Cuba

The native Amerindian population of Cuba began to decline after the European discovery of the island by Christopher COLUMBUS in 1492 and following its development as a Spanish colony during the next several centuries. Large numbers of African slaves were imported to work the coffee and sugar plantations, and Havana became the launching point for the annual treasure fleets bound for Spain from Mexico and Peru. Spanish rule eventually provoked an independence movement and occasional rebellions that were harshly suppressed. US intervention during the Spanish-American War in 1898 assisted the Cubans in overthrowing Spanish rule. The Treaty of Paris established Cuban independence from the US in 1902 after which the island experienced a string of governments mostly dominated by the military and corrupt politicians. Fidel CASTRO led a rebel army to victory in 1959; his iron rule held the subsequent regime together for nearly five decades. He stepped down as president in February 2008 in favor of his younger brother Raul CASTRO. Cuba's Communist revolution, with Soviet support, was exported throughout Latin America and Africa during the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. The country faced a severe economic downturn in 1990 following the withdrawal of former Soviet subsidies worth $4 billion to $6 billion annually. Cuba portrays its difficulties as the result of the US embargo in place since 1961. Illicit migration to the US - using homemade rafts, alien smugglers, air flights, or via the southwest border - is a continuing problem. The US Coast Guard intercepted 2,656 individuals attempting to cross the Straits of Florida in fiscal year 2007.

Economical characteristics

 * Currency: Cuban peso (ISO code: CUP)
 * Central bank discount rate: NA%
 * Commercial banks lending rate: NA%
 * Stock of money (M1): $NA
 * Quasi money (with M1 makes M2): $NA

Links

 * Cuba on Wikipedia
 * Central bank of Cuba
 * BBC country profile
 * The Failure of Bolshevism and Its Aftermath (pdf) by David Ramsay Steele, 1981
 * Cuba's leaders see private farmers as key to saving socialism by David Adams, August 2009
 * Cuba Laying off One in Four Workers by Yoani Sanchez, July 2010
 * Cuba's leaders lay out details for layoffs by Andrea Rodriguez and Paul Haven, September 2010
 * Cuba’s Free-Market Farm Experiment Yields a Meager Crop by Damien Cave, December 2012
 * Cuba plans big tax breaks to lure foreign investors: official media by Marc Frank, March 2014