Platt Amendment) that allowed the US to intervene in Cuban affairs. In 1933, after many years of protests, said amendment was repelled and Cuba was then totally independent from the US, although still with many economic and political ties in common. In 1959, there was a social-democratic revolution in the country. It brought Fidel Castro to power. Today, Castro is among the longest ruling heads of state. Castro has been the unelected ruler of Cuba for almost 48 years. Now aged 80, he does not want to relinquish power. He transferred the office to his 76 year old brother, Raul, while Fidel is recovering from surgery.

Cuba currently has a population of around 11,000,000. It has had a communist totalitarian government since 1959. Its capital is Havana.

According to a study done by UNESCO, Cuba has a very good education system for the region [1] . There is practically no illiteracy. Illiteracy is the fact that some people do not know how to read or write. According to another study [2], Students in third and forth grade performed noticeably better than those in the other Latin American countries that took part in the study. However, education in Cuba is under strict government control and students are indoctrinated in communism.

Every year, thousands of Cubans risk their lives in the ocean trying to escape from the government in makeshift rafts. But many are captured or killed by Cuban gunboats, captured by American Coast Guard units and returned to Cuba, or disappear into the ocean.

Under communism Cuba has often been depicted to be one of the poorest countries in the world but in some aspects like education, health care and life expectancy it fares much better than most countries in the South. In 2006 the World Food Programme certified Cuba to be the only country in Latin America without undernourished children.

Cubans have very limited civil liberties. There is no free press nor free elections in Cuba and only one political Party (Cuban Socialist Party) is allowed under the law. Many people have been killed for political reasons and many are in Cuban jails for dissenting with the communist regime.

There are not many shells or coral on Cuba's beaches, but there is plenty of wildlife and shells in the water. Indiscriminated commercial fishing, allowed and practiced by the government and by the former Soviet Union, have inflicted considerable ecological damage to coral formations in the island of Cuba.

There are school uniforms in Cuba. With the grade or level of education the color of the uniform changes. Students are forced to participate in political activities and marches during official events. According to the socialist constitution, children in Cuba are the responsibility of the State and not of their parents.

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Cuba

Countries and territories of North America
Independent: Antigua and Barbuda | Bahamas | Barbados | Belize | Canada | Costa Rica | Cuba | Dominica | Dominican Republic | El Salvador | Grenada | Guatemala | Haiti | Honduras | Jamaica | Mexico | Nicaragua | Panama | Saint Kitts and Nevis | Saint Lucia | Saint Vincent and the Grenadines | Trinidad and Tobago | United States
Governed by other countries: Anguilla | Aruba | Bermuda | British Virgin Islands | Cayman Islands | Greenland | Guadeloupe | Martinique | Montserrat | Navassa Island | Netherlands Antilles | Puerto Rico | Saint-Pierre and Miquelon | Turks and Caicos Islands | U.S. Virgin Islands

Countries and territories in the Caribbean (West Indies)
Antigua and Barbuda | Bahamas | Barbados | Cuba | Dominica | Dominican Republic | Grenada | Haiti | Jamaica | Saint Kitts and Nevis | Saint Lucia | Saint Vincent and the Grenadines | Trinidad and Tobago
Governed by other countries: Anguilla | Aruba | British Virgin Islands | Cayman Islands | Guadeloupe | Martinique | Montserrat | Navassa Island | Netherlands Antilles | Puerto Rico | Turks and Caicos Islands | U.S. Virgin Islands

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Categories: NPOV disputes | Cuba | Islands | Spanish-speaking countries

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