Cuba — Mediated Wiki

{{Short description|Country in the Caribbean}} {{Redirect|Republic of Cuba|the historical period of the first republic|Republic of Cuba (1902–1959)|other uses|Cuba (disambiguation)}} {{Pp-semi-indef|small=yes}} {{Use dmy dates|date=February 2026}} {{Infobox country | conventional_long_name = Republic of Cuba | common_name = Cuba | native_name = {{nativename|es-CU|República de Cuba}} | image_flag = Flag of Cuba.svg | image_coat = Coat of arms of Cuba.svg | alt_coat = A shield in front of a Fasces crowned by the Phrygian Cap, all supported by an oak branch and a laurel wreath | symbol_type = Coat of arms | national_motto = {{lang|es-CU|Patria o Muerte, Venceremos}} ("Homeland or Death, We Shall Overcome!"){{lower|0.2em|<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.bc.gob.cu/english/cuban_bills.asp |title=Cuban Peso Bills |publisher=Central Bank of Cuba |year=2015 |access-date=14 February 2017 |archive-date=26 September 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180926193856/http://www.bc.gob.cu/English/cuban_bills.asp}}</ref>}} | national_anthem = {{lang|es-CU|La Bayamesa}} {{raise|0.2em|("The Bayamo Song"){{lower|0.2em|<ref>{{cite web |url=http://mipais.cuba.cu/cat_en.php?idcat=91&idpadre=83&nivel=2 |title=National symbols |publisher=Government of Cuba |access-date=7 September 2009 |archive-date=15 January 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160115200948/http://mipais.cuba.cu/cat_en.php?idcat=91&idpadre=83&nivel=2 |url-status=dead }}</ref>}}}} {{parabr}}{{center|File:Cuban national anthem (abridged version), performed by the U.S. Navy Band.oga}} | image_map = CUB orthographic.svg | image_map2 = | map_width = 250px | alt_map = | map_caption = Cuba, shown in dark green | capital = Havana | coordinates = {{coord|23|8|N|82|23|W|type:city}} | largest_city = capital | official_languages = Spanish | religion = {{ublist |item_style=white-space:nowrap; | 58.9% Christianity | 23.2% no religion | 17.6% folk religions | 0.3% other }} | religion_year = 2020 | religion_ref = <ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/cuba/|title=Cuba – The World Factbook|publisher=Central Intelligence Agency|date=6 October 2021|access-date=19 January 2021|archive-date=12 August 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210812170744/https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/cuba/|url-status=dead}}</ref> | demonym = Cuban | government_type = Communist state | leader_title1 = First Secretary and President{{efn|The most powerful political position is First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba, not President. The first secretary controls the Politburo and the Secretariat, Cuba's top decision-making bodies, making the officeholder ''de facto'' leader of Cuba.}} | leader_name1 = Miguel Díaz-Canel | leader_title2 = {{nowrap|Vice President}} | leader_name2 = Salvador Valdés Mesa | leader_title3 = Prime Minister | leader_name3 = {{nowrap|Manuel Marrero Cruz}} | leader_title4 = President of the National Assembly | leader_name4 = {{nowrap|Esteban Lazo Hernández}} | legislature = National Assembly of People's Power | sovereignty_type = Independence | sovereignty_note = from Spain | established_event1 = Declaration of Independence | established_date1 = 10 October 1868 | established_event2 = War of Independence | established_date2 = 24 February 1895 | established_event3 = Recognized (sovereignty relinquished by Spain) | established_date3 = 10 December 1898 | established_event4 = Republic declared (end of United States occupation) | established_date4 = 20 May 1902 | established_event5 = Cuban Revolution | established_date5 = 26 July 1953 – 1 January 1959 | established_event6 = Current constitution | established_date6 = 10 April 2019 | area_km2 = 110,860<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/cuba/#geography|title=Cuba|date=20 February 2023|publisher=Central Intelligence Agency|access-date=20 November 2023|archive-date=12 August 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210812170744/https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/cuba/#geography|url-status=dead}}</ref> | area_rank = 104th  | area_sq_mi = 42,803  | percent_water = 0.94  | population_estimate = {{DecreaseNeutral}} 9,748,007<ref>{{cite web |title= Éramos 9 millones 748 mil 007 habitantes al cierre de 2024 en Cuba |url=https://www.onei.gob.cu/node/2586|publisher=Oficina Nacional de Estadística e Information República de Cuba |access-date=2 December 2025 |language=es}}</ref> | population_estimate_year = 2024 | population_estimate_rank = 95th | population_census = {{DecreaseNeutral}} 11,089,511<ref>{{cite web |title=Indicadores Demográficos por provincias y municipios 2022 |url=http://www.onei.gob.cu/node/13815 |publisher=Oficina Nacional de Estadística e Information República de Cuba |access-date=8 June 2023 |language=es |archive-date=14 March 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200314034430/http://www.onei.gob.cu/}}</ref> | population_census_year = 2022 | population_census_rank = | population_density_km2 = 89.8 | population_density_sq_mi = 230 | population_density_rank = 125th | GDP_PPP = $254.865 billion<ref name="auto">{{cite web|title=World Bank GDP PPP 2015, 28 April 2017 PDF |url=https://archive.org/details/GDPPPP1|access-date=18 January 2018}}</ref> | GDP_PPP_year = 2015 | GDP_PPP_rank = | GDP_PPP_per_capita = $22,237<ref name="auto"/><ref>{{cite web|title=World Bank total population of Cuba in 2015 (GDP PPP divided by Population data)|url=https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.POP.TOTL?end=2015&locations=CU&start=1960|access-date=18 January 2018|archive-date=11 November 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201111235251/https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.POP.TOTL?end=2015&locations=CU&start=1960|url-status=live}}</ref> | GDP_PPP_per_capita_rank = | GDP_nominal = {{increase}} $252.063 billion<ref name=C>{{cite web |url=https://unstats.un.org/unsd/snaama/Basic |title=Basic Data Selection |publisher=United Nations |access-date=14 February 2026|archive-date=9 March 2025|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250309165120/https://unstats.un.org/unsd/snaama/Basic |url-status=live }}</ref> | GDP_nominal_year = 2024 | GDP_nominal_rank = 59th | GDP_nominal_per_capita = {{increase}} $22,957<ref name=C/> | GDP_nominal_per_capita_rank = 60th | Gini = 38.0  | Gini_year = 2000 | Gini_ref = <ref>{{cite news |title=Cuba grapples with growing inequality |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-cuba-reform-inequality-idUSN1033501920080410 |first=Marc |last=Frank |date=10 April 2008 |access-date=21 July 2013 |work=Reuters |archive-date=23 December 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151223074938/http://www.reuters.com/article/us-cuba-reform-inequality-idUSN1033501920080410 |url-status=live }}</ref> | Gini_rank = | HDI = 0.762 | HDI_year = 2023 | HDI_change = decrease | HDI_ref = <ref name="UNHDR">{{cite web|url=https://hdr.undp.org/system/files/documents/global-report-document/hdr2023-24reporten.pdf|title=Human Development Report 2023/24|language=en|publisher=United Nations Development Programme|date=13 March 2024|access-date=13 March 2024|archive-date=13 March 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240313164319/https://hdr.undp.org/system/files/documents/global-report-document/hdr2023-24reporten.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref> | HDI_rank = 97th | currency = Cuban peso | currency_code = CUP | time_zone = CST | utc_offset = −05:00 | time_zone_DST = CDT | utc_offset_DST = −04:00 | date_format = {{nowrap|dd/mm/yyyy}} | calling_code = +53 | cctld = .cu | footnotes = {{notelist}} }}

'''Cuba''',{{efn|{{IPAc-en|audio=En-Cuba-pronunciation.ogg|ˈ|k|juː|b|ə}} {{respell|KEW|bə}}, {{IPA|es-CU|ˈkuβa|lang|es-am-lat-Cuba.ogg}}}} officially the '''Republic of Cuba''',{{efn|{{langx|es-CU|República de Cuba|links=no}} {{IPA|es-CU|reˈpuβlika ðe ˈkuβa||}}}} is an island country in the Caribbean. It comprises the eponymous main island as well as 4,195 islands, islets, and cays. Situated at the convergence of the Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico, and Atlantic Ocean, Cuba is located east of the Yucatán Peninsula, south of both Florida and the Bahamas, west of Hispaniola, and north of Jamaica and the Cayman Islands. Havana is the largest city and capital. Cuba is the third-most populous country in the Caribbean after Haiti and Dominican Republic, with about 10 million inhabitants. It is the largest country in the Caribbean by area. Culturally, Cuba is considered part of Latin America.<ref>{{cite book |last=Rangel |first=Carlos |author-link=Carlos Rangel |title=The Latin Americans: Their Love-Hate Relationship with the United States |publisher=Harcourt Brace Jovanovich |year=1977 |isbn=978-0-15-148795-0 |location=New York |pages=3–5}} {{cite book |last=Skidmore |first=Thomas E. |author-link=Thomas E. Skidmore|url=https://archive.org/details/modernlatinameri0006skid/page/1 |title=Modern Latin America |author2-first=Peter H. |author2-last=Smith |author2-link=Peter H. Smith|publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2005 |isbn=978-0-19-517013-9 |edition=6 |location=Oxford and New York |pages=[https://archive.org/details/modernlatinameri0006skid/page/1 1–10] |url-access=registration}}</ref>

Cuba was inhabited as early as the 4th millennium BC, with the Guanahatabey and Taíno peoples present at the time of Spanish colonization in the 15th century. Cuba's population descends primarily from three groups: pre-Columbian indigenous peoples, chiefly the Taíno and Ciboney,<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Lalueza-Fox |first1=Carles |last2=Gilbert |first2=M. Thomas P. |last3=Martínez-Fuentes |first3=Antonio J. |last4=Calafell |first4=Francesc |last5=Bertranpetit |first5=Jaume |year=2003 |title=Mitochondrial DNA from Pre-Columbian Ciboneys from Cuba and the Prehistoric Colonization of the Caribbean |journal=American Journal of Physical Anthropology |volume=121 |issue=2 |pages=97–108 |doi=10.1002/ajpa.10236 |pmid=12740952 |bibcode=2003AJPA..121...97L }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Mendizabal |first1=Isabel |last2=Sandoval |first2=Karla |last3=Berniell-Lee |first3=Gemma |last4=Calafell |first4=Francesc |last5=Salas |first5=Antonio |last6=Martínez-Fuentes |first6=Antonio |last7=Comas |first7=David |year=2008 |title=Genetic origin, admixture, and asymmetry in maternal and paternal human lineages in Cuba |journal=BMC Evolutionary Biology |volume=8 |issue=1 |pages=213 |doi=10.1186/1471-2148-8-213 |doi-access=free |pmc=2492877 |pmid=18644108 |bibcode=2008BMCEE...8..213M }}</ref> Spanish settlers and immigrants (mainly from Andalusia, the Canary Islands, Galicia, and Asturias),<ref>{{cite book |last=Pérez Jr. |first=Louis A. |year=2006 |title=Cuba: Between Reform and Revolution |edition=3rd |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-517911-8}}</ref> and sub-Saharan Africans brought through the transatlantic slave trade.<ref>{{cite book |last=Klein |first=Herbert S. |year=2010 |title=The Atlantic Slave Trade |edition=2nd |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-18250-8}}</ref> The territory remained part of the Spanish Empire until the Spanish–American War of 1898, after which it was occupied by the United States and gained independence in 1902. A 1933 coup toppled the democratically elected government of Carlos Manuel de Céspedes y Quesada and began a long period of military influence, particularly by Fulgencio Batista. In 1940, Cuba implemented a new constitution, but mounting political unrest culminated in the 1952 Cuban coup d'état by Batista. His autocratic government was overthrown in January 1959 by the 26th of July Movement during the Cuban Revolution. That revolution established communist rule under the leadership of Fidel Castro. The country under Castro was a point of contention during the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States, and the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 is widely considered the closest the Cold War came to escalating into nuclear war.

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 is a socialist state in which the role of the Communist Party is enshrined in the Constitution. Cuba is currently the world's only communist country outside of Asia. Cuba has an authoritarian government wherein political opposition is prohibited.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Levitsky |first1=Steven |author1-link=Steven Levitsky|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NZDI05p1PDgC&pg=PA361 |title=Competitive Authoritarianism: Hybrid Regimes after the Cold War |last2=Way |first2=Lucan A. |date=16 August 2010 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-139-49148-8 |pages=361–363 |access-date=19 March 2023 |archive-date=9 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230409052842/https://books.google.com/books?id=NZDI05p1PDgC&pg=PA361 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Lachapelle |first1=Jean |last2=Levitsky |first2=Steven |last3=Way |first3=Lucan A. |last4=Casey |first4=Adam E. |title=Social Revolution and Authoritarian Durability |journal=World Politics |date=October 2020 |volume=72 |issue=4 |pages=557–600 |doi=10.1017/S0043887120000106 }}</ref> Censorship is extensive, and independent journalism is repressed;<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |last1=Stein |first1=Elizabeth Ann |title=Information and Civil Unrest in Dictatorships |encyclopedia=Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Politics |date=2016 |doi=10.1093/acrefore/9780190228637.013.35 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Six facts about censorship in Cuba |url=https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2016/03/six-facts-about-censorship-in-cuba/ |access-date=17 December 2020 |publisher=Amnesty International |date=11 March 2016 |language=en |archive-date=11 October 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221011094221/https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2016/03/six-facts-about-censorship-in-cuba/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Press Freedom Index 2015">{{Cite web |title=2015 World Press Freedom Index |url=http://index.rsf.org/#!/index-details/CUB |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150827202105/http://index.rsf.org/#!/index-details/CUB |archive-date=2015-08-27 |access-date=2026-04-23 |website=Reporters Without Borders}}</ref> Reporters Without Borders has characterized Cuba as one of the worst countries for press freedom.<ref>{{cite web|year=2008|title=Press Freedom Index 2008 |url=http://www.rsf.org/IMG/pdf/cl_en_2008.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090303221403/http://www.rsf.org/IMG/pdf/cl_en_2008.pdf|archive-date=3 March 2009|publisher=Reporters Without Borders}}</ref><ref name="Press Freedom Index 2015" /> Cuba is a founding member of the UN, G77, NAM, OACPS, ALBA, and OAS. Since 1959, Cuba has regarded the U.S. military presence in Guantánamo Bay as illegal.<ref name="auto1">{{Cite news |date=2015-01-30 |title=US rejects Cuba demand to hand back Guantanamo Bay base |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-31059030 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161207183342/http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-31059030 |archive-date=7 December 2016 |access-date=2026-04-23 |work=BBC News |language=en-GB}}</ref>

Cuba has one of the world's few command 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.<ref>{{cite web |title=Pre-Castro Cuba {{!}} American Experience |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/comandante-pre-castro-cuba/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210722110826/https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/comandante-pre-castro-cuba/ |archive-date=22 July 2021 |access-date=20 July 2021 |publisher=PBS}}</ref><ref name=":15">{{cite web |last1=Greenberg |first1=Jon |date=24 February 2020 |title=Fact-checking Bernie Sanders' claim on Cuba literacy under Castro |url=https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2020/feb/24/bernie-sanders/sanders-correct-cuba-literacy-campaign-skimps-prop/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210720000408/https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2020/feb/24/bernie-sanders/sanders-correct-cuba-literacy-campaign-skimps-prop/ |archive-date=20 July 2021 |access-date=20 July 2021 |website=PolitiFact}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Cabello |first1=Juan José |display-authors=etal. |year=2012 |title=An approach to sustainable development: the case of Cuba |journal=Environment, Development and Sustainability |volume=14 |issue=4 |pages=573–591 |doi=10.1007/s10668-012-9338-8 |bibcode=2012EDSus..14..573C }}</ref> Cuba has a universal health care system that provides free medical treatment to all Cuban citizens,<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Geloso |first1=Vincent |last2=Pavlik |first2=Jamie Bologna |title=The Cuban revolution and infant mortality: A synthetic control approach |journal=Explorations in Economic History |date=April 2021 |volume=80 |article-number=101376 |doi=10.1016/j.eeh.2020.101376 }}</ref><ref name=":1">{{cite news |last=Kessler |first=Glenn |author-link=Glenn Kessler (journalist)|date=1 December 2016 |title=Justin Trudeau's claim that Castro made 'significant improvements' to Cuban health care and education |newspaper=The Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2016/12/01/justin-trudeaus-claim-that-castro-made-significant-improvements-to-cuban-health-care-and-education/ |url-access=registration |access-date=19 August 2017 |archive-date=17 April 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200417102506/https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2016/12/01/justin-trudeaus-claim-that-castro-made-significant-improvements-to-cuban-health-care-and-education/ |url-status=live }}</ref> although challenges include low salaries for doctors, poor facilities, poor provision of equipment, and the frequent absence of essential drugs.<ref name=":7" /><ref name=":8" />

A 2023 study by the Cuban Observatory of Human Rights estimated that 88% of the population lives in extreme poverty.<ref>{{Cite web |year=2023 |title=The State of Social Rights in Cuba: VI Report 2023 |url=https://derechossocialescuba.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/ODS6_EN.pdf |publisher=Observatorio Cubano de Derechos Humanos (OCDH) |access-date=2 October 2023 |archive-date=5 October 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231005132152/https://derechossocialescuba.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/ODS6_EN.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> According to the World Food Programme of the United Nations, rationed food meets only a fraction of daily nutritional needs for many Cubans, leading to health issues.<ref name=":10">{{Cite web |date=5 April 2023 |title=Un informe de la ONU señala que los cubanos de 14 a 60 años sufren de malnutrición |url=https://www.14ymedio.com/cuba/informe-ONU-senala-cubanos-malnutricion_0_3508449125.html |access-date=8 October 2023 |website=14ymedio |language=es}}</ref> Ongoing since 1960, the United States embargo against Cuba stands as one of the longest-running trade and economic measures in bilateral relations in history.<ref name=":6">{{Cite web |last=Padinger |first=Germán |date=9 November 2021 |title=En qué consiste el embargo comercial de Estados Unidos sobre Cuba |url=https://cnnespanol.cnn.com/2021/11/09/embargo-eeuu-cuba-afectado-economia-isla-orix/ |access-date=7 October 2023 |publisher=CNN |language=es |archive-date=23 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230923191445/https://cnnespanol.cnn.com/2021/11/09/embargo-eeuu-cuba-afectado-economia-isla-orix/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

==Etymology== Historians believe the name ''Cuba'' comes from the Taíno language; however, its derivation is unknown.<ref>{{cite web|title=Cuba – Cultural institutions {{!}} history – geography|url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Cuba/Cultural-institutions#toc129488|website=Encyclopædia Britannica|access-date=18 August 2017|page=11|archive-date=18 August 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170818052221/https://www.britannica.com/place/Cuba/Cultural-institutions#toc129488|url-status=live}}</ref> ''Cuba'' may be translated either as 'where fertile land is abundant' (''cubao''),<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.alfredcarrada.org/notes8.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090219192148/http://alfredcarrada.org/notes8.html |title=Alfred Carrada – The Dictionary of the Taino Language|archive-date=19 February 2009|website=alfredcarrada.org}}</ref> or 'great place' (''coabana'').

Another hypothesis on the name's origin is that the island was named after the town of Cuba, Portugal, supported by those who believe that Christopher Columbus was Portuguese.<ref>{{cite book |first=Augusto | last=Mascarenhas Barreto |date=1988 |isbn=0-333-56315-8 |language=pt |location=Lisboa |publisher=Referendo |title= O Português. Cristóvão Colombo Agente Secreto do Rei Dom João II }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=da Silva |first1=Manuel |last2=da Silva |first2=Silvia Jorge |isbn=978-1-60702-824-6 |date=2008 |language=en |location=Fall River, Massachusetts |publisher=Express Printing |title=Christopher Columbus was Portuguese |url=https://archive.org/details/christophercolum0000silv}}</ref><ref>{{ cite book | first1 = Adám | last1 = Szászdi | first2 = István | last2 = Szászdi | editor-first = Luis Navarro | editor-last = García | publisher = Universidad de Huelva | url = http://www.americanistas.es/biblo/textos/c12/c12-025.pdf | archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20140727080534/http://www.americanistas.es/biblo/textos/c12/c12-025.pdf | archivedate = 27 July 2014 | title = Orbis Incognitvs. Avisos y Legajos del Nuevo Mundo | chapter = Portugal y Palos en la vida de Colón: algunas observaciones | date = 2007 | isbn = 9788496826243 | language = es | pages = 19–25 | via = Americanistas.es }}</ref>

==History==  {{Main|History of Cuba|Timeline of Cuban history}}

===Pre-Columbian era=== Humans first settled Cuba around 6,000 years ago, descending from migrations from northern South America or Central America.<ref name=":13">{{Cite journal |last1=Fernandes |first1=Daniel M. |last2=Sirak |first2=Kendra A. |last3=Ringbauer |first3=Harald |last4=Sedig |first4=Jakob |last5=Rohland |first5=Nadin |last6=Cheronet |first6=Olivia |last7=Mah |first7=Matthew |last8=Mallick |first8=Swapan |last9=Olalde |first9=Iñigo |last10=Culleton |first10=Brendan J. |last11=Adamski |first11=Nicole |last12=Bernardos |first12=Rebecca |last13=Bravo |first13=Guillermo |last14=Broomandkhoshbacht |first14=Nasreen |last15=Callan |first15=Kimberly |date=4 February 2021 |title=A genetic history of the pre-contact Caribbean |journal=Nature |language=en |volume=590 |issue=7844 |pages=103–110 |doi=10.1038/s41586-020-03053-2 |pmc=7864882 |pmid=33361817 |bibcode=2021Natur.590..103F }}</ref> The arrival of humans on Cuba is associated with extinctions of the island's native fauna, particularly its endemic sloths.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Orihuela |first1=Johanset |last2=Viñola |first2=Lázaro W. |last3=Jiménez Vázquez |first3=Osvaldo |last4=Mychajliw |first4=Alexis M. |last5=Hernández de Lara |first5=Odlanyer |last6=Lorenzo |first6=Logel |last7=Soto-Centeno |first7=J. Angel |date=December 2020 |title=Assessing the role of humans in Greater Antillean land vertebrate extinctions: New insights from Cuba |journal=Quaternary Science Reviews |volume=249 |article-number=106597 |doi=10.1016/j.quascirev.2020.106597 |doi-access=free |bibcode=2020QSRv..24906597O }}</ref> The Arawakan-speaking ancestors of the Taíno people arrived in the Caribbean in a separate migration from South America around 1,700 years ago. Unlike the previous settlers of Cuba, the Taíno extensively produced pottery and engaged in intensive agriculture.<ref name=":13" /> The earliest evidence of the Taíno people on Cuba dates to the 9th century.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Keegan |first1=William F. |last2=Hofman |first2=Corinne L. |title=The Caribbean before Columbus |chapter=Cuba, the Bahama Archipelago, and Jamaica |date=2017 |pages=151–196 |doi=10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190605247.003.0006 |isbn=978-0-19-060524-7 }}</ref> Descendants of the first settlers of Cuba persisted on the western part of the island until Columbian contact, where they were recorded as the Guanahatabey people, who lived a hunter-gatherer lifestyle.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Roksandic |first1=Ivan |title=Cuban Archaeology in the Caribbean |chapter=The Role of the Nicaraguan Rise in the Early Peopling of the Greater Antilles |date=2016 |doi=10.5744/florida/9781683400028.003.0002 |isbn=978-1-68340-002-8 }}</ref><ref name=":13" />

===Spanish colonization and rule (1492–1898)=== {{main|Governorate of Cuba|Captaincy General of Cuba}}

Christopher Columbus landed on Cuba on 27 October 1492.<ref>{{cite book |author=Cuba Oficina Del Censo|title=Cuba: Population, History and Resources 1907 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=E0iIQ1nxJB4C |year=2009|publisher=BiblioBazaar, LLC|isbn=978-1-110-28818-2|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=E0iIQ1nxJB4C&pg=PA28 28]}} (gives the landing date in Cuba as 28 October)</ref> Columbus claimed the island for the new Kingdom of Spain<ref name="Gott p13">{{Harvnb|Gott|2004|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=aVq0qOnLFusC&pg=PA13 13]}}</ref> and named it ''Isla Juana'' ("John's Island") after John, Prince of Asturias.<ref>{{cite book |first1=Alfred J. |last1=Andrea |author-link1= Alfred J. Andrea |author2=Overfield, James H. |title=The Human Record |volume=1|chapter=Letter by Christopher Columbus concerning recently discovered islands|publisher=Houghton Mifflin Company|year=2005 |page=8 |isbn=978-0-618-37040-5}}</ref>

[[File:DiegoVelazquezCuellar.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar, conquistador of Cuba]]

In 1511 the first Spanish settlement was founded by Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar at Baracoa. Other settlements followed, including San Cristobal de la Habana, founded in 1514 (southern coast of the island) and then in 1519 (current place), which later became the capital (1607). The Taíno were forced to work under the ''encomienda'' system,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/colonial/encomienda-slavery.pdf |title=Encomienda or Slavery? The Spanish Crown's Choice of Labor Organization in Sixteenth-Century Spanish America |website=LatinAmericanStudies.org |access-date=19 July 2013 |archive-date=9 May 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060509061016/http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/colonial/encomienda-slavery.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> which resembled the feudal system in medieval Europe.<ref name="McAlister 1984 164">{{Harvnb|McAlister|1984|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=a1vBlgo68J4C&pg=PA164 164]}}</ref> Within a century, the Taíno faced high incidence of mortality from multiple factors—primarily Eurasian infectious diseases to which they had no acquired immunity, aggravated by the harsh conditions of the repressive colonial subjugation.<ref>{{cite book |last=Diamond |first=Jared M. |author-link=Jared Diamond |title=Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies |url=https://www.pbs.org/gunsgermssteel/variables/smallpox.html |publisher=W.W. Norton & Co |location=c |year=1998 |isbn=978-0-393-03891-0 |access-date=26 August 2017 |archive-date=16 January 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100116115810/http://www.pbs.org/gunsgermssteel/variables/smallpox.html |url-status=live }}</ref> In 1529, a measles outbreak killed two-thirds of those few indigenous individuals who had previously survived smallpox.<ref>{{cite book |last=Byrne |first=Joseph Patrick |title=Encyclopedia of Pestilence, Pandemics, and Plagues: A-M |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5Pvi-ksuKFIC&pg=PA413 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |year=2008 |page=413 |isbn=978-0-313-34102-1 }}{{Dead link|date=August 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref><ref>J. N. Hays (2005). ''[https://archive.org/details/epidemicspandemi0000hays/page/82 Epidemics and Pandemics: Their Impacts on Human History]'' {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161127014715/https://books.google.com/books?id=GyE8Qt-kS1kC&pg=PA82 |date=27 November 2016}}. p.82. {{ISBN|1-85109-658-2}}</ref>

On 18 May 1539, conquistador Hernando de Soto departed from Havana with some 600 followers on an extensive expedition through the Southeastern United States in search of gold, treasure, fame, and power.<ref>Davidson, James West. ''After the Fact: The Art of Historical Detection'' Volume 1. New York: McGraw Hill, 2010. Chapter 1, p. 1</ref> On 1 September 1548, Gonzalo Perez de Angulo was appointed governor of Cuba. He arrived in Santiago de Cuba on 4 November 1549 and declared the liberty of the indigenous population.{{sfn|Wright|1916|p=183}} He became Cuba's first permanent governor, residing in Havana, and he built the first church made of masonry in Cuba.{{sfn|Wright|1916|p=229}}{{efn|After the French captured Havana in 1555, the governor's son, Francisco de Angulo, went to the Viceroyalty of New Spain.{{sfn|Wright|1916|p=246}}}}

thumb|upright=1.35|A map of Cuba {{Circa|1680}}

By 1570, most residents of Cuba had a mixture of Spanish, African, and Taíno heritages.<ref name=Britannica/> Cuba developed slowly and, unlike the plantation islands of the Caribbean, had a diversified agriculture. Most importantly, the colony developed as an urbanized society that primarily supported the Spanish colonial empire. By the mid-18th century, there were 50,000 slaves on the island. Estimates suggest that between 1790 and 1820, some 325,000 Africans were imported to Cuba as slaves, which was four times the amount that had arrived between 1760 and 1790.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Freedom's Mirror: Cuba and Haiti in the Age of Revolution |last=Ferrer |first=Ada |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2014 |isbn=978-1107029422 |location=New York |page=36}}</ref>

In 1812, the Aponte slave rebellion took place, but it was ultimately suppressed.<ref>{{cite book|last=Childs|first=Matt D.|title=The 1813 Aponte Rebellion in Cuba and the Struggle against Atlantic Slavery|year=2006|publisher=The University of North Carolina Press|isbn=978-0-8078-5772-4|page=320 pages}}</ref> The population in 1817 was 630,980 (of which 291,021 were white, 115,691 were free people of color (mixed-race), and 224,268 black slaves).{{sfn|Scheina|2003|p=352}} The population in 1841 was 1,007,624, of whom 425,521 were black slaves, 418,291 were white.<ref>{{cite book |title=The National Cyclopaedia of Useful Knowledge |date=1848 |publisher=Charles Knight |location=London |page=Vol V, p.132 |edition=First}}</ref>

By the 19th century, the practice of {{Lang|es-CU|coartacion}} had developed (or "buying oneself out of slavery", a "uniquely Cuban development").<ref>Herbert S. Klein, ''Slavery in the Americas: A Comparative Study of Virginia and Cuba'', Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1967, p. 196</ref> With a shortage of white labor, blacks dominated urban industries to such an extent that when whites in large numbers came to Cuba in the middle of the 19th century, they were unable to displace black workers.<ref name="drimmer">{{cite journal |jstor=1919107 |author=Melvin Drimmer |title=Reviewed Work: ''Slavery in the Americas: A Comparative Study of Virginia and Cuba'' by Herbert S. Klein |journal=The William and Mary Quarterly |volume=25 |issue=2 |date=Apr 1968 |pages=307–309|doi=10.2307/1919107 }}</ref> A system of diversified agriculture, with small farms and fewer slaves, served to supply the cities with produce and other goods.<ref name="drimmer"/>

In the 1820s, when the rest of Spain's empire in Latin America rebelled and formed independent states, Cuba remained loyal to Spain. Its economy was based on serving the empire. By 1860, Cuba had 213,167 free people of color (39% of its non-white population of 550,000).<ref name="drimmer"/>

===Independence movements=== {{Main|Republic of Cuba in Arms}}

[[File:Carlos Manuel de Cespedes.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Carlos Manuel de Céspedes is known as ''Father of the Homeland'' in Cuba, having declared its independence from Spain in 1868.]]

Full independence from Spain was the goal of a rebellion in 1868 led by planter Carlos Manuel de Céspedes. De Céspedes, a sugar planter, freed his slaves to fight with him for an independent Cuba.<ref name=":14">The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. "Carlos Manuel de Céspedes". Encyclopedia Britannica, 14 April 2025, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Carlos-Manuel-de-Cespedes. Accessed 9 May 2025</ref> On 27 December 1868, he issued a decree condemning slavery in theory—but accepting it in practice—and declaring free any slaves whose masters presented them for military service.{{sfn|Chomsky|Carr|Smorkaloff|2004|pp=[https://books.google.com/books?id=Sr2hQkCIihMC&pg=PA115 115–117]}} The 1868 rebellion resulted in a prolonged conflict known as the Ten Years' War.<ref name=":14" /><ref>{{Cite web |title=Military Records – Cuban Genealogy Club of Miami, Fl., Inc. |url=https://www.cubangenclub.org/databases/military/ |access-date=9 May 2025 |language=en-US}}</ref> The Cuban rebels were joined by former Dominican colonial officers, volunteers from Canada, Colombia, France, Mexico, the United States, and Chinese indentured servants,{{efn|According to one military historian, "The thirty-eight individuals who responded to the call for independence on 9 October 1868 had almost no military experience. They, and other Cubans, ignorant of the martial skills, were soon joined by a small band of political refugees from Santo Domingo. A number of these individuals had fought for Spain in Santo Domingo following its re-annexation (1861–65). When Spain quit Santo Domingo for the second time, some Dominican colonial officers immigrated to Cuba. Most were unable to find service in the Spanish army in Cuba. Some of these former soldiers joined the new Revolutionary army and provided its initial training and leadership."{{sfn|Scheina|2003|p=353}} Mercenaries from Canada, Colombia, France, Mexico, and the United States joined the Cuban Revolutionary Army. Chinese nationals, brought to Cuba as indentured servants, also fought for the cause.{{sfn|Scheina|2003|p=353}} By 1876, the Cuban Revolutionary movement was facing internal strife, largely driven by racial tensions. General Máximo Gómez surrendered his command after officers refused to follow his orders because he was Dominican. At the same time, the campaign against Antonio Maceo, a mulatto leader, grew stronger as white factions sought to undermine his leadership because of his race. These racial divisions contributed to a decline in morale within the Revolutionary Army.{{sfn|Scheina|2003|p=357}}}} but lacked support from wealthy planters and the majority of slaves.<ref name=Britannica/> Céspedes was killed by Spanish troops in 1874.

The United States declined to recognize the new Cuban government, although many European and Latin American nations did.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.cubagenweb.org/mil/e-war-hist.htm|title=Historia de las Guerrras de Cuba|website=cubagenweb.org|access-date=11 May 2007|archive-date=8 September 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180908064028/http://www.cubagenweb.org/mil/e-war-hist.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> In 1878, the Pact of Zanjón ended the conflict, with Spain promising greater autonomy to Cuba. In 1879–80, Cuban patriot Calixto García attempted to start another war known as the Little War but failed to receive enough support.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.historyofcuba.com/history/funfacts/lilwar.htm |title=The Little War of 1878 – History of Cuba |website=historyofcuba.com |access-date=11 May 2007 |archive-date=15 August 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170815055924/http://www.historyofcuba.com/history/funfacts/lilwar.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> Slavery in Cuba was abolished in 1875, with the process completed by 1886.{{sfn|Scott|2000|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=SmpMmVQAvAcC&pg=PA3 3]}}{{sfn|Chomsky|Carr|Smorkaloff|2004|pp=[https://books.google.com/books?id=Sr2hQkCIihMC&pg=PA37 37–38]}} Exiled dissident José Martí founded the Cuban Revolutionary Party in New York City in 1892. The party aimed to achieve Cuban independence from Spain.<ref name=sandler>{{cite book|title=Ground Warfare: An International Encyclopedia|chapter=Part 25|volume=1|page=549|year=2002|editor-first=Stanley |editor-last=Sandler|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-1-57607-344-5|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L_xxOM85bD8C&pg=PP1|access-date=6 September 2009|archive-date=8 January 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240108204734/https://books.google.com/books?id=L_xxOM85bD8C&pg=PP1|url-status=live}}</ref> In 1895, he traveled to San Fernando de Monte Cristi and Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic to join the efforts of Máximo Gómez.<ref name=sandler /> He recorded his political views in the ''Manifesto of Montecristi''.<ref name=arias>{{cite book|title=Spanish-Americans: Lives And Faces|page=171|author-first=David |author-last=Arias|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7AlqghmzQVUC&pg=PA171|year=2005|isbn=978-1-4120-4717-3|publisher=Trafford Publishing|location=Victoria, BC, Canada|access-date=6 September 2009|archive-date=8 January 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240108204705/https://books.google.com/books?id=7AlqghmzQVUC&pg=PA171#v=onepage&q&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref> Fighting against the Spanish army began in Cuba on 24 February 1895, and Martí arrived in April.<ref name=sandler /> He was killed in the Battle of Dos Rios on 19 May 1895.<ref name=sandler /> His death immortalized him as Cuba's national hero.<ref name=arias />

[[File:Human remains in Cuba.jpg|thumb|Human remains from the Cuban War of Independence after the Spanish reconcentration policy, 1898]] Around 200,000 Spanish troops outnumbered the much smaller rebel army, which relied mostly on guerrilla and sabotage tactics. The Spaniards began a campaign of suppression. General Valeriano Weyler, the military governor of Cuba, herded the rural population into what he called {{Lang|es-CU|reconcentrados}}, described by international observers as "fortified towns". These are often considered the prototype for 20th-century concentration camps.<ref>{{cite book |title=Of Planting and Planning: The Making of British Colonial Cities |publisher=Chapman and Hall |author-first=Robert K. |author-last=Home |year=1997 |isbn=978-0-419-20230-1 |page=195 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1ovC4TylXNkC&pg=PA195 |access-date=6 September 2009 |archive-date=8 January 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240108204721/https://books.google.com/books?id=1ovC4TylXNkC&pg=PA195 |url-status=live }}</ref> Between 200,000<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WcMWAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA508 |title=Liberty, Equality, Power: A History of the American People, Volume II: Since 1863, Concise Edition |first1=John M. |last1=Murrin |first2=Paul E. |last2=Johnson |author2-link=Paul E. Johnson|first3=James M. |last3=McPherson |author3-link=James M. McPherson |first4=Alice |last4=Fahs |first5=Gary |last5=Gerstle |author5-link=Gary Gerstle|date=27 February 2013 |publisher=Cengage Learning |isbn=9781285629544 |access-date=22 February 2020 |archive-date=8 January 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240108204715/https://books.google.com/books?id=WcMWAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA508 |url-status=live }}</ref> and 400,000 Cuban civilians died from starvation and disease in the Spanish concentration camps, numbers verified by the Red Cross and United States Senator Redfield Proctor, a former Secretary of War. American and European protests against Spanish conduct on the island followed.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.spanamwar.com/proctorspeech.htm |title=Cuban Reconcentration Policy and its Effects |author=The Spanish–American War |author-link=Spanish–American War |access-date=29 January 2007 |archive-date=24 October 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191024165715/http://www.spanamwar.com/proctorspeech.htm |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Thurber |first=Dani |title=Research Guides: World of 1898: International Perspectives on the Spanish American War: Valeriano Weyler |url=https://guides.loc.gov/world-of-1898/valeriano-weyler |access-date=9 May 2025 |website=guides.loc.gov |language=en}}</ref> The U.S. battleship USS ''Maine'' was sent to protect American interests, but soon after its arrival, it exploded in the Havana Harbor and sank quickly, killing nearly three-quarters of the crew. The cause and responsibility for the ship's sinking remained unclear after a board of inquiry. Popular opinion in the U.S., fueled by active yellow press, concluded that the Spanish were to blame and demanded action.<ref name=morison>{{cite book |title=The American Battleship |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SYurkGIlgLMC&pg=PA18 |page=18 |author1-first=Samuel Loring |author1-last=Morison |author1-link=Samuel Loring Morison|author2-last=Morison |author2-first=Samuel Eliot |author2-link=Samuel Eliot Morison |author3-last=Polmar |author3-first=Norman |author3-link=Norman Polmar|year=2003 |location=St. Paul, Minn. |publisher=MBI Publishing Company |isbn=978-0-7603-0989-6 |access-date=15 September 2009 |archive-date=8 January 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240108204722/https://books.google.com/books?id=SYurkGIlgLMC&pg=PA18 |url-status=live }}</ref> Spain and the United States declared war on each other in late April 1898.<ref>{{Cite web |last= |first= |date=24 November 2009 |title=The USS Maine explodes in Cuba's Havana Harbor {{!}} 15 February 1898 |url=https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/february-15/the-maine-explodes |access-date=9 May 2025 |website=HISTORY |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |title=Why did the USS Maine explode? |first=John E. |last=Fahey |date=7 February 2023 |url=https://usnhistory.navylive.dodlive.mil/Recent/Article-View/Article/3290776/why-did-the-uss-maine-explode/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250417161532/https://usnhistory.navylive.dodlive.mil/Recent/Article-View/Article/3290776/why-did-the-uss-maine-explode/ |archive-date=17 April 2025 |access-date=9 May 2025 |work=The Sextant |language=en-US}}</ref>

===Republic (1902–1959)=== {{Main|Republic of Cuba (1902–1959)}}

====First years (1902–1925)==== thumb|Raising the Cuban flag on the Governor General's palace at noon on 20 May 1902. After the Spanish–American War, Spain and the United States signed the Treaty of Paris (1898), by which Spain relinquished sovereignty over Cuba and ceded Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines to the United States for the sum of {{Nowrap|US $20 million}}<ref>{{cite web|url=http://avalon.law.yale.edu/19th_century/sp1898.asp|title=Treaty of Peace Between the United States and Spain|date=10 December 1898|work=The Avalon Project|publisher=Yale Law School|access-date=6 September 2009|archive-date=8 July 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120708063629/http://avalon.law.yale.edu/19th_century/sp1898.asp|url-status=live}}</ref> With the end of U.S. military government jurisdiction, Cuba gained formal independence on 20 May 1902 as the Republic of Cuba.<ref name="Pérez1998">{{cite book|author-first=Louis A. |author-last=Pérez|title=Cuba Between Empires: 1878–1902|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qRhK4vMXe1QC&pg=PR15|access-date=19 July 2013|year=1998|publisher=University of Pittsburgh Press|isbn=978-0-8229-7197-9|page=xv|archive-date=8 January 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240108204559/https://books.google.com/books?id=qRhK4vMXe1QC&pg=PR15#v=onepage&q&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref> Under Cuba's constitution, the United States retained the right to intervene in Cuban affairs and to supervise its finances and foreign relations. Under the Platt Amendment, the U.S. leased the Guantánamo Bay Naval Base from Cuba.<ref name="Cuba-Platt">{{Cite web|url=https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/platt-amendment|title=Platt Amendment (1903)|date=29 October 2025|website=National Archives}}</ref>

Following disputed elections in 1906, the first president, Tomás Estrada Palma, faced an armed revolt by independence war veterans who defeated the meager government forces.<ref>{{cite book|title=Corruption in Cuba: Castro and Beyond|page=63|first1=Sergio|last1=Diaz-Briquets|author2-first=Jorge F. |author2-last=Pérez-López|publisher=University of Texas Press|location=Austin|year=2006|isbn=978-0-292-71321-5|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Fiquofr8LSoC&pg=PA63|access-date=6 September 2009|archive-date=8 January 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240108204734/https://books.google.com/books?id=Fiquofr8LSoC&pg=PA63#v=onepage&q&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref> The U.S. intervened by occupying Cuba and named Charles Edward Magoon as governor for three years. Cuban historians have characterized Magoon's governorship as introducing political and social corruption.<ref name="Thomas 1998 283to287">{{Harvnb|Thomas|1998|pp=283–7}}.</ref> In 1908, self-government was restored when José Miguel Gómez was elected president, but the U.S. continued intervening in Cuban affairs. In 1912, the Partido Independiente de Color attempted to establish a separate black republic in Oriente Province,<ref>{{cite book|title=The War of 1898, and U.S. Interventions, 1898–1934: An Encyclopedia|editor=Benjamin Beede|page=134|year=1994|publisher=Garland|location=New York|isbn=978-0-8240-5624-7|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=48g116X9IIwC&pg=PA134|access-date=6 September 2009|archive-date=8 January 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240108204727/https://books.google.com/books?id=48g116X9IIwC&pg=PA134#v=onepage&q&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref> but was suppressed by General Monteagudo with considerable bloodshed.

In 1924, Gerardo Machado was elected president.<ref name="D2012" /> During his administration, tourism increased markedly, and American-owned hotels and restaurants were built to accommodate the influx of tourists.<ref name="D2012" /> The tourist boom led to increases in gambling and prostitution in Cuba.<ref name="D2012">{{cite book|author-first=Terry K. |author-last=Sanderlin |title=The Last American Rebel in Cuba |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NFT8Mp8VuNkC&pg=PA7|access-date=19 July 2013|date=24 April 2012|publisher=AuthorHouse|isbn=978-1-4685-9430-0|page=7}}</ref> The Wall Street crash of 1929 led to a collapse in the price of sugar, political unrest, and repression.<ref name="ChaffeePrevost1992" /> Protesting students, known as the Generation of 1930, turned to violence in opposition to the increasingly unpopular Machado.<ref name="ChaffeePrevost1992" /> A general strike (in which the Communist Party sided with Machado),<ref>{{cite book|title=Fulgencio Batista|volume=1|page=[https://archive.org/details/fulgenciobatista00argo/page/50 50]|last=Argote-Freyre |first=Frank |publisher=Rutgers University Press |location=New Brunswick, N.J.|year=2006|isbn=978-0-8135-3701-6 |url=https://archive.org/details/fulgenciobatista00argo/page/50}}</ref> uprisings among sugar workers, and an army revolt forced Machado into exile in August 1933. He was replaced by Carlos Manuel de Céspedes y Quesada, son of the revolutionary hero Carlos Manuel de Céspedes.<ref name="ChaffeePrevost1992">{{cite book|author1-first=Wilber Albert |author1-last=Chaffee|author2-first=Gary |author2-last=Prevost|title=Cuba: A Different America|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9CJec-NWjS0C&pg=PA4|access-date=19 July 2013|year=1992|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|isbn=978-0-8476-7694-1|page=4|archive-date=8 January 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240108204759/https://books.google.com/books?id=9CJec-NWjS0C&pg=PA4#v=onepage&q&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref>

====Revolution of 1933–1940==== {{Main|Cuban Revolution of 1933}}

[[File:1933-Pentarchy w Batista.jpg|thumb|The Pentarchy of 1933. Fulgencio Batista, who controlled the armed forces, appears at far right]] In September 1933 the Sergeants' Revolt, led by Sergeant Fulgencio Batista, overthrew Céspedes.<ref name="MJ303">{{cite book|last=Jones|first=Melanie|editor-first=Jacqueline |editor-last=West|contribution=Cuba: History|title=South America, Central America and the Caribbean 2002|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=o9ODxqsr-dIC&pg=PA303|access-date=19 July 2013|year=2001|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-85743-121-6|page=303|archive-date=8 January 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240108205214/https://books.google.com/books?id=o9ODxqsr-dIC&pg=PA303#v=onepage&q&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref> A five-member executive committee (the Pentarchy of 1933) was chosen to head a provisional government.<ref name="Suchlicki2002">{{cite book|author-first=Jaime |author-last=Suchlicki|title=Cuba: From Columbus to Castro and Beyond|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BHhUknsCtfIC&pg=PA95|access-date=19 July 2013|year=2002|publisher=Potomac Books|isbn=978-1-57488-436-4|page=95|archive-date=8 January 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240108205216/https://books.google.com/books?id=BHhUknsCtfIC&pg=PA95#v=onepage&q&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref> Ramón Grau San Martín was appointed as provisional president.<ref name="Suchlicki2002" /> Grau resigned in 1934, leaving the way clear for Batista, who dominated Cuban politics for the next 25 years, at first through a series of puppet presidents.<ref name="MJ303" /> The period from 1933 to 1937 was a time of "virtually unremitting social and political warfare".<ref name="Domínguez 1978 76">{{Harvnb|Domínguez|1978|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=y1oF-WQmOPgC&pg=PA76 76]}}</ref> On balance, during the period 1933–1940, Cuba suffered from fragile political structures, with three presidents in two years (1935–1936) and in the militaristic and repressive policies of Batista as head of the army.

==== Constitution of 1940 ==== The 1940 Constitution of Cuba engineered radically progressive ideas, including the right to labor and right to health care.{{sfn|Domínguez|1978|p={{page needed|date=December 2023}}}} Batista was elected president in the same year, holding the post until 1944.<ref name="Villafana2011">{{cite book |author-first=Frank R. |author-last=Villafana |title=Expansionism: Its Effects on Cuba's Independence |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Jj2mIS40lAMC&pg=PA201 |access-date=19 July 2013 |date=31 December 2011 |publisher=Transaction Publishers |isbn=978-1-4128-4656-1 |page=201 |archive-date=8 January 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240108205114/https://books.google.com/books?id=Jj2mIS40lAMC&pg=PA201#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref> He is, as of 2004, the only non-white Cuban to win the nation's highest political office.<ref name="Horowitz 1988 662">{{Harvnb|Horowitz|1988|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=hx2_y7Vu-PUC&pg=PA662 662]}}</ref><ref name=bethell>{{cite book|title=Cuba|first=Leslie|last=Bethell|author-link=Leslie Bethell|isbn=978-0-521-43682-3|year=1993|publisher=Cambridge University Press}}</ref><ref name="Sweig 2004 4">{{Harvnb|Sweig|2004|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=ob-I8MyTqx8C&pg=PA4 4]}}</ref> His government carried out major social reforms. Several members of the Communist Party held office under his administration.{{sfn|Sweig|2004|p={{page needed|date=December 2023}}}} Cuban armed forces were not greatly involved in combat during World War II—though Batista did suggest a joint U.S.-Latin American assault on Francoist Spain to overthrow its authoritarian regime.<ref>{{cite news |title=Batista's Boot |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,802544,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080825011807/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,802544,00.html |archive-date=25 August 2008 |magazine=Time |date=18 January 1943 |access-date=20 April 2013 }}</ref> Cuba lost six merchant ships during the war, and the Cuban Navy was credited with sinking the {{GS|U-176}}.<ref>{{cite book|author1-last=Polmar |author1-first=Norman |author1-link=Norman Polmar |author2-first=Thomas B. |author2-last=Allen |author2-link=Thomas B. Allen (author)|title=World War II: The Encyclopedia of the War Years 1941–1945| page=230}}</ref>

Batista adhered to the 1940 constitution's strictures preventing his re-election.<ref name="Domínguez 1978 101">{{Harvnb|Domínguez|1978|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=y1oF-WQmOPgC&pg=PA101 101]}}</ref> Grau was re-elected president in 1944.<ref name="Villafana2011" /> Grau further corroded the base of the already teetering legitimacy of the political system, particularly by undermining the Congress and Supreme Court.<ref name="Domínguez 1978 110_111">{{Harvnb|Domínguez|1978|pp=[https://books.google.com/books?id=y1oF-WQmOPgC&pg=PA110 110–1]}}</ref> Carlos Prío Socarrás, a protégé of Grau, became president in 1948.<ref name="Villafana2011" /> The two terms of the Partido Auténtico brought an influx of investment, which fueled an economic boom, raised living standards for all segments of society, and created a middle class in most urban areas.<ref name="Alvarez 2004">{{Harvnb|Alvarez|2004}}.</ref>

==== Batista regime ==== {{Main|1952 Cuban coup d'état|Cuban Revolution}}

[[File:HavanaSlums1954.jpg|thumb|right|Slum (''bohío'') dwellings in Havana, Cuba in 1954, just outside Havana baseball stadium. In the background is advertising for a nearby casino.]] After finishing his term in 1944, Batista lived in Florida, returning to Cuba to run for president in 1952. Facing inevitable electoral defeat, he led a military coup that preempted the election.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.historytoday.com/richard-cavendish/general-batista-returns-power-cuba|title=A Coup in Cuba|website=History Today|access-date=7 September 2017|archive-date=1 August 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200801010146/https://www.historytoday.com/richard-cavendish/general-batista-returns-power-cuba|url-status=live}}</ref> Back in power and receiving financial, military, and logistical support from the United States government, Batista suspended the 1940 constitution and revoked most political liberties, including the right to strike. He then aligned with landowners who owned the largest sugar plantations, and presided over a stagnating economy that widened the gap between rich and poor Cubans.<ref>{{cite book |title=Historical Dictionary of the 1950s |author-link=James S. Olson |first=James Stuart |last=Olson |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |year=2000 |isbn=0-313-30619-2 |pages=67–68}}</ref> Batista outlawed the Cuban Communist Party in 1952.<ref name="Sweig 2004 6">{{Harvnb|Sweig|2004|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=ob-I8MyTqx8C&pg=PA6 6]}}</ref> After the coup, Cuba had Latin America's highest per capita consumption rates of meat, vegetables, cereals, automobiles, telephones and radios, though about one-third of the population was considered poor and enjoyed relatively little of this consumption.<ref name=lewis>{{cite book|title=Authoritarian Regimes in Latin America|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LAvw-YXm4TsC&pg=PA186|author-first=Paul H. |author-last=Lewis|author-link=Paul H. Lewis|page=186|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|location=Oxford, UK|isbn=978-0-7425-3739-2|access-date=14 September 2009|year=2006|archive-date=8 January 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240108205115/https://books.google.com/books?id=LAvw-YXm4TsC&pg=PA186#v=onepage&q&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref> However, in his "History Will Absolve Me" speech, Fidel Castro mentioned that national issues relating to land, industrialization, housing, unemployment, education, and health were contemporary problems.<ref>{{cite web |title=Fidel Castro: "History Will Absolve Me" |website=college.cengage.com |url=https://college.cengage.com/history/world/keen/latin_america/8e/assets/students/sources/pdfs/87_fidel_castro.pdf |access-date=4 June 2021 |archive-date=4 June 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210604150031/https://college.cengage.com/history/world/keen/latin_america/8e/assets/students/sources/pdfs/87_fidel_castro.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>

In 1958 Cuba was a well-advanced country compared to other Latin American regions,<ref name=asce>{{Harvnb|Smith|Llorens|1998}}.</ref> but it was affected by perhaps Latin America's largest labor union privileges, including bans on dismissals and mechanization. They were obtained in large measure "at the cost of the unemployed and the peasants", leading to disparities.<ref>{{Harvnb|Baklanoff|1998}}.</ref> Between 1933 and 1958, Cuba extended economic regulations enormously, causing economic problems.<ref name="Horowitz 1988 662" /><ref name="Thomas 1998 1173">{{Harvnb|Thomas|1998|p=1173}}.</ref> Unemployment became a problem as graduates entering the workforce could not find jobs.<ref name="Horowitz 1988 662" /> The middle class became increasingly dissatisfied with unemployment and political persecution. The labor unions, manipulated by the previous government since 1948 through union "yellowness", supported Batista.<ref name="Horowitz 1988 662" /><ref name=bethell />

In the 1950s, various organizations, including some advocating armed uprising, competed for public support in bringing about political change.<ref name="Chomsky2010">{{cite book |author-first=Aviva |author-last=Chomsky |author-link=Aviva Chomsky|title=A History of the Cuban Revolution |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=094JHT5JtCAC&pg=PA37 |access-date=19 July 2013 |date=23 November 2010 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |isbn=978-1-4443-2956-8 |pages=37–38 |archive-date=8 January 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240108205221/https://books.google.com/books?id=094JHT5JtCAC&pg=PA37#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref> In 1956, Castro and about 80 supporters landed from the yacht ''Granma'' in an attempt to start a rebellion against the Batista government.<ref name="Chomsky2010"/> In 1958, Castro's 26th of July Movement emerged as the leading revolutionary group.<ref name="Chomsky2010"/> The U.S. supported Castro by imposing a 1958 arms embargo against Batista's government. Batista evaded the American embargo and acquired weapons from the Dominican Republic.

By late 1958, the rebels had broken out of the Sierra Maestra and launched a general popular insurrection. After Castro's fighters captured Santa Clara, Batista fled to the Dominican Republic on 1 January 1959 with his family, going into exile in Portugal. Castro's forces entered the capital on 8 January. The liberal Manuel Urrutia Lleó became the provisional president.{{sfn|Falk|1988|p=67}} Before the revolution, U.S. and other foreign investors dominated the Cuban economy, controlling 75% of arable land, 90% of essential services, and 40% of sugar production.<ref name="Britannica" /> One of the goals of Castro's revolution was to achieve economic independence, but Cuba instead became heavily dependent on Soviet subsidies, with additional economic aid provided by Eastern European countries through COMECON.<ref name="CIA2" />

Militant anti-Castro groups, funded by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and Rafael Trujillo, carried out armed attacks and set up guerrilla bases in Cuba's mountainous regions, leading to the unsuccessful Escambray rebellion (1959–65), which lasted longer and involved more soldiers than the Cuban Revolution.<ref name="Ros">Ros (2006) pp. 159–201.</ref><ref name="Cuba">{{cite web |title=Anti-Cuba Bandits: terrorism in past tense |url=http://www.escambray.cu/Eng/Bandits/FpasadoE.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070222204658/http://www.escambray.cu/Eng/Bandits/FpasadoE.htm |archive-date=22 February 2007}}</ref>

===Revolutionary government (1959–present)=== {{main|History of Cuba (1959–present)}} ====Consolidation and nationalization (1959–1970)==== {{Main|Consolidation of the Cuban Revolution|Revolutionary Offensive}}

[[File:CheyFidel.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Che Guevara and Fidel Castro, photographed by Alberto Korda in 1961]] The US government initially reacted favorably to the Cuban Revolution, seeing it as part of a movement to bring democracy to Latin America.<ref name="Rabe1988">{{cite book|author-first=Stephen G. |author-last=Rabe|author-link=Stephen G. Rabe|title=Eisenhower and Latin America: The Foreign Policy of Anticommunism |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=o2SFNdAiB7UC&pg=PA123|access-date=19 July 2013|year=1988|publisher=UNC Press Books |isbn=978-0-8078-4204-1|pages=123–125}}</ref> Castro's legalization of the Communist Party and the hundreds of executions of Batista agents, policemen, and soldiers that followed caused a deterioration in the relationship between the two countries.<ref name="Rabe1988"/> The promulgation of the Agrarian Reform Law, expropriating thousands of acres of farmland (including from large U.S. landholders), further worsened relations.<ref name="Rabe1988"/><ref name="Crooker2005"/> In response, between 1960 and 1964 the U.S. imposed a range of sanctions, eventually including a total ban on trade between the countries and a freeze on all Cuban-owned assets in the U.S.<ref name="Commission">{{cite book | author=U.S. International Trade Commission | title=The Economic Impact of U.S. Sanctions with Respect to Cuba | isbn=978-1-4578-2290-2 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=c0wCioRlTG0C&pg=SA2-PA2 | page=Section 2–3, p. 2| publisher=DIANE }}</ref> In February 1960, Castro signed a commercial agreement with Soviet Vice-Premier Anastas Mikoyan.<ref name="Rabe1988"/> thumb|Brigade 2506 prisoners, 1961 In March 1960, U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower gave his approval to a CIA plan to arm and train a group of Cuban refugees to overthrow the Castro government. The CIA provided B-26 light bombers and ships to the rebels for the invasion. On 15 April 1961 at dawn, Brigade 2506 flew from Puerto Cabezas, Nicaragua, and carried out preemptive airstrikes on Cuban military airfields at San Antonio de Los Baños, Ciudad Libertad, Pinar del Río, and Santiago de Cuba, destroying five aircraft and damaging an indeterminable number.{{sfn|Scheina|2003b|p=247}} The invasion (known as the Bay of Pigs Invasion) took place on 17 April, during the term of President John F. Kennedy.<ref name="Crooker2005"/> About 1,400 Cuban exiles disembarked at the Bay of Pigs. Cuban troops and local militias defeated the invasion by 19 April, killing over 100 invaders and taking the remainder prisoner.<ref name="Crooker2005">{{cite book|author-first=Richard A. |author-last=Crooker |title=Cuba |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=l-5GqG1hluIC&pg=PA43|access-date=19 July 2013|year=2005|publisher=Infobase Publishing |isbn=978-1-4381-0497-3|pages=43–44}}</ref> Five B-26s were shot down by the Cuban air force, and one was downed by anti-aircraft fire.{{sfn|Scheina|2003b|p=250}} In January 1962, Cuba was suspended from the Organization of American States (OAS), and imposed sanctions of similar nature to the U.S. sanctions.<ref name="Peterson">{{cite web |url=https://piie.com/sites/default/files/publications/papers/sanctions-cuba-60-3.pdf |title=Case Studies in Sanctions and Terrorism: Case 60–3, US v. Cuba (1960– : Castro) |publisher=Peterson Institute for International Economics |date=October 2011 |access-date=14 February 2017 |archive-date=14 February 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170214180014/https://piie.com/sites/default/files/publications/papers/sanctions-cuba-60-3.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> The failed amphibious assault on Cuba contributed to the Soviet decision to deploy R-12 missiles there,{{sfn|Scheina|2003b|p=253}} and the ensuing Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962 almost sparked World War III.<ref name="Polmar-2017">{{cite book |last1=Polmar |first1=Norman |last2=Gresham |first2=John D. |title=DEFCON-2: Standing on the Brink of Nuclear War During the Cuban Missile Crisis |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gGMaAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA223 |date=17 January 2006 |publisher=Wiley |location=Hoboken |isbn=978-0-471-67022-3 |oclc=60373348 |page=223 |access-date=18 July 2021 |archive-date=8 January 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240108205217/https://books.google.com/books?id=gGMaAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA223 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Duncan-2020">{{cite book |last1=Duncan |first1=Terri Kaye |last2=Stein |first2=R. Conrad |title=Thirteen Days of Tension: The Cuban Missile Crisis |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=e_ElEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA8 |series=Movements and Moments That Changed America |date=15 July 2020 |publisher=Rosen Publishing Group |location=New York |isbn=978-1-72534-219-4 |pages=8, 49, 94 |oclc=1203013466}}</ref> In 1962, American generals proposed Operation Northwoods which would entail committing terrorist attacks in American cities and against refugees and falsely blaming the attacks on the Cuban government, manufacturing a reason for the United States to invade Cuba. This plan was rejected by Kennedy.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Ruppe |first=David |date=1 May 2001 |title=U.S. Military Wanted to Provoke War With Cuba |url=https://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=92662&page=1 |access-date=3 July 2023 |publisher=ABC News|location=United States |language=en |archive-date=21 April 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190421204148/https://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=92662&page=1 |url-status=live }}</ref> By 1963, Cuba was moving towards a full-fledged communist state system modeled on the USSR.<ref>{{cite book |author-last=Faria |author-first=Miguel A. |author-link=Miguel A. Faria, Jr. |title=Cuba in Revolution – Escape From a Lost Paradise |date=2002 |publisher=Hacienda Publishing |publication-place=Macon, Georgia |pages=163–228}}</ref> [[File:Guantanamo Naval Base aerial photo 1962.jpg|thumb|Since 1959, Cuba has regarded the U.S. presence in Guantánamo Bay as illegal.<ref name="auto1"/>]] Eloy Gutiérrez Menoyo founded the anti-Castro group Alpha 66 in the early 1960s, which used small craft to attack Cuban and Soviet merchant ships, killing or wounding crew members. In 1964, Menoyo set up a guerrilla training camp in the Dominican Republic, and after entering Cuba in 1965, he was captured; however, Alpha 66 continued its raids under new leadership.{{sfn|Scheina|2003b|p=251}} By the mid-1960s, Soviet aid had strengthened the Cuban air force and navy, making raids costly without significant U.S. support.{{sfn|Scheina|2003b|p=254}}

Cuba provided support to revolutions throughout Africa and Latin America. In 1963, Cuba sent 686 troops together with 22 tanks and other military equipment to support Algeria in the Sand War against Morocco.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://themilitant.com/2019/02/16/cuba-and-algerian-revolutions-an-intertwined-history/|author1-first=Martín|author1-last=Koppel|author-link=Martín Koppel|author2-first=Róger|author2-last=Calero|author2-link=Róger Calero|title=Cuba and Algerian revolutions: an intertwined history|volume=83|number=8|newspaper=The Militant|place=Havana International Book Fair|publication-place=New York City|date=25 February 2019|access-date=17 March 2020|archive-date=19 August 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210819163139/https://themilitant.com/2019/02/16/cuba-and-algerian-revolutions-an-intertwined-history/|url-status=live}}</ref> The Cuban forces remained in Algeria for over a year, providing training to the Algerian army.<ref name="Scheina">{{harvnb|Scheina|2003b|pp=327–377}}</ref> Che Guevara, authorized by Castro, engaged in guerrilla activities in Africa and was killed in 1967 while attempting to start a revolution in Bolivia.<ref name=Britannica/> Cuba supplied arms to the People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola; gave aid to the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde; and provided military training to the Mozambique Liberation Front.<ref name="Scheina"/> Cuban troops prevented the 1966 Republic of the Congo coup attempt; the coup collapsed when the Congolese army refused to engage in combat against the Cubans.<ref name="Scheina"/> Cuban advisors began operating with guerrillas in the Guinea-Bissau War of Independence, and in November 1969 Portuguese troops captured Cuban Captain Pedro Rodriguez Peralta.<ref name="Scheina"/>

Starting in 1968, a campaign titled the "revolutionary offensive" was initiated to nationalize some 58,000 remaining private small businesses.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.american.edu/centers/latin-american-latino-studies/upload/2015-au-ssrc-henken-vignoli-enterprising-cuba-final.pdf |title=ENTERPRISING CUBA: CITIZEN EMPOWERMENT, STATE ABANDONMENT, OR U.S. BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY? |last1=Henken |first1=Ted |last2=Vignoli |first2=Gabriel |year=2015 |website=american.edu |publisher=Center for Latin American and Latino Studies |access-date= 19 August 2020}}</ref> The campaign would spur industrialization in Cuba and focus the economy on sugar production, with a goal of 10 million tons by 1970. The economic focus on sugar production involved international volunteers and the mobilization of workers from all sectors of the economy.<ref name=castro>{{cite journal |last1=Prevost |first1=Grey |year=2007 |title=Fidel Castro and the Cuban Revolution |url=https://digitalcommons.csbsju.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1040&context=headwaters |journal=Headwaters |volume=24 |issue=1 |pages=25–26 |access-date=19 August 2020}}</ref> Economic mobilization coincided with greater militarization of political structures and society in general.<ref name=decade>{{cite book |year=2018 |title=Cuba's Forgotten Decade How the 1970s Shaped the Revolution |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ek1jDwAAQBAJ&dq=revolutionary+offensive+zafra&pg=PA72 |publisher=Lexington Books |pages=72–73 |isbn=9781498568746 }}</ref> The harvest goal was not reached.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Pineo |first=Ronn |date=1 March 2019 |title=Cuban Public Healthcare: A Model of Success for Developing Nations |journal=Journal of Developing Societies |volume=35 |issue=1 |pages=16–61 |doi=10.1177/0169796X19826731 |doi-access=free}}</ref>{{Rp|pages=37–38}} The economy fell into decline after large sectors were neglected after urban labor was mobilized to the countryside.<ref name=":0" />{{Rp|page=38}}

The standard of living in the 1970s was "extremely spartan," and discontent was rife.<ref name=cambridge>{{Cite book|title=The Cambridge History of Latin America|author=Bethell, Leslie|isbn=978-0-521-62327-8|date=13 August 1998|publisher=Cambridge University Press |url=https://archive.org/details/culturalhistoryo00lesl}}{{Page needed|date=August 2010}}</ref> Castro admitted the failures of economic policies in a 1970 speech.<ref name=cambridge/> In 1975, the OAS lifted its sanctions against Cuba with the approval of 16 member states, including the United States. The U.S., however, maintained its own sanctions.<ref name="Peterson"/> According to Amnesty International, official death sentences from 1959 to 1987 numbered 237, of which all but 21 were carried out.<ref>{{cite book |title=When the State Kills: The Death Penalty v. Human Rights |publisher=Amnesty International Publications |year=1989 |isbn=9780862101640 |oclc=1017244324 |id={{NCJ|117205}} |publication-place=New York, United States}}</ref> The vast majority of those executed directly following the 1959 Revolution were policemen, politicians, and informers of the Batista regime accused of crimes such as torture and murder, and their public trials and executions had widespread popular support among the Cuban population.<ref name="Chase 2010">{{cite book |last1=Chase |first1=Michelle |chapter=The Trials |date=2010 |pages=163–198 |doi=10.1215/9780822392859-006 |chapter-url={{GBurl|YJ7ZBGy0wsIC|p=163}} |editor-first1=Gilbert M. |editor-first2=Greg |editor-last1=Joseph |editor-last2=Grandin |title=A Century of Revolution |isbn=978-0-8223-4720-0 }}</ref>

====Foreign interventions (1971–1991)==== {{Main|Foreign interventions by Cuba}}

[[File:Cubans in Ogaden1.JPG|thumb|Cuban artillery crew in Ethiopia during the Ogaden War.]] During the Cold War, Cuba received $33 billion in Soviet aid,<ref name=CIA2>{{cite web |title=The Cuban Economy: A Soviet Showcase? |url=https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP85T00287R000901450001-4.pdf |publisher=Central Intelligence Agency |date=15 August 1984}}</ref> and Cuban forces were deployed to all corners of Africa, either as military advisors or as combatants.<ref>{{cite journal |journal=Parameters |volume=VII |number=2 |year=1977 |publisher=U.S. Army War College |title=Cuba and the Regional Balance of Power: Cuba's International Involvement|author-last=Marcella |author-first=Gabriel |page=13 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kMdLAQAAMAAJ&pg=RA1-PA13 |access-date=29 February 2020 |archive-date=9 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230209040625/https://books.google.com/books?id=kMdLAQAAMAAJ&pg=RA1-PA13 |url-status=live }}</ref> Soviet pilots and technicians assumed defense duties in Cuba, freeing up personnel to be deployed in Africa.<ref name="Scheina"/> In 1979, the U.S. objected to the presence of Soviet combat troops on the island.<ref name=Britannica/>

In November 1975, Cuba deployed more than 65,000 troops and 400 Soviet-made tanks in Angola in one of the fastest military mobilizations in history.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.rbth.com/blogs/stranger_than_fiction/2015/10/21/why-the-cuban-military-machine-should-intervene-in-syria_484903|title=Why the Cuban military machine should intervene in Syria|first=Rakesh Krishnan|last=Simha|date=21 October 2015|website=Russia Beyond|access-date=17 March 2020|archive-date=17 March 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200317180959/https://www.rbth.com/blogs/stranger_than_fiction/2015/10/21/why-the-cuban-military-machine-should-intervene-in-syria_484903|url-status=live}}</ref> South Africa developed nuclear weapons because of the threat to its security posed by the presence of large numbers of Cuban troops in Angola.<ref>[{{GBurl|MzK_DAAAQBAJ|p=95}} Page 95] in {{cite book |last1=Thayer |first1=Bradley A. |title=The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Regime |chapter=The Causes of Nuclear Proliferation and the Utility of the Non-proliferation Regime |date=1998 |pages=75–129 |doi=10.1007/978-1-349-26053-9_5 |isbn=978-1-349-26055-3 }}</ref> In 1975–76 and again in 1988 at the Battle of Cuito Cuanavale, the Cubans alongside their MPLA allies fought UNITA rebels and apartheid South African forces. In December 1977, Cuba sent its combat troops from Angola, the People's Republic of the Congo, and the Caribbean to Ethiopia,<ref name="Scheina"/> assisted by mechanized Soviet battalions, to help defeat a Somali invasion. On 24 January 1978, Ethiopian and Cuban troops counterattacked, inflicting 3,000 casualties on the Somali forces.<ref name="Scheina"/> In February, Cuban troops launched a major offensive and forced the Somali army back into its own territory.<ref name="Scheina"/> Cuban forces remained in Ethiopia until September 1989.<ref name="Scheina"/>

Despite its small size and the long distance separating it from the Middle East, Cuba played an active role in the region during the Cold War. In 1972, a major military mission consisting of tank, air, and artillery specialists was dispatched to South Yemen.<ref name=cia/> Cuban military advisors were sent to Iraq in the mid-1970s, but their mission was canceled after Iraq invaded Iran in 1980.<ref name="Scheina"/> The Cubans were also involved in the Syrian-Israeli conflict in 1973 and 1974 that followed the Yom Kippur War.<ref name=cia>{{cite web |title=Foreign Intervention by Cuba |url=https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP77M00144R000400100003-7.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170122223212/https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP77M00144R000400100003-7.pdf |archive-date=22 January 2017}}</ref> Israeli sources reported the presence of a Cuban tank brigade in the Golan Heights, which was supported by two brigades.<ref>{{cite book |title=Cuba: The International Dimension |year=1990 |url=https://archive.org/details/cubainternationa00faur |url-access=registration |publisher=Transaction Publishers |page=[https://archive.org/details/cubainternationa00faur/page/138 138]|isbn=9780887383243 }}</ref> Tank forces engaged in battle on the Golan front.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Ra'anan |first1=Gavriel D. |title=The Evolution of the Soviet Use of Surrogates in Military Relations with the Third World, with Particular Emphasis on Cuban Participation in Africa |url=https://www.rand.org/pubs/papers/P6420.html |website=RAND Corporation |access-date=29 June 2021 |date=31 December 1978 |archive-date=29 June 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210629074717/https://www.rand.org/pubs/papers/P6420.html |url-status=live }}</ref>{{rp|37–38}}

After the U.S. was defeated by communist forces in the Vietnam War, Castro began supporting Marxist insurgencies in Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Colombia by supplying weapons, munitions, and training.{{sfn|Scheina|2003b|p=339}} Following the 1983 coup that resulted in the execution of Grenadian Prime Minister Maurice Bishop and establishment of the military government led by Hudson Austin, U.S. forces invaded Grenada in 1983, overthrowing the pro-Castro government. In a few days of fighting, 6,000 American combat troops defeated 784 Cubans (636 construction workers with military training, 43 military advisors, and 18 diplomats).{{sfn|Scheina|2003b|p=358}}

Cuba gradually withdrew its troops from Angola in 1989–91.<ref name="Scheina"/> An important psychological and political aspect of the Cuban military involvement in Africa was the significant presence of black or mixed-race soldiers among the Cuban forces. According to one source, more than 300,000 Cuban military personnel and civilian experts were deployed in Africa. The source also states that out of the 50,000 Cubans sent to Angola, half contracted AIDS, and that 10,000 Cubans died as a consequence of their military actions in Africa.<ref name="Scheina"/> [[File:Geneva Ministerial Conference 18-20 May 1998 (9308745700).jpg|thumb|Cuban leader Fidel Castro in Geneva, Switzerland, May 1998]]

====Political readjustments (1991–present)==== {{Main|2006–2008 Cuban transfer of presidential duties}}

Soviet troops began to withdraw from Cuba in September 1991,<ref name="Britannica">{{cite web |title=Cuba |url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Cuba |website=Encyclopædia Britannica |date=25 April 2023 |access-date=18 August 2017 |archive-date=23 August 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210823081846/https://www.britannica.com/place/Cuba |url-status=live }}</ref> and Castro's rule was severely tested in the aftermath of the Soviet collapse in December 1991 (known in Cuba as the Special Period). The country faced a severe economic downturn following the withdrawal of Soviet subsidies worth {{Nowrap|$4 billion}} to {{Nowrap|$6 billion}} annually, resulting in effects such as food and fuel shortages.<ref name="cmaj">{{cite journal|title=Health consequences of Cuba's Special Period |pmc=2474886 |year=2008 |volume=179 |issue=3 |pmid=18663207 |page=257 |doi=10.1503/cmaj.1080068 |journal=CMAJ: Canadian Medical Association Journal}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.mercatrade.com/blog/country-profile-cuba/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160314103057/http://www.mercatrade.com/blog/country-profile-cuba/|archive-date=14 March 2016|title=Doing Business with Cuba – The Complete Guide |date=12 January 2015 |last=Patricia Maroday}}</ref> The government did not accept American donations of food, medicines and cash until 1993.<ref name="cmaj" /> On 5 August 1994, state security dispersed protesters in a spontaneous protest in Havana. From the start of the crisis until 1995, Cuba saw its gross domestic product (GDP) shrink by 35%. It took another five years for its GDP to reach pre-crisis levels.{{sfn|Gershman|Gutierrez|2009|p={{page needed|date=December 2023}}}} In 1996, after Cuban fighter jets shot down two small aircraft piloted by a Florida-based anti-Castro group, the U.S. Congress passed the Helms–Burton Act, strengthening U.S. embargoes.<ref name="Britannica" />

Cuba then found a new source of aid and support in the People's Republic of China. In addition, Castro, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez and Bolivian President Evo Morales became allies, and both countries began to support the Cuban economy. In 2003, the government arrested and imprisoned a large number of civil activists, a period known as the "Black Spring".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://cpj.org/reports/2008/03/cuba-press-crackdown.php|title=Cuba's Long Black Spring|author1=Carlos Lauria|author2=Monica Campbell|author3=María Salazar|publisher=The Committee to Protect Journalists|date=18 March 2008|access-date=3 April 2009|archive-date=30 August 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110830062924/https://www.cpj.org/reports/2008/03/cuba-press-crackdown.php|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.rsf.org/IMG/pdf/Cuba_report.pdf |title=Cuba – No surrender by independent journalists, five years on from "black spring" |publisher=Reporters Without Borders |date=March 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090702082005/http://www.rsf.org/IMG/pdf/Cuba_report.pdf |archive-date=2 July 2009}}</ref>

In February 2008, Castro resigned as President of the State Council due to illness.<ref>{{cite web|title=Castro resigns as Cuban president: official media|agency=Agence France-Presse |url=http://www.afp.com/english/news/stories/newsmlmmd.fce074e0275fae2a0c16383ec4973c96.191.html|date=19 February 2008|access-date=19 February 2008}}{{dead link|date=July 2021|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref> On 24 February, the National Assembly elected his brother Raúl Castro as president.<ref>{{cite news|title=Raul Castro named Cuban president|url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7261204.stm|publisher=BBC News|date=24 February 2008|access-date=24 February 2008|archive-date=22 June 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180622045408/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7261204.stm|url-status=live}}</ref> In his inauguration speech, Raúl promised that some of the restrictions on freedom in Cuba would be removed.<ref>{{cite news|title=Byte by byte|newspaper=The Economist|url=https://www.economist.com/world/la/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10881009|date=19 March 2008|access-date=4 April 2008|archive-date=22 March 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080322204221/http://www.economist.com/world/la/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10881009|url-status=live}}</ref> In March 2009, Raúl Castro removed some of his brother's appointees.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/mar/02/raul-castro-fidel-cuba-officials|title=Raúl Castro replaces top Cuban officials|date=2 March 2009|access-date=15 September 2009|work=The Guardian|location=London|archive-date=10 March 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130310081342/http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/mar/02/raul-castro-fidel-cuba-officials|url-status=live}}</ref> In 2009 the OAS adopted a resolution to end the 47-year ban on Cuban membership of the group.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-06/04/content_11483233.htm |title=China View 2009-06-04: OAS plenary votes to end Cuba's exclusion |agency=Xinhua News Agency |date=4 June 2009 |access-date=19 July 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130821171219/http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-06/04/content_11483233.htm |archive-date=21 August 2013}}</ref> The resolution stated, however, that full membership would be delayed until Cuba was "in conformity with the practices, purposes, and principles of the OAS".<ref name="Peterson" /> Fidel Castro wrote that Cuba would not rejoin the OAS, which he said was a "U.S. Trojan horse" and "complicit" in actions taken by the U.S. against Cuba and other Latin American nations.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-06/04/content_11485277.htm |title=China View 2009-06-04: Cuba's Fidel Castro calls OAS a "U.S. Trojan horse" |agency=Xinhua News Agency |date=4 June 2009 |access-date=19 July 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130821175617/http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-06/04/content_11485277.htm |archive-date=21 August 2013 }}</ref> [[File:Press conference, Havana.jpg|thumb|right|Raúl Castro and U.S. President Barack Obama at their joint press conference in Havana, Cuba, 21 March 2016]]

In 2013 Cuba ended the requirement established in 1961 that any citizens who wished to travel abroad were required to obtain an expensive government permit and a letter of invitation.<ref>[http://www.cnn.com/2012/10/16/world/americas/cuba-travel-policy/ CNN: "Cuba eases travel restriction for citizens" by Ben Brumfield] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304095615/http://www.cnn.com/2012/10/16/world/americas/cuba-travel-policy/ |date=4 March 2016 }} 16 October 2012 |''Until now, Cubans had to pay $150 for an exit visa. A resident in the country that the Cuban wanted to visit would also have to write a letter of invitation. Fees associated with the letter ran as high as $200. That's a steep price in a country where the average official monthly income is about $20.''</ref><ref>[https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-18933175 BBC: "Leaving Cuba: The difficult task of exiting the island"] by Sarah Rainsford {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161207180432/http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-18933175 |date=7 December 2016 }} 12 July 2012</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last1=Thale |first1=Geoff |last2=Boggs |first2=Clay |date=16 October 2012 |title=Cubans Allowed to Travel Abroad Without Exit Visas |url=https://www.wola.org/analysis/cubans-allowed-to-travel-abroad-without-exit-visas/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170221154943/https://www.wola.org/analysis/cubans-allowed-to-travel-abroad-without-exit-visas/ |archive-date=21 February 2017 |access-date=2026-04-23 |website=Washington Office on Latin America |language=en-US}}</ref> In 1961 the Cuban government had imposed broad restrictions on travel to prevent the mass emigration of people after the 1959 revolution;<ref>{{cite book|last=Henken|first=Ted|title=Cuba|year=2013|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=9781610690126|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=Pe_XAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA245 245]}}</ref> it approved exit visas only on rare occasions.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Gupta |first=Girish |date=14 January 2013 |title=Cubans line up for the chance to leave |url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2013/01/14/cuba-passports-travel-abroad/1832811/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170710060827/https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2013/01/14/cuba-passports-travel-abroad/1832811/ |archive-date=10 July 2017 |access-date=24 July 2024 |website=USA Today |language=en-US}}</ref> In the first year of the program, over 180,000 left Cuba and returned. Talks with American officials, including President Barack Obama, resulted in the 2014 release of Alan Gross, 52 political prisoners, and an unnamed non-citizen agent of the United States in return for the release of three Cubans who had been convicted of espionage in the United States. The embargo between the United States and Cuba was relaxed to allow import, export, and certain limited commerce.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/u-s-cuba-relations/cuba-frees-american-alan-gross-held-five-years-n269926|title=Cuba Frees American Alan Gross, Held for Five Years|publisher=NBC News|author1=Andrea Mitchell|author2=Eric McClam|date=18 December 2014|access-date=18 December 2014|archive-date=21 August 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150821205750/http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/u-s-cuba-relations/cuba-frees-american-alan-gross-held-five-years-n269926|url-status=live}}</ref>

Raúl Castro stepped down from the presidency in 2018, and Miguel Díaz-Canel was elected president of the State Council by the National Assembly following parliamentary elections. Raúl Castro remained the First Secretary of the Communist Party and retained broad authority, including oversight over the president.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://apnews.com/d2709fff1daf410d87fef30aaa9b069c |title=Raul Castro leaving Cuban presidency, not power |work=Associated Press News |date=18 April 2018 |quote=The 86-year-old former guerrilla remains head of Cuba's Communist Party, a position that leaves him with broad authority – including much oversight of the man who is replacing him as president. |access-date=4 October 2023 |archive-date=4 June 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210604154142/https://apnews.com/d2709fff1daf410d87fef30aaa9b069c |url-status=live }}</ref>

Cuba approved a new constitution in 2019. The optional vote attracted 84.4% of eligible voters; 90% of those who voted approved the constitution, and 9% opposed it. The constitution states that the Communist Party is the only legitimate political party, describes access to health and education as fundamental rights, imposes presidential term limits, enshrines the right to legal representation upon arrest, recognizes private property, and strengthens the rights of multinationals investing with the state.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Augustin |first1=Ed |title=Cuba overwhelmingly approves new constitution affirming 'irrevocable' socialism |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/feb/25/cuba-approves-new-socialist-constitution |access-date=10 August 2021 |work=The Guardian |date=25 February 2019 |archive-date=13 August 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210813073857/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/feb/25/cuba-approves-new-socialist-constitution |url-status=live }}</ref> Any form of discrimination harmful to human dignity is banned under the constitution.<ref name=":02"/>[[File:20231022 Encuentro por una Vecinidad Fraterna y con Bienestar-Jessica Ramírez.jpg|thumb|Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel with Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, Mexican President López Obrador and other leaders in Palenque, Mexico, 22 October 2023]]In 2021 U.S. President Donald Trump added Cuba to the State Sponsors of Terrorism list, implementing a series of additional economic sanctions on the country.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Bernal |first1=Rafael |title=Cuba, desperate for US thaw, files formal note of protest |url=https://thehill.com/latino/4539876-cuba-protests-havana-us-relations-florida/ |website=The Hill |date=18 March 2024 |access-date=21 March 2024}}</ref> Díaz-Canel succeeded Castro as first secretary of the Communist Party.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/apr/16/raul-castro-cuba-communist-party-resigning |title=Raúl Castro confirms he is resigning as head of Cuba's Communist party |work=The Guardian |date=16 April 2021 |access-date=4 October 2023 |archive-date=25 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230925090808/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/apr/16/raul-castro-cuba-communist-party-resigning |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-04-17/raul-castro-resigning-ending-long-era-in-cuba/100076126|title=Raul Castro confirms he's retiring, ending long era of Castro leadership in Cuba|agency=Associated Press|publisher=Australian Broadcasting Corporation|date=17 April 2021|accessdate=17 April 2021|archive-date=16 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210416230512/https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-04-17/raul-castro-resigning-ending-long-era-in-cuba/100076126|url-status=live}}</ref> In July 2021, there were several large protests against the government under the banner of Patria y Vida. Cuban exiles also conducted protests overseas.<ref name=":11">{{cite news |date=11 July 2021 |title=Protestas en Cuba: manifestantes se concentraron frente a la embajada en Argentina al grito de "Patria y vida" |location=Buenos Aires |url=https://www.clarin.com/mundo/protestas-cuba-manifestantes-concentraron-frente-embajada-argentina-grito-patria-vida-_0_mKNNyd068.html |access-date=18 January 2023 |archive-date=12 July 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210712000417/https://www.clarin.com/mundo/protestas-cuba-manifestantes-concentraron-frente-embajada-argentina-grito-patria-vida-_0_mKNNyd068.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=11 July 2021 |title=Cubanos protestan en el Zócalo conta el régimen de Díaz Canel |url=https://www.proceso.com.mx/nacional/2021/7/11/cubanos-protestan-en-el-zocalo-contra-el-regimen-de-diaz-canel-267600.html |website=proceso.com.mx |access-date=18 January 2023 |archive-date=18 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230118202059/https://www.proceso.com.mx/nacional/2021/7/11/cubanos-protestan-en-el-zocalo-contra-el-regimen-de-diaz-canel-267600.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=PERÚ |first=NOTICIAS EL COMERCIO |date=12 July 2021 |title=San Isidro: ciudadanos cubanos realizan una protesta frente a la embajada de su país {{!}} VIDEO {{!}} Lima {{!}} nndc {{!}} LIMA |url=https://elcomercio.pe/lima/sucesos/san-isidro-ciudadanos-cubanos-realizan-una-protesta-frente-a-la-embajada-de-su-pais-video-lima-nndc-noticia/ |access-date=13 July 2021 |newspaper=El Comercio |language=es |archive-date=18 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230118202059/https://elcomercio.pe/lima/sucesos/san-isidro-ciudadanos-cubanos-realizan-una-protesta-frente-a-la-embajada-de-su-pais-video-lima-nndc-noticia/ |url-status=live }}</ref> The song associated with the movement received international acclaim including a Latin Grammy Award.<ref>{{cite magazine |last1=Flores |first1=Griselda |last2=Cobo |first2=Leila |date=19 November 2021 |title=Camilo Is Top Winner, Cuban Anthem 'Patria y Vida' Wins Song of the Year at 2021 Latin Grammys: Winners List |url=https://www.billboard.com/music/latin/2021-latin-grammys-winners-list-1234999583/ |magazine=Billboard |access-date=19 November 2021 |archive-date=20 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211120052249/https://www.billboard.com/music/latin/2021-latin-grammys-winners-list-1234999583/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

The 2024–2026 Cuba blackouts were the most severe living crisis that the country has experienced since the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.france24.com/en/americas/20240318-rare-protests-erupt-in-cuba-over-food-and-electricity-shortages|title=Rare protests erupt in Cuba over food and electricity shortages|date=18 March 2024|website=France 24}}</ref><ref name="bbc-20241018">{{Cite web |last1=Grant |first1=Will |last2=Davies |first2=Maia |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c8elzx8dg7zo |title=Cuba suffers nationwide blackout after main power plant fails |work=BBC News |date=18 October 2024 |access-date=18 October 2024}}</ref> Díaz-Canel blamed the blackout on the United States embargo against Cuba, which he said prevented much needed supplies and replacement parts from reaching Cuba.<ref name="bbc-20241018" />

In February 2026, following the United States intervention in Venezuela, which was a major oil supplier to Cuba, and expansion of US sanctions on trade with Cuba,<ref>{{cite act|title=ADDRESSING THREATS TO THE UNITED STATES BY THE GOVERNMENT OF CUBA|url=https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2026/01/addressing-threats-to-the-united-states-by-the-government-of-cuba/}}</ref> Cuba experienced widespread energy shortages, resulting in rolling blackouts, hospital shortages and flight cancellations, culminating in the 2026 Cuban crisis.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://time.com/7373215/cuba-us-blockade-oil-venezuela|title=Rolling Blackouts, Hospital Shortages: How the U.S. Oil Blockade Is Impacting Cuba|publisher=Time |first=Philip |last=Wang |date=9 February 2026}}</ref> UN experts have condemned the executive order issued by the Trump administration, describing the imposition of a fuel blockade on Cuba as "a serious violation of international law and a grave threat to a democratic and equitable international order."<ref>{{cite web |author= |date=12 February 2026 |title=UN experts condemn US executive order imposing fuel blockade on Cuba|url=https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2026/02/un-experts-condemn-us-executive-order-imposing-fuel-blockade-cuba|website=OHCHR |location= |publisher= |access-date=14 February 2026|quote= The U.S. executive order imposing a fuel blockade on Cuba is a serious violation of international law and a grave threat to a democratic and equitable international order.}}</ref>

==Geography== {{Main|Geography of Cuba|Environment of Cuba|List of islands of Cuba}}

{{More citations needed|section|date=May 2025}}thumb|Topographic map of Cuba|upright=1.4

Cuba is an archipelago of 4,195 islands, cays and islets<ref>{{Cite web |title=Geography » Centro de Ingeniería Genética y Biotecnología |url=https://www.cigb.edu.cu/en/event_general_info/geography/ |access-date=2026-04-26 |website=Centro de Ingeniería Genética y Biotecnología |language=en-US}}</ref> located in the northern Caribbean Sea at the convergence of the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean. It lies between latitudes 19° and 24°N, and longitudes 74° and 85°W. Key West, Florida, is about 150 km (93 miles) across the Straits of Florida to the north and northwest, and The Bahamas (Cay Lobos) 22.5 km (14 mi) to the north. Mexico lies 210 km (130.5 mi) west across the Yucatán Channel (to the closest tip of Cabo Catoche). Haiti is 78 km (48.5 mi) east and Jamaica 148 km (92 mi) south.

Cuba is the principal island, surrounded by four smaller groups of islands: the Colorados Archipelago on the northwestern coast, the Sabana-Camagüey Archipelago on the north-central Atlantic coast, the Jardines de la Reina on the south-central coast and the Canarreos Archipelago on the southwestern coast. The main island, named Cuba, is {{convert|1250|km|abbr=on}} long, constituting most of the nation's land area ({{convert|104338|km2|sqmi|disp=or|abbr=on}}) and is the largest island in the Caribbean and 17th-largest island in the world. The main island consists mostly of flat to rolling plains apart from the Sierra Maestra mountains in the southeast, whose highest point is Pico Turquino ({{convert|1974|m|ft|disp=or|abbr=on}}). The second-largest island is Isla de la Juventud in the Canarreos Archipelago, with an area of {{convert|2204|km2|abbr=on}}. Cuba has an official area of {{convert|109884|km2|sqmi|abbr=on}}. Its area is {{convert|110860|km2|sqmi|sigfig=5|abbr=on}} according to the CIA.

===Climate=== {{Main|Climate of Cuba}}

upright=1.4|thumb|Köppen climate classification of Cuba With the entire island south of the Tropic of Cancer, the local climate is tropical, moderated by northeasterly trade winds that blow year-round. The temperature is also shaped by the Caribbean Current which brings in warm water from the Equator. This makes the climate of Cuba warmer than that of Hong Kong, which is at around the same latitude as Cuba but has a subtropical rather than a tropical climate. In general (with local variations), there is a drier season from November to April, and a rainier season from May to October. The average temperature is {{convert|21|C|F}} in January and {{convert|27|C|F}} in July. The warm temperatures of the Caribbean Sea and the fact that Cuba sits across the entrance to the Gulf of Mexico combine to make the country prone to frequent hurricanes. These are most common in September and October.

Climate change is causing an increase in temperature, rising sea levels and shifting precipitation patterns, with an overall decrease in rainfall predicted. These will severely impact industries key to the economy, including agriculture, forestry and tourism. As rainfall is Cuba's only water source, water security is an issue. Warmer temperatures may affect the health of the population, causing an increase in cardiovascular, respiratory and viral diseases.<ref>{{Cite web |last=World Bank Climate Change Knowledge Portal |title=Cuba |url=https://climateknowledgeportal.worldbank.org/country/cuba |access-date=6 March 2025 |website=climateknowledgeportal.worldbank.org |language=en}}</ref> A temperature rise of 2 °C above preindustrial levels can increase the likelihood of extreme hurricane rainfall by three times in Cuba.<ref name=":03">{{cite news |last1=Berardelli |first1=Jeff |date=29 August 2020 |title=Climate change may make extreme hurricane rainfall five times more likely, study says |url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/climate-change-may-make-extreme-hurricane-rainfall-five-times-more-likely-study-says/ |access-date=30 August 2020 |agency=CBC News}}</ref> Climate change mitigation and adaptation plans include renewable energy generation and nature-based solutions, such as restoring mangrove ecosystems.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Republic of Cuba |url=https://unfccc.int/sites/default/files/NDC/2022-06/Cuban%20First%20NDC%20Summary%20%28Updated%20submission%29.pdf |title=SUMMARY OF THE FIRST NDC UPDATED (2020-2030) REPUBLIC OF CUBA}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=10 May 2022 |title=Small Island Developing States are on the frontlines of climate change – here's why {{!}} UNDP Climate Promise |url=https://climatepromise.undp.org/news-and-stories/small-island-developing-states-are-frontlines-climate-change-heres-why#:~:text=Cuba%20is%20restoring%20ecosystems%20within%20mangroves%20and,erosion,%20and%20channel%20freshwater%20to%20coastal%20areas. |access-date=6 March 2025 |website=climatepromise.undp.org |language=en}}</ref>

Hurricane Irma hit the island on 8 September 2017, with winds of {{convert|260|km/h|mph|abbr=on}},<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/09/hurricane-irma-landfall-cuba-category-5-170909040746649.html|title=Florida braces for Hurricane Irma after Cuba landfall|publisher=Al Jazeera|access-date=9 September 2017|archive-date=9 September 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170909212031/http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/09/hurricane-irma-landfall-cuba-category-5-170909040746649.html|url-status=live}}</ref> at the Camagüey Archipelago.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://beta.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/hurricane-irma-rips-through-cuba-on-its-way-to-florida/article36221350/ |author1=Brian Thevenot |author2=Robin Respaut |date=9 September 2017 |work=The Globe and Mail |title=Winds whip Florida Keys as Hurricane Irma turns sights northward |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170910053409/https://beta.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/hurricane-irma-rips-through-cuba-on-its-way-to-florida/article36221350/ |archive-date=10 September 2017 |agency=Reuters}}</ref> The worst damage was in the keys north of the main island. Hospitals, warehouses and factories were damaged; much of the north coast was without electricity. Nearly one million people, including tourists, were evacuated.<ref name="nytimes.com">{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/09/us/hurricane-irma-florida.html|title=Storm Gains Strength as It Nears Florida|work=The New York Times|date=9 September 2017|access-date=9 September 2017|archive-date=9 September 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170909102639/https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/09/us/hurricane-irma-florida.html|url-status=live}}</ref> The Varadero resort area reported widespread damage.<ref name="cnn.com">{{cite news|url=http://www.cnn.com/2017/09/11/americas/irma-cuba/index.html|title=Irma kills 10 people in Cuba|author1=Hilary Clarke|author2=Patrick Oppmann|access-date=12 September 2017|archive-date=12 September 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170912154601/http://www.cnn.com/2017/09/11/americas/irma-cuba/index.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Ten people were killed during the storm, including seven in Havana, most during building collapses. Sections of the capital had been flooded.<ref name="cnn.com"/>

===Biodiversity=== [[File:Priotelus temnurus -Camaguey, Camaguey Province, Cuba-8.jpg|thumbnail|The Cuban trogon is the island's national bird. Its white, red and blue feathers match those of the Cuban flag. |upright]] Cuba contains six terrestrial ecoregions: Cuban moist forests, Cuban dry forests, Cuban pine forests, Cuban wetlands, Cuban cactus scrub, and Greater Antilles mangroves.<ref name="DinersteinOlson2017">{{cite journal |last1=Dinerstein |first1=Eric |last2=Olson |first2=David |last3=Joshi |first3=Anup |last4=Vynne |first4=Carly |last5=Burgess |first5=Neil D. |last6=Wikramanayake |first6=Eric |last7=Hahn |first7=Nathan |last8=Palminteri |first8=Suzanne |last9=Hedao |first9=Prashant |last10=Noss |first10=Reed |last11=Hansen |first11=Matt |last12=Locke |first12=Harvey |last13=Ellis |first13=Erle C. |last14=Jones |first14=Benjamin |last15=Barber |first15=Charles Victor |last16=Hayes |first16=Randy |last17=Kormos |first17=Cyril |last18=Martin |first18=Vance |last19=Crist |first19=Eileen |last20=Sechrest |first20=Wes |last21=Price |first21=Lori |last22=Baillie |first22=Jonathan E. M. |last23=Weeden |first23=Don |last24=Suckling |first24=Kierán |last25=Davis |first25=Crystal |last26=Sizer |first26=Nigel |last27=Moore |first27=Rebecca |last28=Thau |first28=David |last29=Birch |first29=Tanya |last30=Potapov |first30=Peter |last31=Turubanova |first31=Svetlana |last32=Tyukavina |first32=Alexandra |last33=de Souza |first33=Nadia |last34=Pintea |first34=Lilian |last35=Brito |first35=José C. |last36=Llewellyn |first36=Othman A. |last37=Miller |first37=Anthony G. |last38=Patzelt |first38=Annette |last39=Ghazanfar |first39=Shahina A. |last40=Timberlake |first40=Jonathan |last41=Klöser |first41=Heinz |last42=Shennan-Farpón |first42=Yara |last43=Kindt |first43=Roeland |last44=Lillesø |first44=Jens-Peter Barnekow |last45=van Breugel |first45=Paulo |last46=Graudal |first46=Lars |last47=Voge |first47=Maianna |last48=Al-Shammari |first48=Khalaf F. |last49=Saleem |first49=Muhammad |title=An Ecoregion-Based Approach to Protecting Half the Terrestrial Realm |journal=BioScience |volume=67 |issue=6 |year=2017 |pages=534–545 |doi=10.1093/biosci/bix014 |pmid=28608869 |pmc=5451287}}</ref> It had a 2019 Forest Landscape Integrity Index mean score of 5.4/10, ranking it 102nd globally out of 172 countries.<ref name="FLII-Supplementary">{{cite journal |last1=Grantham |first1=H. S. |last2=Duncan |first2=A. |last3=Evans|first3=T. D. |last4=Jones |first4=K. R. |last5=Beyer |first5=H. L. |last6=Schuster |first6=R. |last7=Walston |first7=J. |last8=Ray |first8=J. C. |last9=Robinson |first9=J. G. |last10=Callow |first10=M. |last11=Clements |first11=T. |last12=Costa |first12=H. M. |last13=DeGemmis |first13=A. |last14=Elsen |first14=P. R. |last15=Ervin |first15=J. |last16=Franco |first16=P. |last17=Goldman |first17=E. |last18=Goetz |first18=S. |last19=Hansen |first19=A.|last20=Hofsvang |first20=E. |last21=Jantz |first21=P. |last22=Jupiter |first22=S. |last23=Kang |first23=A. |last24=Langhammer |first24=P.|last25=Laurance|first25=W. F. |last26=Lieberman |first26=S. |last27=Linkie |first27=M. |last28=Malhi |first28=Y. |last29=Maxwell|first29=S.|last30=Mendez|first30=M.|last31=Mittermeier |first31=R. |last32=Murray |first32=N. J. |last33=Possingham |first33=H. |last34=Radachowsky |first34=J. |last35=Saatchi |first35=S. |last36=Samper |first36=C. |last37=Silverman |first37=J. |last38=Shapiro |first38=A. |last39=Strassburg |first39=B. |last40=Stevens |first40=T. |last41=Stokes |first41=E. |last42=Taylor |first42=R. |last43=Tear |first43=T. |last44=Tizard |first44=R. |last45=Venter |first45=O. |last46=Visconti |first46=P. |last47=Wang |first47=S. |last48=Watson|first48=J. E. M. |title=Anthropogenic modification of forests means only 40% of remaining forests have high ecosystem integrity – Supplementary Material |journal=Nature Communications |volume=11 |issue=1 |year=2020 |page=5978 |doi=10.1038/s41467-020-19493-3 |pmid=33293507 |pmc=7723057 |bibcode=2020NatCo..11.5978G }}</ref>

Cuba signed the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in 1992.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.cbd.int/convention/parties/list/ |title=List of Parties |work=cbd.int |access-date=9 December 2012 |archive-date=24 January 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110124005746/http://www.cbd.int/convention/parties/list/ |url-status=live }}</ref> A National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan was submitted in 2008.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.cbd.int/doc/world/cu/cu-nbsap-v2-es.pdf |title=Plan de Acción Nacional 2006/2010 sobre la Diversidad Biológica. República de Cuba |work=cbd.int |access-date=9 December 2012 |archive-date=17 January 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130117012409/http://www.cbd.int/doc/world/cu/cu-nbsap-v2-es.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> The report contains a detailed breakdown of the numbers of species recorded from Cuba, the main groups being: animals (17,801 species), bacteria (270), chromista (707), fungi, including lichen-forming species (5,844), plants (9,107) and protozoa (1,440).<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.cbd.int/doc/world/cu/cu-nr-04-es.pdf |title=IV Informe Nacional al Convento sobre la Diversidad Biológica. República de Cuba. 2009 |work=cbd.int |access-date=9 December 2012 |archive-date=17 January 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130117012400/http://www.cbd.int/doc/world/cu/cu-nr-04-es.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>

The native bee hummingbird or ''zunzuncito'' is the world's smallest known bird, with a length of {{convert|55|mm|in|frac=8|abbr=on}}. The Cuban trogon or ''tocororo'' is the national bird of Cuba and an endemic species. Other endemic species are the Cuban crocodile, Cuban hutia, Cuban solenodon, Cuban gar, Cuban boa, and Polymita picta. ''Hedychium coronarium'', named ''mariposa'' in Cuba, is the national flower.<ref name="Suchlicki2001">{{cite book|author=Jaime Suchlicki|title=Historical Dictionary of Cuba |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yzIlAZ6OPsUC&pg=PA69|year=2001|publisher=Scarecrow Press|isbn=978-0-8108-3779-9|page=69}}</ref>

==Government and politics== {{Main|Politics of Cuba}} {{multiple image | total_width = 320 | align = right | perrow = 2 | image1 = Miguel Diaz-Canel on July 7, 2025 (cropped).jpg | alt1 = Miguel Díaz-Canel | caption1 = Miguel Díaz-Canel First Secretary of the Communist Party and President | image2 = Manuel Marrero Cruz before the funeral of Shinzo Abe.jpg | alt2 = Manuel Marrero Cruz | caption2 = Manuel Marrero Cruz Prime Minister | image3 = Salvador Valdés Mesa (cropped).jpg | alt3 = Salvador Valdés Mesa | caption3 = Salvador Valdés Mesa Vice President | image4 = Esteban Lazo Hernandez 2022.jpg | alt4 = Esteban Lazo Hernández | caption4 = Esteban Lazo Hernández President of the National Assembly | caption_align = center }}

The Republic of Cuba is a unitary{{refn|<ref>{{cite web |author=Julio Antonio Fernández Estrada |title=What is the Cuban's system of government? |url=https://oncubanews.com/en/advertorial/what-is-the-cubans-system-of-government/ |date=17 April 2018 |publisher=On Cuba News |quote=The Cuban State is also recognized as unitary, which is evident given that Cuba does not function as a federation}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |author1=J C Guanche Zaldívar |author2=E C Díaz Galán |author3=H Bertot Triana |title=Cuba: Legal Response to Covid-19 |url=https://oxcon.ouplaw.com/display/10.1093/law-occ19/law-occ19-e42?d=%2F10.1093%2Flaw-occ19%2Flaw-occ19-e42&p=emailAcPL1TOjat9lg |date= |publisher=Oxford Constitutional Law |quote=Cuba is a unitary republic with a sui generis system of government}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Cuba |url=https://plataformaurbana.cepal.org/en/countries/cuba |publisher=Urban and Cities Platform of Latin America and the Caribbean |quote=Cuba is a unitary republic with a centrally planned economy that is divided into provinces and municipalities.}}</ref>}} one-party socialist state that adheres to the ideology of Marxism–Leninism. The Constitution of 1976, which defines Cuba as a socialist republic, was amended in 1992 and 2002, and is "guided by the ideas of José Martí and the political and social ideas of Marx, Engels and Lenin".<ref name=constitution>{{cite web |title=The Constitution of the Republic of Cuba, 1976 (as Amended to 2002) |url=http://www.constitutionnet.org/files/Cuba%20Constitution.pdf |publisher=National Assembly of People's Power |access-date=18 August 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130117013359/http://www.constitutionnet.org/files/Cuba%20Constitution.pdf |archive-date=17 January 2013}} For discussion of the 1992 amendments, see {{Harvnb|Domínguez|2003}}.</ref> The constitution describes the Communist Party of Cuba as the "leading force of society and of the state".<ref name=constitution/> The political system reflects the Marxist–Leninist concept of democratic centralism.<ref name=":022">{{Cite book |last=Cederlöf |first=Gustav |title=The Low-Carbon Contradiction: Energy Transition, Geopolitics, and the Infrastructural State in Cuba |date=2023 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-39313-4 |series=Critical environments: nature, science, and politics |location=Oakland, California}}</ref>{{Rp|page=38}}

The First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba is the most senior position in the one-party state.<ref name="Leader of Cuba">{{cite web|url=https://france24.com/en/20180419-raul-castro-leadership-cuba-communist-party-2021-diaz-canel|title=Raul Castro to lead Cuba's Communist Party until 2021|publisher=France 24|date=19 April 2018|quote='I confirm to this assembly that Raul Castro, as first secretary of the Communist Party, will lead the decisions about the future of the country,' Diaz-Canel said.|access-date=21 January 2021|archive-date=18 July 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180718003647/https://france24.com/en/20180419-raul-castro-leadership-cuba-communist-party-2021-diaz-canel|url-status=live}}</ref> The First Secretary leads the Politburo and the Secretariat, making the office holder the most powerful person in government.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/country_profiles/1203299.stm|title=Country profile: Cuba|publisher=BBC News|date=20 August 2009|access-date=7 September 2009|archive-date=20 February 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090220033854/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/country_profiles/1203299.stm|url-status=live}}</ref> Members of both councils are elected by the National Assembly of People's Power.<ref name=constitution/> The President of Cuba, who is elected by the Assembly, serves for five years and since the ratification of the 2019 Constitution, there is a limit of two consecutive five-year terms.<ref name=constitution/> The People's Supreme Court serves as the highest judicial branch of government. It is also the court of last resort for all appeals against the decisions of provincial courts.

Cuba's national legislature, the National Assembly of People's Power (''Asamblea Nacional de Poder Popular''), is the supreme state organ of power; 470 members serve five-year terms.<ref name="constitution" /> The assembly meets twice a year; between sessions legislative power is held by the 31 member Council of Ministers. Candidates for the Assembly are approved by public referendum. All Cuban citizens over 16 who have not been convicted of a criminal offense can vote.<ref>{{cite web|title=Cuba 1976 (rev. 2002)|url=https://www.constituteproject.org/constitution/Cuba_2002?lang=en#796|website=Constitute|access-date=28 April 2015|archive-date=3 June 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230603204859/https://www.constituteproject.org/constitution/Cuba_2002?lang=en#796|url-status=live}}</ref> Article 131 of the constitution states that voting shall be "through free, equal and secret vote".<ref name="constitution" /> Article 136 states: "In order for deputies or delegates to be considered elected they must get more than half the number of valid votes cast in the electoral districts".<ref name="constitution" />

Elections in Cuba are not considered democratic.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Galvis|first1=Ángela Fonseca |last2=Superti|first2=Chiara|date=3 October 2019|title=Who wins the most when everybody wins? Predicting candidate performance in an authoritarian election |journal=Democratization|volume=26|issue=7|pages=1278–1298 |doi=10.1080/13510347.2019.1629420 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Domínguez |first1=Jorge I. |last2=Galvis |first2=Ángela Fonseca |last3=Superti |first3=Chiara |title=Authoritarian Regimes and Their Permitted Oppositions: Election Day Outcomes in Cuba |journal=Latin American Politics and Society |date=2017 |volume=59 |issue=2 |pages=27–52 |doi=10.1111/laps.12017 }}</ref> In elections for the National Assembly of People's Power there is only one candidate for each seat, which prevents electoral competition.<ref name=":4"/> No political party is permitted to nominate candidates or campaign on the island.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Cuba: Elections and Events 1991-2001 |url=http://sshl.ucsd.edu/collections/las/cuba/1990.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070301123039/http://sshl.ucsd.edu/collections/las/cuba/1990.html |archive-date=2007-03-01 |access-date=2026-04-23 |website=Social Sciences & Humanities Library}}</ref> Candidates are nominated by committees that are firmly controlled by the Communist Party.<ref name=":4">{{cite journal |last1=Smyth |first1=Regina |last2=Bianco |first2=William |last3=Chan |first3=Kwan Nok |title=Legislative Rules in Electoral Authoritarian Regimes: The Case of Hong Kong's Legislative Council |journal=The Journal of Politics |date=July 2019 |volume=81 |issue=3 |pages=892–905 |doi=10.1086/703068 |jstor=26843972 |hdl=2022/32352 |url=http://iu.tind.io/record/2995 }}</ref><ref name=":5">{{Cite journal |last1=Braithwaite |first1=Alex |last2=Braithwaite |first2=Jessica Maves |year=2020 |title=Restricting Opposition in Elections and Terrorist Violence |journal=Terrorism and Political Violence |volume=32 |issue=7 |pages=1550–1572 |doi=10.1080/09546553.2018.1495627 }}</ref> Voters can select individual candidates on their ballot, select every candidate, or leave every question blank, with no option to vote against candidates.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Domínguez |first1=Jorge I. |last2=Galvis |first2=Ángela Fonseca |last3=Superti |first3=Chiara |title=Authoritarian Regimes and Their Permitted Oppositions: Election Day Outcomes in Cuba |journal=Latin American Politics and Society |date=2017 |volume=59 |issue=2 |pages=27–52 |doi=10.1111/laps.12017 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Leogrande |first=William M. |title=The Cuban communist party and electoral politics: Adaptation, succession, and transition |isbn=978-0-9704916-2-6 |date=2012 |publisher=Cuba Transition Project, Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies, University of Miami|page=11|quote=The ban on campaigning was retained, and the nomination of provincial and national assembly candidates was entrusted to Candidacy Commissions. Through an elaborate process of consultation with and suggestions from mass organizations, municipal assemblies, and local work centers, the Candidacy Commissions (now chaired by trade union, rather than PCC, representatives) produced slates of nominees with just one candidate per seat. Voters only had the choice of voting yes or no.|url=https://aura.american.edu/articles/online_resource/The_Cuban_communist_party_and_electoral_politics_Adaptation_succession_and_transition/23846613/1/files/41841135.pdf}}</ref>{{explain|reason=What does "no option to vote against candidates" mean?|date=March 2026}}

The Communist Party of Cuba holds Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba meetings once in around 5 years since 1975. In 2011, the party stated that there were 800,000 members. Party representatives generally constitute at least half of the Councils of state and the National Assembly. The remaining positions are filled by candidates nominally without party affiliation. Other political parties campaign and raise finances internationally, while activity by political opposition groups is minimal.{{citation needed|date=March 2026}}

[[File:Comité Central PCC.jpg|thumb|The headquarters of the Communist Party ]]According to International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, Cuba performs poorly on overall democratic measures.<ref name="idea">{{Cite web |title=Cuba {{!}} The Global State of Democracy |url=https://www.idea.int/democracytracker/country/cuba |access-date=6 October 2025 |website=www.idea.int |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Global State of Democracy Indices {{!}} The Global State of Democracy |url=https://www.idea.int/democracytracker/gsod-indices |access-date=6 October 2025 |website=www.idea.int}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Home {{!}} The Global State of Democracy |url=https://www.idea.int/democracytracker/ |access-date=6 October 2025 |website=www.idea.int}}</ref> Cuba is considered an authoritarian regime according to The Economist's ''Democracy Index'',<ref name="index2016">{{cite web|date=25 January 2017|title=Democracy Index 2016: Revenge of the 'deplorables'|url=https://www.eiu.com/public/topical_report.aspx?campaignid=DemocracyIndex2016|access-date=20 July 2017|website=eiu.com|publisher=The Economist Intelligence Unit|archive-date=11 November 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191111195322/https://www.eiu.com/public/topical_report.aspx?campaignid=DemocracyIndex2016|url-status=live}}</ref> ''Freedom in the World'' reports,<ref name="FITW2017">{{cite web |title=Country Status and ratings overview – Freedom in the World 1973–2016 |url=https://freedomhouse.org/sites/default/files/Country%20Status%20%26%20Ratings%20Overview%2C%201973-2016.pdf |access-date=29 January 2021 |website=Freedom House |archive-date=20 October 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171020075644/https://freedomhouse.org/sites/default/files/Country%20Status%20%26%20Ratings%20Overview%2C%201973-2016.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> and V-Dem Democracy Indices.<ref name="j496">{{cite web | title=Democracy Report 2025, 25 Years of Autocratization – Democracy Trumped? | url=https://v-dem.net/documents/54/v-dem_dr_2025_lowres_v1.pdf | access-date=14 March 2025}}</ref>

Miguel Díaz-Canel was elected president on 18 April 2018 after the resignation of Raúl Castro. On 19 April 2021, Díaz-Canel became First Secretary of the Communist Party. He is the first non-Castro to be in such top position since the Cuban Revolution of 1959.<ref>{{cite web |title=Raul Castro retires but Cuban Communist Party emphasizes continuity |url=https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/cuban-president-diaz-canel-made-communist-party-leader-ending-castro-era-2021-04-19/ |work=Reuters|date=19 April 2021 |access-date=19 April 2021 |archive-date=31 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220331094026/https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/cuban-president-diaz-canel-made-communist-party-leader-ending-castro-era-2021-04-19/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Administrative divisions=== {{Main|Provinces of Cuba|Municipalities of Cuba}}

The country is subdivided into 15 provinces and one special municipality (Isla de la Juventud). These were formerly part of six larger historical provinces: Pinar del Río, Habana, Matanzas, Las Villas, Camagüey and Oriente. The present subdivisions closely resemble those of the Spanish military provinces during the Cuban Wars of Independence, when the most troublesome areas were subdivided. The provinces are divided into municipalities.

thumb|upright=2|Provinces of Cuba {| class="background:transparent" | style="padding-right:1em;"| <ol> <li>Pinar del Río</li> <li>Artemisa</li> <li>Havana</li> <li>Mayabeque</li> <li>Matanzas</li> <li>Cienfuegos</li> <li>Villa Clara</li> <li>Sancti Spíritus</li> </ol> | <ol start="9"> <li>Ciego de Ávila</li> <li>Camagüey</li> <li>Las Tunas</li> <li>Granma</li> <li>Holguín</li> <li>Santiago de Cuba</li> <li>Guantánamo</li> <li>Isla de la Juventud</li> </ol> | |} {{clear}}

===Foreign relations===  {{Main|Foreign relations of Cuba}}

{{See also|Cuban medical internationalism}} [[File:Ali Khamenei and Fidel Castro in Non-Aligned Movement meeting in Zimbabwe (1986).jpg|thumb|Fidel Castro and Ali Khamenei at a meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement in Zimbabwe, 3 September 1986]] Cuba is a founding member of the United Nations, G77, Non-Aligned Movement, Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States, ALBA, and Organization of American States. Cuba has conducted a foreign policy that is uncharacteristic of such a minor, developing country.<ref name="Domínguez 1989 6">{{Harvnb|Domínguez|1989|p=6}}: "Cuba is a small country, but it has the foreign policy of a big power."</ref><ref name="Feinsilver 1989 2">{{Harvnb|Feinsilver|1989|p=2}}: "Cuba has projected disproportionately greater power and influence through military might ... through economic largesse ... as a mediator in regional conflicts, and as a forceful and persuasive advocate of Third World interests in international forums. Cuba's scientific achievements, while limited, are also being shared with other Third World countries, thereby furthering Cuban influence and prestige abroad."</ref> Under Castro, Cuba was heavily involved in wars in Africa, Central America and Asia. Cuba supported Algeria in 1961–1965<ref name="Gleijeses 1996 159,161">{{Harvnb|Gleijeses|1996|pp=159, 161}}: "Cuba's relationship with Algeria in 1961–5 ... clashes with the image of Cuban foreign policy—cynical ploys of a [Soviet] client state—that prevails not only in the United States but also in many European capitals. ... The aid Cuba gave Algeria in 1961–2 had nothing to do with the East-West conflict. Its roots predate Castro's victory in 1959 and lie in the Cubans' widespread identification with the struggle of the Algerian people."</ref> and sent tens of thousands of troops to Angola during the Angolan Civil War.<ref name="Gleijeses 2010 327">{{Harvnb|Gleijeses|2010|p=327}}: "The dispatch of 36,000 Cuban soldiers to Angola between November 1975 and April 1976 stunned the world; ... by 1988, there were 55,000 Cuban soldiers in Angola."</ref> Other countries that featured Cuban involvement include Ethiopia,<ref name="Gleijeses 2002 392">{{Harvnb|Gleijeses|2002|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=QHWGwG71hzMC&pg=PA392 392]}}: "After Angola, Cuba's largest military intervention was in Ethiopia, where in 1978 16,000 Cuban troops helped repulse the invading Somali army."</ref><ref>{{Harvnb|Gebru Tareke|2009|pp=[https://books.google.com/books?id=dRIfYPTZxJsC&pg=PA62 62–3]}}. Tareke refers here to the training given to 10 members of the Eritrean Liberation Front in 1968 during the Eritrean struggle for independence.</ref> Guinea,<ref name="Gleijeses 1997 50">{{Harvnb|Gleijeses|1997|p=50}}: "On 14–16 October 1960, [Guinean president Ahmed Sékou] Touré went to Havana. It was the first visit of an African chief of state to Cuba. The following year Cuba's foreign aid programme to Third World governments began when fifteen students from Guinea arrived in Havana to attend the university or technical institutes."</ref> Guinea-Bissau,<ref name="Gleijeses 1997 45">{{Harvnb|Gleijeses|1997|p=45}}: "Joining the rebellion in 1966, and remaining through the war's end in 1974, this was the longest Cuban intervention in Africa before the despatch of troops to Angola in November 1975. It was also the most successful. As the Guinean paper ''Nõ Pintcha'' declared, 'The Cubans' solidarity was decisive for our struggle{{' "}}.</ref> Mozambique,<ref name="Gleijeses 2002 227">{{Harvnb|Gleijeses|2002|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=QHWGwG71hzMC&dq=%22not+very+important%22&pg=PA227 227]}}. The Cuban contribution to the independence of Mozambique was not very important.</ref> and Yemen.{{sfn|Ramazani|1975|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=7ETnbmUmxoUC&pg=PA91 91]}} Lesser known actions include the 1959 missions to the Dominican Republic.<ref>{{Cite news |publisher=Waterloo Daily Courier|date=24 June 1959|location=Waterloo, Iowa|title=AP 1950 Invasion Wiped Out Says Trujillo|page=7}}</ref> The expedition failed, but a prominent monument to its members was erected in their memory in Santo Domingo by the Dominican government, and they feature prominently at the country's Memorial Museum of the Resistance.<ref>{{cite web |title=Resistencia 1916–1966 |url=http://www.museodelaresistencia.org/index.php?option=com_wrapper&view=wrapper&Itemid=232 |publisher=museodelaresistencia.org |access-date=24 April 2013 |archive-date=26 November 2013 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20131126212007/http://museodelaresistencia.org/index.php?option=com_wrapper&view=wrapper&Itemid=232}}</ref>

In 2008, the European Union and Cuba agreed to resume full relations and cooperation activities.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://ec.europa.eu/development/icenter/repository/EU-Cuba-Joint%20declaration-261108_EN.pdf |title=Joint declarations concerning areas and modalities provisionally identified for cooperation |date=26 November 2008 |publisher=European Commission |access-date=6 September 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110511102350/http://ec.europa.eu/development/icenter/repository/EU-Cuba-Joint%20declaration-261108_EN.pdf |archive-date=11 May 2011}}</ref> Cuba is a founding member of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas.<ref>{{cite web |last=Hirst |first=Joel D. |date=2 December 2010 |title=The Bolivarian Alliance of the Americas |url=http://www.cfr.org/venezuela/bolivarian-alliance-americas/p23585 |publisher=cfr.org |access-date=24 April 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130615195732/http://www.cfr.org/venezuela/bolivarian-alliance-americas/p23585 |archive-date=15 June 2013}}</ref> Tens of thousands of Cuban medical personnel have worked abroad,<ref>{{cite web |last=Millman |first=Joel |date=15 January 2011 |title=New Prize in Cold War: Cuban Doctors |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052970203731004576045640711118766 |work=The Wall Street Journal |access-date=24 April 2013 |archive-date=29 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230929193703/https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052970203731004576045640711118766 |url-status=live}}</ref> with as many as 30,000 doctors in Venezuela alone via the two countries' oil-for-doctors programme.<ref>{{cite web |last=Arsenault |first=Chris |date=31 December 2012 |title=Cuban doctors prescribe hope in Venezuela |url=http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/spotlight/venezuelaelection/2012/10/20121039242915607.html |publisher=Al Jazeera |access-date=24 April 2013 |archive-date=21 September 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200921013600/https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/spotlight/venezuelaelection/2012/10/20121039242915607.html |url-status=live}} As the article discusses, the oil-for-doctors programme has not been welcomed uncritically in Venezuela. The initial impetus for Cuban doctors' going to Venezuela was a Chavez-government welfare project called ''Misión Barrio Adentro'' ({{Harvnb|Albornoz|2006}}).</ref> [[File:Vladimir Putin and Raul Castro (28-09-2015).jpg|thumb|Raúl Castro with Russian President Vladimir Putin in New York City, 28 September 2015]] [[File:22.06.2023 - Encontro com o Presidente da República de Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez (52994078528).jpg|thumb|Cuban leader Miguel Díaz-Canel with Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in Paris, France, 22 June 2023]] In the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the ongoing international isolation of Russia, Cuba emerged as one of the few countries that maintained friendly relations with the Russian Federation.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2022/03/29/despite-cubas-important-history-solidarity-with-ukraine-russia-remains-key-ally/|title=Despite Cuba's important history of solidarity with Ukraine, Russia remains a key ally|author=William Kelly|newspaper=The Washington Post|date=29 March 2022|access-date=28 April 2023|archive-date=9 June 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220609231358/https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2022/03/29/despite-cubas-important-history-solidarity-with-ukraine-russia-remains-key-ally/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last1=Cunningham |first1=James |url=https://dialogo-americas.com/articles/cuba-and-russia-strengthen-strategic-partnership/#.ZEsYuC-l0_U|title=Cuba and Russia Strengthen Strategic Partnership|website=dialogo-americas.com|date=6 January 2023|access-date=28 April 2023|archive-date=28 April 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230428005728/https://dialogo-americas.com/articles/cuba-and-russia-strengthen-strategic-partnership/#.ZEsYuC-l0_U|url-status=live}}</ref> Diaz-Canel visited Vladimir Putin in Moscow in November 2022, where the two leaders opened a monument of Fidel Castro, as well as speaking out against U.S. sanctions against Russia and Cuba.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/evoking-castro-putin-cuban-leader-pledge-deepen-ties-2022-11-22/|title=Evoking Castro, Putin and Cuban leader pledge to deepen ties|work=Reuters|date=22 November 2022|access-date=28 April 2023|archive-date=28 April 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230428005729/https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/evoking-castro-putin-cuban-leader-pledge-deepen-ties-2022-11-22/|url-status=live}}</ref>

==== Embargo by the United States (1960–present) ==== {{Main|United States embargo against Cuba}}

Since 1960, the U.S. embargo on Cuba stands as one of the longest-running trade and economic measures in bilateral relations history, having endured for over six decades. This action was initiated in response to a wave of nationalizations that impacted American properties valued at over US$1 billion. U.S.<ref name=":6"/> American diplomat Lester D. Mallory wrote an internal memo on 6 April 1960, arguing in favor of an embargo: "The only foreseeable means of alienating internal support is through disenchantment and disaffection based on economic dissatisfaction and hardship. [...] to decrease monetary and real wages, to bring about hunger, desperation and overthrow of government."<ref>{{cite book |url=https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1958-60v06/d499 |title=Foreign Relations of the United States |date=6 April 1960 |publisher=Office of the Historian, Foreign Service Institute – United States Department of State |location=Washington |chapter=499. Memorandum From the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs (Mallory) to the Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs (Rubottom) |quote=If the above are accepted or cannot be successfully countered, it follows that every possible means should be undertaken promptly to weaken the economic life of Cuba. If such a policy is adopted, it should be the result of a positive decision which would call forth a line of action which, while as adroit and inconspicuous as possible, makes the greatest inroads in denying money and supplies to Cuba, to decrease monetary and real wages, to bring about hunger, desperation and overthrow of government. |access-date=13 May 2022 |archive-date=27 September 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160927035426/https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1958-60v06/d499 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Yaffe |first1=Helen |title=Sanctions as War |chapter=US Sanctions Cuba 'to Bring About Hunger, Desperation and the Overthrow of the Government' |date=2021 |pages=129–147 |doi=10.1163/9789004501201_009 |isbn=978-90-04-50119-5 |chapter-url=http://eprints.gla.ac.uk/253303/ }}</ref> President Dwight Eisenhower instated an embargo that prohibited all exports to Cuba, with the exception of medicines and certain foods.<ref name=":6" /> This measure was intensified in 1962 under the administration of John F. Kennedy, extending the restrictions to Cuban imports, based on the Foreign Assistance Act approved by Congress in 1961.<ref name=":6" /> During the Missile Crisis in 1962, the United States even imposed a naval blockade on Cuba, but this was lifted following the resolution of the crisis. The embargo, however, remained in place and has been modified on several occasions over the years.<ref name=":6" />[[File:Havana11.JPG|thumb|Propaganda sign in front of the United States Interests Section in Havana]]The Cuban Democracy Act of 1992 states that sanctions will continue "so long as it continues to refuse to move toward democratization and greater respect for human rights".<ref>{{cite web |year=1992 |title=Cuban Democracy Act |url=https://1997-2001.state.gov/www/regions/wha/cuba/democ_act_1992.html |access-date=6 September 2009 |publisher=U.S. Department of State |archive-date=15 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201115002210/https://1997-2001.state.gov/www/regions/wha/cuba/democ_act_1992.html |url-status=live }}</ref>{{Primary source inline|date=May 2022}} The UN General Assembly has passed a resolution every year since 1992 condemning the embargo and stating that it violates the Charter of the United Nations and international law.<ref>{{cite web |date=September 2009 |title=The US Embargo Against Cuba: Its Impact on Economic and Social Rights |url=https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/amr25/007/2009/en/ |access-date=29 December 2013 |publisher=Amnesty International |archive-date=4 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200804205931/https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/amr25/007/2009/en/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Cuba considers the embargo a human rights violation.<ref>{{Cite web |date=7 November 2019 |title=Cuba: UN Members overwhelmingly support end of US embargo, as Brazil backs Washington |url=https://news.un.org/en/story/2019/11/1050891 |access-date=2 January 2021 |publisher=United Nations News |archive-date=16 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210116072030/https://news.un.org/en/story/2019/11/1050891 |url-status=live }}</ref> The impact and effectiveness of the embargo have been subjects of intense debate. While some argue it has been "extraordinarily porous" and is not the primary cause of Cuba's economic hardships, others see it as a pressure mechanism aimed at driving change in the Cuban government.<ref name=":6" /> According to Arturo Lopez Levy, a professor of international relations, it would be more appropriate to refer to the measure as a "blockade" or "siege", as it goes beyond mere trade restrictions.<ref name=":6" /> Other critics of the Cuban government argue that the embargo has been used by the government as an excuse to justify its own economic and political shortcomings.<ref name=":6" />

In 1996, the United States passed the Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity Act, better known as the Helms–Burton Act, which strengthens and continues the United States embargo against Cuba.{{sfn|Roy|2000|p={{page needed|date=December 2023}}}}{{efn|Roy's study was described as "systematic and fair" by Jorge Domínguez.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Domínguez |first=Jorge I. |year=2001 |title=Reviews: ''Cuba, the United States, and the Helms-Burton Doctrine: International Reactions'' by Joaquín Roy |journal=Journal of Latin American Studies |volume=33 |issue=4 |pages=888–890 |jstor=3653779 |doi=10.1017/s0022216x0133626x }}</ref>}} In 2009, United States president Barack Obama stated "the United States seeks a new beginning with Cuba",<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.america.gov/st/peacesec-english/2009/April/20090421102201dmslahrellek0.4116632.html |title=Obama Says U.S., Cuba Taking Critical Steps Toward a New Day |date=21 April 2009 |publisher=Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State |access-date=6 September 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091130044737/http://www.america.gov/st/peacesec-english/2009/April/20090421102201dmslahrellek0.4116632.html?CP.rss=true |archive-date=30 November 2009}}</ref> and he reversed the Bush Administration's prohibition on travel and remittances by Cuban-Americans from the United States to Cuba.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.america.gov/st/texttrans-english/2009/April/20090413170610eaifas0.2033502.html |title=U.S. Administration Announcement on U.S. Policy Toward Cuba |date=13 April 2009 |publisher=Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State |access-date=6 September 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090830041229/http://www.america.gov/st/texttrans-english/2009/April/20090413170610eaifas0.2033502.html |archive-date=30 August 2009}}</ref> In 2014 an agreement between the United States and Cuba, popularly called the "Cuban thaw", brokered in part by Canada and Pope Francis, began the process of restoring international relations between the two countries. They agreed to release political prisoners, and in 2015 the United States opened an embassy in Havana.<ref>{{cite news|author1=Daniel Trotta and Steve Holland|title=U.S., Cuba restore ties after 50 years|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-cuba-usa-gross-idUSKBN0JV1H520141217|access-date=13 January 2015|work=Reuters|date=17 December 2014|location=Havanna and Washington|archive-date=15 January 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160115200949/http://www.reuters.com/article/us-cuba-usa-gross-idUSKBN0JV1H520141217|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last=Baker|first=Peter|date=17 December 2014|title=U.S. to Restore Full Relations With Cuba, Erasing a Last Trace of Cold War Hostility|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/18/world/americas/us-cuba-relations.html|access-date=13 January 2015|work=The New York Times|archive-date=5 November 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151105152931/http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/18/world/americas/us-cuba-relations.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |author1=Frances Robles |author2=Julie Hirschfeld Davis |date=18 December 2014 |title=U.S. Frees Last of the 'Cuban Five,' Part of a 1990s Spy Ring |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/18/world/americas/us-frees-last-of-the-cuban-five-part-of-a-1990s-spy-ring-.html |access-date=13 January 2015 |work=The New York Times |archive-date=29 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230929200719/https://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/18/world/americas/us-frees-last-of-the-cuban-five-part-of-a-1990s-spy-ring-.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last=Parlapiano|first=Alicia|date=17 December 2014|title=How America's Relationship With Cuba Will Change|url=https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/12/17/world/americas/cuba-sanctions.html|access-date=13 January 2015|work=The New York Times|archive-date=29 September 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230929194015/https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/12/17/world/americas/cuba-sanctions.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|author1=Mark Landler and Michael R. Gordon|date=17 December 2014|title=Journey to Reconciliation Visited Worlds of Presidents, Popes and Spies|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/18/world/americas/journey-to-rapprochement-visited-worlds-of-presidents-popes-and-spies.html|access-date=13 January 2015|work=The New York Times|archive-date=29 September 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230929194047/https://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/18/world/americas/journey-to-rapprochement-visited-worlds-of-presidents-popes-and-spies.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Jackson |first1=David |title=Obama, Cuba announce embassy openings |url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/07/01/obama-cuba-raul-castro-embassy/29555255/ |access-date=1 July 2015 |date=1 July 2015 |archive-date=29 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230929200719/https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/07/01/obama-cuba-raul-castro-embassy/29555255/ |url-status=live }}</ref> and reestablished diplomatic relations.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Jaffe |first1=Greg |title=U.S. and Cuba reach deal to reopen embassies and reestablish ties |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/us-and-cuba-reach-deal-to-reopen-embassies-and-reestablish-ties/2015/06/30/258209ba-1f70-11e5-84d5-eb37ee8eaa61_story.html |newspaper=The Washington Post|access-date=30 June 2015 |archive-date=22 April 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220422050303/https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/us-and-cuba-reach-deal-to-reopen-embassies-and-reestablish-ties/2015/06/30/258209ba-1f70-11e5-84d5-eb37ee8eaa61_story.html |url-status=live }}</ref> In 2015 Obama announced he would remove Cuba from the American government's list of nations that sponsor terrorism,<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/15/world/americas/obama-cuba-remove-from-state-terror-list.html |title=Cuba to Be Removed From U.S. List of Nations That Sponsor Terrorism |last1=Archibold |first1=Randal C. |last2=Davis |first2=Julie Hirschfield |work=The New York Times |date=14 April 2015 |access-date=15 April 2015 |archive-date=1 October 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151001153816/http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/15/world/americas/obama-cuba-remove-from-state-terror-list.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/u-s-cuba-relations/obama-remove-cuba-list-state-sponsors-terrorism-n341446 |title=Obama Nixing Cuba From List of State Sponsors of Terrorism |last1=Gamboa |first1=Suzanne |last2=Abdullah |first2=Halimah |publisher=NBC News |date=14 April 2015 |access-date=15 April 2015 |archive-date=3 October 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231003131551/https://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/u-s-cuba-relations/obama-remove-cuba-list-state-sponsors-terrorism-n341446 |url-status=live }}</ref> which Cuba reportedly welcomed as "fair".<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-32313184 |title=Cuba praises 'fair' US pledge on terrorism list |publisher=BBC News |date=15 April 2015 |access-date=15 April 2015 |archive-date=29 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230929193804/https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-32313184 |url-status=live }}</ref> On 17 September 2017, the United States considered closing its Cuban embassy following mysterious medical symptoms experienced by its staff.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/17/us/politics/tillerson-cuba-embassy.html|title=Tillerson Says U.S. May Close Cuba Embassy Over Mystery Ailments|last=Harris|first=Gardiner|date=17 September 2017|work=The New York Times|access-date=29 October 2017 |archive-date=29 October 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171029070032/https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/17/us/politics/tillerson-cuba-embassy.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

The diplomatic relations set in place by Obama were later reversed by the Trump administration, which enacted new rules and re-enforced the business and travel restrictions which were loosened by the Obama administration.<ref>{{cite web |last=Lederman |first=Josh |title=U.S. tightens travel rules to Cuba, blacklists many businesses |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/travel/ct-us-cuba-travel-restrictions-20171108-story.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190422150935/https://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/travel/ct-us-cuba-travel-restrictions-20171108-story.html |archive-date=22 April 2019 |access-date=13 May 2022 |website=Chicago Tribune}}</ref> These sanctions were inherited and strengthened by the Biden administration.<ref>{{cite web |date=31 July 2021 |title=U.S. issues new Cuba sanctions, Biden promises more to come |first1=Jeff |last1=Mason |first2=Steve |last2=Holland |url=https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/biden-meet-cuban-american-leaders-amid-calls-tougher-action-havana-2021-07-30/ |access-date=13 May 2022 |work=Reuters|archive-date=16 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220516164157/https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/biden-meet-cuban-american-leaders-amid-calls-tougher-action-havana-2021-07-30/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Military=== {{Main|Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces}}

{{As of|2018}}, Cuba spent about {{Nowrap|US$91.8 million}} on its armed forces or 2.9% of its GDP.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.sipri.org/databases/milex|title=SIPRI Military Expenditure Database | SIPRI|website=sipri.org|access-date=19 July 2021|archive-date=2 May 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190502184705/https://www.sipri.org/databases/milex|url-status=live}}</ref> In 1985, Cuba devoted more than 10% of its GDP to military expenditures.<ref name="Hoyt Atlantic">{{cite magazine |author-last=Williams |author-first=John Hoyt |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1988/08/cuba-havanas-military-machine/305932/|access-date=19 July 2013|magazine=The Atlantic|date=August 1988|archive-date=7 June 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110607110023/https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1988/08/cuba-havanas-military-machine/305932/|url-status=live|title=Cuba: Havana's Military Machine}}</ref> During the Cold War, Cuba built up the largest per capita armed forces in Latin America, funded and equipped by the Soviet Union.<ref name=military>{{cite web|url=http://www.disam.dsca.mil/pubs/Vol%205-2/Cuban.pdf|title=Cuban armed forces and the Soviet military presence|access-date=24 March 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090324232416/http://www.disam.dsca.mil/pubs/Vol%205-2/Cuban.pdf|archive-date=24 March 2009}}</ref> From 1975 until the late 1980s, Soviet military assistance enabled Cuba to upgrade its military capabilities. After the loss of Soviet subsidies, Cuba scaled down the numbers of military personnel, from 235,000 in 1994 to about 49,000 in 2021.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.redorbit.com/news/general/618165/cuban_army_called_key_in_any_postcastro_scenario/index.html/|title=Cuban army called key in any post-Castro scenario|date=15 August 2006|website=Redorbit|access-date=30 December 2019|archive-date=17 August 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210817082243/https://www.redorbit.com/news/general/618165/cuban_army_called_key_in_any_postcastro_scenario/index.html/|url-status=live}}</ref>

In 2017, Cuba signed the UN treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://treaties.un.org/Pages/ViewDetails.aspx?src=TREATY&mtdsg_no=XXVI-9&chapter=26&clang=_en |title=Chapter XXVI: Disarmament – No. 9 Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons |publisher=United Nations Treaty Collection |date=7 July 2017 |access-date=10 August 2019 |archive-date=30 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221230171334/https://treaties.un.org/Pages/ViewDetails.aspx?src=TREATY&mtdsg_no=XXVI-9&chapter=26&clang=_en |url-status=live }}</ref> Since signing a defense pact with Belarus in January 2024, Cuba has upgraded its S-125 Pechora air defense systems with Belarusian support,<ref>{{cite web |title=Cuba modernizes the S-125 Pechora missiles in military cooperation with Belarus |url=https://en.cibercuba.com/noticias/2025-05-04-u1-e208933-s27061-nid302096-cuba-moderniza-misiles-s-125-pechora-cooperacion |date=4 May 2025 |website=en.cibercuba.com}}</ref> but it does not have a modern networked air defense system.

According to the Global Peace Index, Cuba has a medium state of peace ranked 102 out of 163 countries.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.economicsandpeace.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/GPI-2024-web.pdf|title=2024 Global Peace Index|accessdate=21 November 2025}}</ref>

Cuba is considered a military dictatorship in the Democracy-Dictatorship Index and has been described as "a militarized society"<ref>Hugo Prieto. [https://historico.prodavinci.com/2017/07/30/actualidad/elizabeth-burgos-los-cubanos-se-han-dedicado-al-control-de-las-fuerzas-armadas-por-hugo-prieto/ "Elizabeth Burgos: 'Los cubanos se han dedicado al control de las Fuerzas Armadas'."] {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220905002151/https://historico.prodavinci.com/2017/07/30/actualidad/elizabeth-burgos-los-cubanos-se-han-dedicado-al-control-de-las-fuerzas-armadas-por-hugo-prieto/ |date=5 September 2022}} ''Prodavinci''. 30 July 2017. Retrieved 5 September 2022. ''"Cuba es una dictadura militar y una sociedad militarizada."''</ref> with the armed forces having long been the most powerful institution in the country.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://ctp.iccas.miami.edu/Research_Studies/BLatell.pdf |title=The Cuban military and transition dynamics |access-date=27 August 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090326012540/http://ctp.iccas.miami.edu/Research_Studies/BLatell.pdf|archive-date=26 March 2009}}</ref>

===Law enforcement=== {{Main|Law enforcement in Cuba}}

{{See also|Crime in Cuba}} [[File:Cuba police car 01.JPG|thumb|A Lada Riva police car in Holguín ]] All law enforcement agencies are maintained under Cuba's Ministry of the Interior, which is supervised by the Revolutionary Armed Forces. The Intelligence Directorate conducts intelligence operations and maintains close ties with the Russian Federal Security Service.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://duma.gov.ru/en/news/55808/ |title=Vyacheslav Volodin: for us, Cuba is a symbol of the struggle for independence, struggle for self-determination of the people |website=State Duma |date=22 November 2022 |access-date=28 April 2023 |archive-date=28 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230428005729/http://duma.gov.ru/en/news/55808/ |url-status=live }}</ref> The US Justice Department considers Cuba a significant counterintelligence threat.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Strobel |first=Brett Forrest and Warren P. |title=How Cuba Recruits Spies to Penetrate Inner Circles of the U.S. Government |url=https://www.wsj.com/politics/national-security/how-cuba-recruits-spies-to-penetrate-inner-circles-of-the-u-s-government-d277b931?mod=hp_lead_pos6 |access-date=17 March 2024 |work=The Wall Street Journal |language=en-US |archive-date=17 March 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240317002544/https://www.wsj.com/politics/national-security/how-cuba-recruits-spies-to-penetrate-inner-circles-of-the-u-s-government-d277b931?mod=hp_lead_pos6 |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Censorship=== {{Main|Censorship in Cuba}} The unconditional release of all political prisoners was called for by the EU.<ref name="Laursen">{{cite book |last=Laursen |first=F. |title=The EU in the Global Political Economy |publisher=P.I.E. Peter Lang |year=2009 |isbn=978-90-5201-554-5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8N66N1M3fVMC&pg=PA279 |page=279 |access-date=14 October 2016 |archive-date=9 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230209040624/https://books.google.com/books?id=8N66N1M3fVMC&pg=PA279 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:C:2004:076E:0384:0386:EN:PDF|title=EU-Cuba relations|date=4 September 2003|publisher=European Communities|access-date=6 September 2009|archive-date=5 September 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090905060853/http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:C:2004:076E:0384:0386:EN:PDF}}</ref> In July 2010, the unofficial Cuban Human Rights Commission said there were 167 political prisoners in Cuba, a fall from 201 at the start of the year. The head of the commission stated that long prison sentences were being replaced by harassment and intimidation.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10517497|title=Number of Cuban political prisoners dips – rights group|date=5 July 2010|access-date=2 June 2014|publisher=BBC News|archive-date=5 June 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140605082130/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10517497|url-status=live}}</ref> Cuba was ranked 19th by the number of imprisoned journalists of any nation in {{As of|2021|bare=y}} according to various sources, including the Committee to Protect Journalists and Human Rights Watch.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://cpj.org/2021/12/attacks-on-the-press-in-2021/ |title=Attacks on the Press in 2021 |date=9 December 2021 |publisher=Committee to Protect Journalists |access-date=13 May 2022 |archive-date=13 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220513072703/https://cpj.org/2021/12/attacks-on-the-press-in-2021/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=World Report 2008: Events of 2007 |publisher=Seven Stories Press |year=2008 |isbn=978-1-58322-774-9 |author=Human Rights Watch |author-link=Human Rights Watch |page=[https://archive.org/details/worldreport2008e0000unse/page/207 207] |url=https://archive.org/details/worldreport2008e0000unse/page/207 }}</ref> Cuba ranks 171st out of 180 on the {{As of|2020|bare=y}} World Press Freedom Index.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Cuba – Constant ordeal for independent media |url=https://rsf.org/en/cuba |access-date=14 October 2021 |website=Reporters without Borders |archive-date=6 October 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211006091631/https://rsf.org/en/cuba |url-status=live }}</ref>

The Committees for the Defense of the Revolution surveil their neighborhoods for "counter-revolutionary" activity.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Sanchez |first=Isabel |date=27 September 2010 |title=Cuba's neighborhood watches: 50 years of eyes, ears |url=http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gq3GU2QzFyRWT84_YNvI3mgOy7tg?docId=CNG.cd0ab416a2c7901c0abb23f392c5057d.ad1 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130410190428/http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gq3GU2QzFyRWT84_YNvI3mgOy7tg?docId=CNG.cd0ab416a2c7901c0abb23f392c5057d.ad1 |archive-date=2013-04-10 |access-date=2026-04-23 |work=AFP |via=Google News}}</ref> Membership is not selective, but leading members are approved by the Cuban Communist Party.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Back from the Future: Cuba under Castro|last=Eckstein|first=Susan|publisher=Routledge|year=1994|isbn=0-415-94793-6|location=Great Britain|pages=29}}</ref>

===Identity politics=== {{Main|LGBT rights in Cuba|Women in Cuba}} [[File:Damas de Blanco demonstration in Havana, Cuba.jpg|thumb|Ladies in White demonstration in Havana (April 2012)]] Cuba performs in the top 25% of nations in gender equality.<ref name="idea" /> In 2022 Cuba approved a referendum which amended the Family Code to legalise same-sex marriage and allow surrogate pregnancy and same-sex adoption. Gender reassignment surgery and transgender hormone therapy are provided free of charge under the national healthcare system. The government supported the proposed changes, but conservatives and parts of the opposition opposed them. Official policies of the government from 1959 until the 1990s were hostile towards homosexuality, with the LGBT community marginalized on the basis of heteronormativity, traditional gender roles, and strict criteria for moralism.<ref name=":02">{{cite news |last=Smith |first=Lydia |date=4 January 2018 |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/cuba-lgbt-revolution-gay-lesbian-transgender-rights-havana-raul-castro-a8122591.html |title=Inside Cuba's LGBT revolution: How the island's attitudes to sexuality and gender were transformed |newspaper=The Independent |location=Havana |access-date=3 May 2023 |archive-date=14 May 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190514152751/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/cuba-lgbt-revolution-gay-lesbian-transgender-rights-havana-raul-castro-a8122591.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-63035426 |title=Cuba Family Code: Country votes to legalise same-sex marriage |publisher=BBC News |date=26 September 2022 |access-date=28 September 2022 |archive-date=28 September 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220928110542/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-63035426 |url-status=live }}</ref>

==Economy== {{Main|Economy of Cuba}}

{{Further|Dual economy of Cuba|Rationing in Cuba|Sociolismo|United States embargo against Cuba}} thumb|right|Historical GDP per capita development The Cuban state asserts its adherence to socialist principles in organizing its largely state-controlled planned economy. Most of the means of production are owned and run by the government, and most of the labor force is employed by the state. Recent years have seen a trend toward more private sector employment. By 2006, public sector employment was 78% and private sector 22%, compared to 91.8% to 8.2% in 1981.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.oxfamamerica.org/newsandpublications/publications/research_reports/art3670.html/OA-Cuba_Social_Policy_at_Crossroads-en.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071009163422/http://www.oxfamamerica.org/newsandpublications/publications/research_reports/art3670.html/OA-Cuba_Social_Policy_at_Crossroads-en.pdf|archive-date=9 October 2007|title=Social Policy at the crossroads |publisher=oxfamamerica.org|access-date=5 February 2009}}</ref> Government spending is 78.1% of GDP.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.reference.com/government-politics/countries-planned-economy-3f07e563b79708ba|title=What countries have a planned economy?|newspaper=Reference|access-date=18 October 2016|archive-date=26 August 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170826083115/https://www.reference.com/government-politics/countries-planned-economy-3f07e563b79708ba|url-status=live}}</ref> Since the early 2010s, following the initial market reforms, it has become popular to describe the economy as being, or moving toward, market socialism.<ref>{{cite news |last=Plummer |first=Robert |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/business-12565417 |title=Cuba inches towards market socialism |date=27 March 2011 |publisher=BBC |access-date=22 October 2022 |archive-date=29 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230929020629/https://www.bbc.com/news/business-12565417 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Feinberg |first=Richard |title=Open for Business: Building the New Cuban Economy |pages=214–215 |date=14 June 2016 |publisher=Publisher: Brookings Institution Press |isbn=9780815727699}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=LeoGrande |first=William |url=https://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/is-cuba-s-vision-of-market-socialism-sustainable/ |title=Is Cuba's Vision of Market Socialism Sustainable? |date=31 July 2018 |access-date=22 October 2022 |archive-date=3 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230203031714/https://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/is-cuba-s-vision-of-market-socialism-sustainable/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Any firm that hires a Cuban must pay the Cuban government, which in turn pays the employee in Cuban pesos (CUP).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.hrw.org/legacy/reports/1999/cuba/Cuba996-01.htm#P392_35421|title=Cuba's repressive machinery: Summary and recommendations|publisher=Human Rights Watch|year=1999|access-date=4 December 2016|archive-date=22 May 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190522224702/https://www.hrw.org/legacy/reports/1999/cuba/Cuba996-01.htm#P392_35421|url-status=live}}</ref> After a reform in 2021, the minimum monthly wage is about 2100 CUP (US$81), and the median monthly wage is about 4000 CUP (US$155).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://oncubanews.com/en/cuba/economy/cuban-economy/cuba-raises-minimum-wage-to-2100-pesos-and-sets-pensions-cap-at-1528|title=Cuba raises minimum wage to 2,100 pesos and sets pensions cap at 1,528|publisher=OnCuba|year=2020|access-date=6 May 2025}}</ref> According to Carmelo Mesa-Lago, there is widespread consensus that the policies of the revolutionary government decreased poverty until the end of the Cold War.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Mesa-Lago |first=Carmelo |title=Comparing Socialist Approaches: Economics and Social Security in Cuba, China, and Vietnam |publisher=University of Pittsburgh Press |year=2025 |isbn=9780822948476 |series=Pitt Latin American Series|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=COg4EQAAQBAJ&dq=Comparing%20Socialist%20Approaches%3A%20Economics%20and%20Social%20Security%20in%20Cuba%2C%20China%2C%20and%20Vietnam.&pg=PA61|location=Pittsburgh, PA|page=61}}</ref> Every Cuban household has a ration book (known as libreta) entitling it to a monthly supply of food and other staples, which are provided at nominal cost.<ref name="dealsoff">{{cite news|title=Inequality: The deal's off|url=https://www.economist.com/special-report/2012/03/24/the-deals-off|newspaper=The Economist|access-date=21 July 2013|date=24 March 2012|archive-date=12 June 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180612184844/https://www.economist.com/node/21550421|url-status=live}}</ref> Cuba’s economy is heavily impacted by the US trade embargo, which began in the 1960s.<ref name="idea" />

According to the Havana Consulting Group, in 2014, remittances to Cuba were more than US$3 million, the seventh highest in Latin America.<ref>{{cite news |title=CUBA: The Fastest Growing Remittances Market in Latin America |url=http://www.thehavanaconsultinggroup.com/en-US/Articles/Article/20?AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1 |access-date=29 May 2022 |publisher=The Havana Consulting Group & Tech |date=23 June 2016 |archive-date=7 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220307204623/http://www.thehavanaconsultinggroup.com/en-US/Articles/Article/20?AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1 |url-status=live }}</ref> In 2019, remittances had grown to US$6,616 million, but dropped down to US$1,967 million in 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.<ref>{{cite news |title=Envío de remesas a Cuba cayó el 54,14 % en 2020, según expertos |url=https://oncubanews.com/cuba/envio-de-remesas-a-cuba-cayo-el-5414-en-2020-segun-expertos/ |access-date=29 May 2022 |work=On Cuba News |date=24 November 2020 |language=Spanish |archive-date=29 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230929195112/https://oncubanews.com/cuba/envio-de-remesas-a-cuba-cayo-el-5414-en-2020-segun-expertos/ |url-status=live }}</ref> The pandemic devastated Cuba's tourist industry, which along with a tightening of U.S. sanctions, led to large increase in emigration among younger working-age Cubans. It has been described as a crisis that is "threatening the stability" of Cuba, which "already has one of the hemisphere's oldest populations".<ref name="Augustin-11-12-22">{{cite news |last1=Augustin |first1=Ed |last2=Robles |first2=Frances |title='Cuba Is Depopulating': Largest Exodus Yet Threatens Country's Future |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/10/world/americas/cuba-us-migration.html |access-date=11 December 2022 |date=10 December 2022 |archive-date=29 August 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230829220932/https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/10/world/americas/cuba-us-migration.html |url-status=live }}</ref> According to a controversial 2023 report by the Cuban Observatory of Human Rights, 88% of Cuban citizens live in extreme poverty. The report states that Cubans were concerned about food security and the difficulty in acquiring basic goods.<ref name=":3">{{Cite web |date=29 September 2023 |title=Un informe asegura que el 88% de los cubanos vive en la pobreza extrema |url=https://www.infobae.com/america/america-latina/2023/09/29/un-informe-asegura-que-el-88-de-los-cubanos-vive-en-la-pobreza-extrema/ |access-date=29 September 2023 |website=infobae |language=es-ES |archive-date=29 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230929152636/https://www.infobae.com/america/america-latina/2023/09/29/un-informe-asegura-que-el-88-de-los-cubanos-vive-en-la-pobreza-extrema/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

According to the World Bank, Cuba's GDP per capita was $9,500 as of 2020.<ref name=":world bank">{{cite web|url=https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.CD?locations=CU|title=GDP per capita (current US$) – Cuba|publisher=World Bank|access-date=3 January 2024|archive-date=1 August 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230801033400/https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.CD?locations=CU|url-status=live}}</ref> But according to the CIA World Factbook, it was $12,300 as of 2016.<ref name=":cia">{{cite web|url=https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/cuba/|title=Cuba|publisher=Central Intelligence Agency|access-date=3 January 2024|archive-date=12 August 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210812170744/https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/cuba/|url-status=dead}}</ref> The United Nations Development Programme gave Cuba a Human Development Index of 0.764 in 2021.<ref name=":UNDP">{{cite web|url=https://hdr.undp.org/data-center/human-development-index#/indicies/HDI|title=Human Development Index (HDI)|publisher=United Nations Development Programme|access-date=3 January 2024|archive-date=10 June 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220610040330/https://hdr.undp.org/data-center/human-development-index#/indicies/HDI|url-status=live}}</ref> The same United Nations agency estimated the country's Multidimensional Poverty Index of 0.003 in 2023.<ref name=":MPI">{{cite web|url=https://hdr.undp.org/content/2023-global-multidimensional-poverty-index-mpi#/indicies/MPI|title=2023 Global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI)|date=11 July 2023 |publisher=United Nations Development Programme|access-date=3 January 2024|archive-date=13 July 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230713210119/https://hdr.undp.org/content/2023-global-multidimensional-poverty-index-mpi#/indicies/MPI|url-status=live}}</ref>

In 2005, Cuba had exports of {{Nowrap|US$2.4 billion}}, ranking 114 of 226 world countries, and imports of {{Nowrap|US$6.9 billion}}, ranking 87 of 226 countries.<ref>{{cite web|date=29 June 2006 |url=https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2078rank.html|title=Rank Order Exports|work=The World Factbook|publisher=Central Intelligence Agency|access-date=30 April 2014|archive-date=19 August 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160819103836/https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2078rank.html}}</ref> Its major export partners are Canada 17.7%, China 16.9%, Venezuela 12.5%, Netherlands 9%, and Spain 5.9% (2012).<ref name="factbook">{{cite web|url=https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/cuba/|title=Cuba|work=The World Factbook|publisher=Central Intelligence Agency|access-date=6 April 2009|archive-date=12 August 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210812170744/https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/cuba/|url-status=dead}}</ref> Major exports include sugar, nickel, tobacco, fish, medical products, citrus fruits, and coffee;<ref name="factbook" /> imports include food, fuel, clothing, and machinery. Cuba presently holds debt in an amount estimated at {{Nowrap|$13 billion}},<ref>{{cite web|last=Calzon |first=Frank |date=13 March 2005 |url=http://www.cubacenter.org/media/calzon/cuba_makes_poor_trade.html |title=Cuba makes poor trade partner for Louisiana |publisher=Center for a Free Cuba |access-date=7 September 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080513073046/http://www.cubacenter.org/media/calzon/cuba_makes_poor_trade.html |archive-date=13 May 2008 }}</ref> approximately 38% of GDP.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2001rank.html |title=Rank Order – GDP (purchasing power parity)|publisher=CIA Fact Book|access-date=9 July 2006|archive-date=4 June 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110604195034/https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2001rank.html}}</ref> Cuba's prior 35% supply of the world's export market for sugar has declined to 10% due to a variety of factors, including a global sugar commodity price drop that made Cuba less competitive on world markets.<ref>{{cite web|date=6 December 2001 |url=http://www.fas.usda.gov/htp/highlights/2001/IATR/cubaiatr.pdf |title=Cuba's Sugar Industry and the Impact of Hurricane Michele |publisher=International Agricultural Trade Report |access-date=9 July 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060623123242/http://www.fas.usda.gov/htp/highlights/2001/IATR/cubaiatr.pdf |archive-date=23 June 2006 }}</ref> It was announced in 2008 that wage caps would be abandoned to improve the nation's productivity.<ref>{{cite web |title=Cuba to abandon wage caps |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/jun/12/cuba |website=The Guardian |access-date=7 May 2015 |first=Lee |last=Glendinning |date=12 June 2008 |archive-date=20 June 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150620091712/http://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/jun/12/cuba |url-status=live }}</ref>

Cuba's leadership has called for reforms in the country's agricultural system. In 2008, Raúl Castro began enacting agrarian reforms to boost food production, as at that time 80% of food was imported. The reforms aim to expand land use and increase efficiency.<ref name=food>{{Cite news|url=http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/americas/04/16/cuba.farming/index.html|title=Cuban leader looks to boost food production|publisher=CNN|date=17 April 2008|access-date=14 September 2009|archive-date=6 December 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171206084002/http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/americas/04/16/cuba.farming/index.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Venezuela supplies Cuba with an estimated {{convert|110000|oilbbl|m3}} of oil per day in exchange for money and the services of some 44,000 Cubans, most of them medical personnel, in Venezuela.<ref name="VenezuelaReuters">{{cite news|title=Venezuela's Maduro pledges continued alliance with Cuba|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-cuba-venezuela-maduro-idUSBRE93R00Y20130428|access-date=19 July 2013|work=Reuters|archive-date=22 December 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151222221531/http://www.reuters.com/article/us-cuba-venezuela-maduro-idUSBRE93R00Y20130428|url-status=live|date=April 28, 2013}}</ref><ref name="VenezuelaAES">{{cite web|title=Cuba Ill-Prepared for Venezuelan Shock |url=http://ascecuba.org/blog/post/Cuba-Ill-Prepared-for-Venezuelan-Shock-.aspx |publisher=Association for the Study of the Cuban Economy |access-date=23 July 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130423062457/http://www.ascecuba.org/blog/post/Cuba-Ill-Prepared-for-Venezuelan-Shock-.aspx |archive-date=23 April 2013 }}</ref>

thumb|Cubans are now permitted to own small businesses in certain sectors. {{As of|2010|alt=In 2010}}, Cubans were allowed to build their own houses. According to Raúl Castro, they could now improve their houses, but the government would not endorse these new houses or improvements.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.noticias24.com/actualidad/noticia/152868/gobierno-de-castro-otorga-a-cubanos-permiso-para-construir-viviendas-por-esfuerzo-propio/ |title=Gobierno de Castro otorga a cubanos permiso para construir viviendas 'por esfuerzo propio' en |publisher=Noticias24.com |access-date=7 November 2010 |archive-date=12 October 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171012090759/http://www.noticias24.com/actualidad/noticia/152868/gobierno-de-castro-otorga-a-cubanos-permiso-para-construir-viviendas-por-esfuerzo-propio/}}</ref> There is virtually no homelessness in Cuba,<ref>{{Cite web|last=Alliance|first=Community|date=13 September 2011|title=Homeless in Cuba? Not Likely|url=https://fresnoalliance.com/homeless-in-cuba-not-likely/|access-date=2 January 2021|website=Community Alliance|archive-date=7 January 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210107062112/https://fresnoalliance.com/homeless-in-cuba-not-likely/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|date=20 June 2017|title=Opinion: Universal healthcare, no illiteracy and other Cuban feats under a U.S. embargo|url=https://www.latimes.com/opinion/readersreact/la-ol-le-cuba-us-embargo-trump-20170620-story.html|access-date=2 January 2021|website=Los Angeles Times|archive-date=21 January 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210121033955/https://www.latimes.com/opinion/readersreact/la-ol-le-cuba-us-embargo-trump-20170620-story.html|url-status=live}}</ref> and 85% of Cubans own their homes<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Grein|first=John|date=1 January 2015|title=Recent Reforms in Cuban Housing Policy|url=https://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/international_immersion_program_papers/17|journal=International Immersion Program Papers|access-date=2 January 2021|archive-date=5 September 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210905215045/https://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/international_immersion_program_papers/17/|url-status=live}}</ref> and pay no property taxes or mortgage interest.

On 2 August 2011, ''The New York Times'' reported that Cuba reaffirmed its intent to legalize "buying and selling" of private property before the year's end. According to experts, the private sale of property could "transform Cuba more than any of the economic reforms announced by Cuban leader Raúl Castro's government".<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/03/world/americas/03cuba.html |work=The New York Times |first=Damien |last=Cave |title=Cuba Prepares for Private Property |date=2 August 2011 |access-date=26 February 2017 |archive-date=22 December 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161222142756/http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/03/world/americas/03cuba.html |url-status=live }}</ref> It would cut more than one million state jobs, including party bureaucrats who resist the changes.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-14368316 |title=Cuba National Assembly approves economic reforms |date=2 August 2011 |publisher=BBC News |access-date=21 June 2018 |archive-date=28 November 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181128050834/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-14368316 |url-status=live }}</ref> The reforms created what some call "New Cuban Economy".<ref>{{cite web |author=Categoría: Lucha de nuestros pueblos |url=http://semanarioaqui.com/index.php/lucha-de-nuestros-pueblos-2/357-cuba-adopta-nuevos-lineamientos-economicos-para-aumentar-la-produccion |title=Los nuevos lineamientos económicos |publisher=Semanarioaqui.com |date=1 April 2014 |access-date=23 April 2014 |archive-date=12 October 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171012091219/http://semanarioaqui.com/index.php/lucha-de-nuestros-pueblos-2/357-cuba-adopta-nuevos-lineamientos-economicos-para-aumentar-la-produccion |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/research/files/papers/2012/12/cuba%20economy%20feinberg/cuba%20economy%20feinberg%209.pdf |title=New Cuban Economy |access-date=23 April 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130730061603/http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/research/files/papers/2012/12/cuba%20economy%20feinberg/cuba%20economy%20feinberg%209.pdf |archive-date=30 July 2013 }}</ref> In October 2013, Raúl said he intended to merge the two currencies, but {{as of|2016|August|lc=y}}, the dual currency system remains in force.

[[File:Cuba 2013-01-23 (8503121480).jpg|thumb|Tobacco fields in Viñales]] In 2016, the ''Miami Herald'' wrote, "... about 27 percent of Cubans earn under $50 per month; 34 percent earn the equivalent of $50 to $100 per month; and 20 percent earn $101 to $200. Twelve percent reported earning $201 to $500 a month; and almost 4 percent said their monthly earnings topped $500, including 1.5 percent who said they earned more than $1,000."<ref>[http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/cuba/article89133407.html Study: Cubans don't make much, but it's more than state salaries indicate] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170904013753/http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/cuba/article89133407.html |date=4 September 2017 }}, Miami Herald, 12 July 2016</ref>

In May 2019, Cuba imposed rationing of staples such as chicken, eggs, rice, beans, soap and other basic goods. (Some two-thirds of food in the country is imported.) A spokesperson blamed the increased U.S. trade embargo although economists believe that an equally important problem is the massive decline of aid from Venezuela and the failure of Cuba's state-run oil company which had subsidized fuel costs.<ref>{{cite news|title=Cuba rations chicken, eggs and rice as economic crisis worsens|date=10 May 2019 |url=https://nationalpost.com/news/world/cuba-launches-rationing-in-face-of-economic-crisis|work=National Post|access-date=12 May 2019 |quote=Cuba imports roughly two-thirds of its food at an annual cost of more than $2.7 billion and brief shortages of individual products have been common for years. In recent months, a growing number of products have started to go missing for days or weeks at a time, and long lines have sprung up within minutes of the appearance of scarce products like chicken or flour.}}</ref>

In June 2019, the government announced an increase in public sector wages of about 300%, specifically for teachers and health personnel.<ref>{{cite news |title=Cuba announces increase in wages as part of economic reform |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/cuba-announces-increase-wages-part-economic-reform-n1024451 |access-date=8 June 2021 |agency=Associated Press |publisher=NBC News |archive-date=8 June 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210608170918/https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/cuba-announces-increase-wages-part-economic-reform-n1024451 |url-status=live }}</ref> In October, the government allowed stores to purchase house equipment and similar items, using international currency, and send it to Cuba by emigration. The leaders of the government recognized that the new measures were unpopular but necessary to contain the capital flight to other countries as Panamá where Cuban citizens traveled and imported items to resell on the island. Other measures included allowing private companies to export and import, through state companies, resources to produce products and services in Cuba.

[[File:La Habana Cuba.jpg|thumb|Hotel Parque Central in Havana]] On 1 January 2021, Cuba's dual currency system was formally ended, and the convertible Cuban peso (CUC) was phased out, leaving the Cuban peso (CUP) as the country's sole currency unit. Cuban citizens had until June 2021 to exchange their CUCs. However, this devalued the Cuban peso and caused economic problems for people who had been previously paid in CUCs, particularly workers in the tourism industry.<ref>{{cite news |title=Cuba eliminates the CUC and announces currency unification |url=https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/cuba/article247776195.html |access-date=18 February 2022 |work=Miami Herald |date=11 December 2020 |archive-date=27 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210127222459/https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/cuba/article247776195.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="aj112021" /><ref>{{cite news |last1=Forde |first1=Kaelyn |title=Cuba protests: The economic woes driving discontent |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2021/7/16/cuba-protests-the-economic-woes-helping-drive-discontent |access-date=18 February 2022 |publisher=Al Jazeera|date=16 July 2021 |language=en |archive-date=15 August 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210815202251/https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2021/7/16/cuba-protests-the-economic-woes-helping-drive-discontent |url-status=live }}</ref> Also, in February, the government dictated new measures to the private sector, with prohibitions for only 124 activities,<ref>{{cite news |title=Cuba opens up its economy to private businesses |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-55967709 |access-date=8 June 2021 |publisher=BBC |date=7 February 2021 |archive-date=28 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210528044943/https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-55967709 |url-status=live }}</ref> in areas like national security, health and educational services.<ref>{{cite news |title=Cuba to reform economy, allow more private enterprise |url=https://dailyfriend.co.za/2021/02/08/cuba-to-reform-economy-allow-more-private-enterprise/ |access-date=8 June 2021 |work=Daily Friend |date=8 February 2021 |archive-date=8 June 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210608170922/https://dailyfriend.co.za/2021/02/08/cuba-to-reform-economy-allow-more-private-enterprise/ |url-status=live }}</ref> The wages were increased again, between 4 and 9 times, for all the sectors. Also, new facilities were allowed to the state companies, with much more autonomy.<ref name="aj112021">{{cite news |title=What will Cuba's new single currency mean for the island? |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2021/1/1/what-will-cubas-new-single-currency-mean-for-the-island |access-date=8 June 2021 |publisher=Al Jazeera|date=1 January 2021 |archive-date=17 June 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210617115037/https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2021/1/1/what-will-cubas-new-single-currency-mean-for-the-island |url-status=live }}</ref>

The first problem with the new reform, in terms of public opinion, were electricity prices, but that was amended quickly. Other measures corrected were in the prices for private farmers.{{citation needed|date=February 2022}} In July 2020, Cuba opened new stores accepting only foreign currency while simultaneously eliminating a special tax on the U.S. dollar<ref>{{cite news |title=Cuba opens foreign currency-only shops, ends tax on dollar |url=https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/cuba-opens-foreign-currency-shops-ends-tax-dollar-71886770 |access-date=8 June 2021 |agency=Associated Press |publisher=ABC News|location=United States |archive-date=8 June 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210608170919/https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/cuba-opens-foreign-currency-shops-ends-tax-dollar-71886770 |url-status=live }}</ref> to combat an economic crisis arising initially due to economic sanctions imposed by the Trump administration,<ref>{{cite news |last1=Chalfant |first1=Morgan |title=Trump announces new sanctions on Cuba |url=https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-announces-new-sanctions-on-cuba/ar-BB19lMIc |access-date=8 June 2021 |publisher=MSNnews |date=23 September 2020 |archive-date=8 June 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210608170921/https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-announces-new-sanctions-on-cuba/ar-BB19lMIc |url-status=live }}</ref> then later worsened by a lack of tourism during the coronavirus pandemic. Cooperatives will play a larger role in the emerging Cuban economy. The transfer of state-run businesses into cooperatives could result in 20 – 30 percent of Cuba's workers being actively involved in cooperatives. All state-run restaurants (over 8,000) will be converted to worker owned cooperatives, and by 2017 the Cuban government expects there to be approximately 10,000 cooperatives operating.<ref>{{Cite web |title=US - Cuba Cooperative Working Group Project |url=https://ncbaclusa.coop/project/cuba-u-s-cuba-cooperative-working-group-usccwg/ |access-date=13 April 2025 |website=NCBA CLUSA}}</ref>

According to 2019 data, China stands as Cuba's main trading partner, followed by countries such as Spain, the Netherlands, Germany, and Cyprus. Cuba's main exports include tobacco, sugar, and alcoholic beverages, while it primarily imports chicken meat, wheat, corn, and condensed milk.<ref name=":6" />

===Resources=== Cuba's natural resources include sugar, tobacco, fish, citrus fruits, coffee, beans, rice, potatoes, and livestock. Cuba's most important mineral resource is nickel, with 21% of total exports in 2011.<ref name=ITC>{{cite web |url=http://legacy.intracen.org/appli1/TradeCom/TP_EP_CI.aspx?RP=192&YR=2011 |title=World Competitiveness Map |publisher=International Trade Center |access-date=9 November 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131109163626/http://legacy.intracen.org/appli1/TradeCom/TP_EP_CI.aspx?RP=192&YR=2011 |archive-date=9 November 2013 }}</ref> The output of Cuba's nickel mines that year was 71,000 tons, approaching 4% of world production.<ref name=USGS>{{cite web|url=https://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/nickel/mcs-2013-nicke.pdf|title=Nickel|publisher=United States Geological Survey|access-date=9 November 2013|archive-date=9 May 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130509061155/http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/nickel/mcs-2013-nicke.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref> {{As of| 2013}} its reserves were estimated at 5.5 million tons, over 7% of the world total.<ref name=USGS/> Sherritt International of Canada operates a large nickel mining facility in Moa. Cuba is also a major producer of refined cobalt, a by-product of nickel mining.<ref name=torres>{{cite web|url=https://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/country/1997/9509097.pdf|title=The Mineral Industry of Cuba|author=Ivette E. Torres|year=1997|publisher=United States Geological Survey|access-date=6 September 2009|archive-date=12 October 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171012091655/https://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/country/1997/9509097.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref>

Oil exploration in 2005 by the US Geological Survey revealed that the North Cuba Basin could produce about {{convert|4.6|Goilbbl|m3}} to {{convert|9.3|Goilbbl|m3}} of oil. In 2006, Cuba started to test-drill these locations for possible exploitation.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/comment/story/0,,1936186,00.html|author=Wayne S. Smith|title=After 46 years of failure, we must change course on Cuba|work=The Guardian|date=1 November 2006|access-date=6 September 2009|location=London|archive-date=17 June 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200617133641/https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2006/nov/01/comment.cuba|url-status=live}}</ref>

===Tourism=== {{main|Tourism in Cuba}}

[[File:Camaguey rooftops 2.jpg|thumb|Historic Centre of Camagüey, a colonial city UNESCO World Heritage Site]] [[File:Varaderos beach (5982433102).jpg|thumb|Varadero resort area]] Tourism was initially restricted to enclave resorts where tourists would be segregated from Cuban society, referred to as "enclave tourism" and "tourism apartheid".<ref>{{Harvnb|Espino|2000}}.</ref> Contact between foreign visitors and ordinary Cubans were {{lang|la|de facto}} illegal between 1992 and 1997.<ref name="Corbett 2002 33">{{Harvnb|Corbett|2002|p=33}}.</ref> The rapid growth of tourism during the Special Period had widespread social and economic repercussions in Cuba, and led to speculation about the emergence of a two-tier economy.<ref>{{cite journal |url=http://www.uiowa.edu/ifdebook/conferences/cuba/TLCP/Volume%201/Facio.pdf |title=Tourism in Cuba During the Special Period |first1=Elisa |last1=Facio |author2=Maura Toro-Morn, and Anne R. Roschelle |publisher=University of Iowa College of Law |journal=Transnational Law & Contemporary Problems |volume=14 |page=119 |date=Spring 2004 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060822042043/http://www.uiowa.edu/ifdebook/conferences/cuba/TLCP/Volume%201/Facio.pdf |archive-date=22 August 2006}}</ref>

{{Nowrap|1.9 million}} tourists visited Cuba in 2003, predominantly from Canada and the European Union, generating revenue of {{Nowrap|US$2.1 billion}}.<ref>{{cite web|date=December 2005|url=https://2009-2017.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/2886.htm|title=Background Note: Cuba|publisher=U.S. Department of State|access-date=9 July 2006|archive-date=22 January 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170122194359/https://2009-2017.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/2886.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> Cuba recorded 2,688,000 international tourists in 2011, the third-highest figure in the Caribbean (behind the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico).<ref name=unwto>{{cite web|title=UNWTO Tourism Highlights, 2013 Edition |url=http://dtxtq4w60xqpw.cloudfront.net/sites/all/files/pdf/unwto_highlights13_en_lr.pdf |publisher=Tourism Trends and Marketing Strategies UNWTO |access-date=21 July 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130718115306/http://dtxtq4w60xqpw.cloudfront.net/sites/all/files/pdf/unwto_highlights13_en_lr.pdf |archive-date=18 July 2013 }}</ref> American tourism was incredibly limited due to the Cuban Missile Crisis until 2016, when most restrictions were limited but some remained in place.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Perrottet |first1=Tony |title=Can Americans Travel to Cuba? |url=https://www.cntraveler.com/story/can-americans-travel-to-cuba |website=Condé Nest Traveller |date=21 May 2024 |access-date=19 December 2024}}</ref>

A study in 2018 indicated that Cuba has a potential for mountaineering activity, and that mountaineering could be a key contributor to tourism, along with other activities, e.g. biking, diving, caving. Promoting these resources could contribute to regional development, prosperity, and well-being.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Apollo |first1=Michal |last2=Rettinger |first2=Renata |title=Mountaineering in Cuba: improvement of true accessibility as an opportunity for regional development of communities outside the tourism enclaves |journal=Current Issues in Tourism |date=14 September 2019 |volume=22 |issue=15 |pages=1797–1804 |doi=10.1080/13683500.2018.1446920 }}</ref>

The Cuban Justice minister downplays allegations of widespread sex tourism.<ref name="Justice Minister">{{cite news|last=Tamayo |first=Juan O. |title=Cuba's Justice Minister says the government fights prostitution |newspaper=Miami Herald |date=16 October 2013 |url=http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/10/16/3691714/cubas-justice-minister-says-the.html |access-date=2 January 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131017051027/http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/10/16/3691714/cubas-justice-minister-says-the.html |archive-date=17 October 2013 }}</ref> According to a Government of Canada travel advice website, "Cuba is actively working to prevent child sex tourism, and a number of tourists, including Canadians, have been convicted of offenses related to the corruption of minors aged 16 and under. Prison sentences range from 7 to 25 years."<ref>{{cite web|title=Travel Advice and Advisories for Cuba: Sex tourism|date=16 November 2012|url=http://travel.gc.ca/destinations/cuba|publisher=Government of Canada|access-date=4 January 2014|archive-date=10 May 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190510150629/https://travel.gc.ca/destinations/cuba|url-status=live}}</ref>

===Transport=== {{Main|Transport in Cuba}}

==Demographics== {{Main|Cubans|Demographics of Cuba}}

According to the official census of 2010, Cuba's population was 11,241,161, comprising 5,628,996 men and 5,612,165 women.<ref name="cubacensus2010">{{cite web |url=http://www.one.cu/publicaciones/cepde/anuario_2010/anuario_demografico_2010.pdf |title=ANUARIO DEMOGRAFICO DE CUBA 2010 |publisher=Oficina Nacional de Estadisticas |access-date=22 April 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121021100817/http://www.one.cu/publicaciones/cepde/anuario_2010/anuario_demografico_2010.pdf |archive-date=21 October 2012}}</ref> Its birth rate (9.88 births per thousand population in 2006)<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/Display_news.asp?section=World_News&subsection=Americas&month=May2007&file=World_News2007051741913.xml |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070926222652/http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/Display_news.asp?section=World_News&subsection=Americas&month=May2007&file=World_News2007051741913.xml|archive-date=26 September 2007 |title=Population, birth rate falling in Cuba: Official |publisher=The Peninsula On-line |access-date=19 July 2013}}</ref> is one of the lowest in the Western Hemisphere. Although the country's population has grown by about four million people since 1961, the rate of growth slowed during that period, and the population began to decline in 2006, due to the country's low fertility rate (1.43 children per woman) coupled with emigration.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.periodico26.cu/english/features/june2008/cuba-population060508.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090113074404/http://www.periodico26.cu/english/features/june2008/cuba-population060508.html|archive-date=13 January 2009 |title=Population Decrease Must be Reverted |access-date=19 July 2013}}</ref>

===Largest cities=== {{See also|List of cities in Cuba}} {{Largest cities | country = Cuba | stat_ref = According to the 2018 Estimate<ref>{{cite web |url=http://citypopulation.de/en/cuba/cities/ |title=Cuba: Major Cities |website=citypopulation.de |access-date=9 October 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211022083213/http://citypopulation.de/en/cuba/cities/ |archive-date=22 October 2021}}</ref> | div_name = Province | city_1 = Havana | div_1 = La Habana Province{{!}}La Habana | pop_1 = 2,131,480 | city_2 = Santiago de Cuba | div_2 = Santiago de Cuba Province{{!}}Santiago de Cuba | pop_2 = 433,581 | city_3 = Camagüey | div_3 = Camagüey Province{{!}}Camagüey | pop_3 = 308,902 | city_4 = Holguín | div_4 = Holguín Province{{!}}Holguín | pop_4 = 297,433 | city_5 = Santa Clara, Cuba{{!}}Santa Clara | div_5 = Villa Clara Province{{!}}Villa Clara | pop_5 = 216,854 | city_6 = Guantánamo | div_6 = Guantánamo Province{{!}}Guantánamo | pop_6 = 216,003 | city_7 = Las Tunas (city){{!}}Las Tunas | div_7 = Las Tunas Province{{!}}Las Tunas | pop_7 = 173,552 | city_8 = Bayamo | div_8 = Granma Province{{!}}Granma | pop_8 = 159,966 | city_9 = Cienfuegos | div_9 = Cienfuegos Province{{!}}Cienfuegos | pop_9 = 151,838 | city_10 = Pinar del Río | div_10 = Pinar del Río Province{{!}}Pinar del Río | pop_10 = 145,193 }}

===Ethnoracial groups===

Ethnography of Cuba

{{Pie chart|thumb=right|caption=Racial groups in Cuba (2012 census)<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.one.cu/publicaciones/cepde/cpv2012/20140428informenacional/46_tabla_II_4.pdf |title=2012 census |website=www.one.cu |access-date=11 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140603230454/http://www.one.cu/publicaciones/cepde/cpv2012/20140428informenacional/46_tabla_II_4.pdf |archive-date=3 June 2014 |url-status=dead}}</ref> |label1 = Whites |value1 = 64.12 |color1 = #FBC5A7 |label2 = Mulattos |value2 = 26.62 |color2 = #AA7E54 |label3 = Blacks |value3 = 9.26 |color3 = #62402F }}

Cuba's population descends primarily from three groups: Spanish settlers and immigrants — drawn largely from Andalusia, Galicia, Asturias, and the Canary Islands<ref>{{cite book |last=Pérez Jr. |first=Louis A. |title=Cuba: Between Reform and Revolution |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2006 |edition=3rd |isbn=978-0-19-517911-8}}</ref> — sub-Saharan Africans transported to the island through the transatlantic slave trade,<ref>{{cite book |last=Klein |first=Herbert S. |title=The Atlantic Slave Trade |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2010 |edition=2nd |isbn=978-0-521-18250-8}}</ref> and the pre-Columbian indigenous peoples, chiefly the Taíno and Ciboney.<ref name="mendizabal2008">{{cite journal |last1=Mendizabal |first1=Isabel |last2=Sandoval |first2=Karla |last3=Berniell-Lee |first3=Gemma |last4=Calafell |first4=Francesc |last5=Salas |first5=Antonio |last6=Martínez-Fuentes |first6=Antonio |last7=Comas |first7=David |title=Genetic origin, admixture, and asymmetry in maternal and paternal human lineages in Cuba |journal=BMC Evolutionary Biology |volume=8 |article-number=213 |year=2008 |issue=1 |doi=10.1186/1471-2148-8-213 |doi-access=free |pmc=2492877 |pmid=18644108 |bibcode=2008BMCEE...8..213M }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Lalueza-Fox |first1=Carles |last2=Gilbert |first2=M. Thomas P. |last3=Martínez-Fuentes |first3=Antonio J. |last4=Calafell |first4=Francesc |last5=Bertranpetit |first5=Jaume |title=Mitochondrial DNA from Pre-Columbian Ciboneys from Cuba and the Prehistoric Colonization of the Caribbean |journal=American Journal of Physical Anthropology |volume=121 |issue=2 |pages=97–108 |year=2003 |doi=10.1002/ajpa.10236 |pmid=12740952 |bibcode=2003AJPA..121...97L }}</ref>

Afro-Cubans are descended primarily from the Yoruba people, Bantu people from the Congo basin, Kalabari tribe and Arará from the Dahomey, as well as several thousand North African refugees, most notably the Sahrawi Arabs of Western Sahara.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.moroccotimes.com/Paper/article.asp?idr=2&id=13816 |date=31 March 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061125161820/http://www.moroccotimes.com/Paper/article.asp?idr=2&id=13816 |archive-date=25 November 2006 |title=Sahrawi children inhumanely treated in Cuba, former Cuban official |publisher=MoroccoTimes.com |access-date=9 July 2006}}</ref>

While Afro-Cubans and Cubans of Spanish descent have endured as distinct ethnocultural units, no equivalent indigenous-descended group survived the catastrophic demographic collapse of the sixteenth century;<ref>{{cite book |last=Cook |first=Noble David |title=Born to Die: Disease and New World Conquest, 1492–1650 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1998 |isbn=978-0-521-62730-6}}</ref> Taíno ancestry nonetheless persists in the Cuban population at the genetic level, as evidenced by mitochondrial DNA studies.<ref name="mendizabal2008"/><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Bukhari |first1=A. |display-authors=etal |title=Taino and African maternal heritage in the Greater Antilles |journal=Gene |volume=637 |pages=33–40 |year=2017 |doi=10.1016/j.gene.2017.09.004 |pmid=28912065}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Schroeder |first1=Hannes |display-authors=etal |title=Origins and genetic legacies of the Caribbean Taino |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences |volume=115 |issue=10 |pages=2341–2346 |year=2018 |doi=10.1073/pnas.1716839115 |doi-access=free |pmc=5877975 |pmid=29463742 |bibcode=2018PNAS..115.2341S }}</ref>

Cuba's population is therefore multiethnic, and intermarriage between these groups has been widespread across many centuries, producing a significant population of mixed ancestry — not as a product of recent admixture but of long-accumulated intergenerational intermarriage.<ref>{{cite book |last=Sawyer |first=Mark Q. |title=Racial Politics in Post-Revolutionary Cuba |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2006 |isbn=978-0-521-61267-8}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Cuba |date=2 November 2023 |publisher=Minority Rights Group International |url=https://minorityrights.org/country/cuba/ |access-date=2026-05-22}}</ref> Consequently, there is significant discrepancy between different estimates of the country's racial composition. A 2014 study based on ancestry-informative markers found that autosomal genetic ancestry in Cuba is 72% European, 20% African, and 8% Indigenous.<ref name="plosgenetics.org">{{cite journal |doi=10.1371/journal.pgen.1004488 |pmid=25058410 |pmc=4109857 |title=Cuba: Exploring the History of Admixture and the Genetic Basis of Pigmentation Using Autosomal and Uniparental Markers |journal=PLOS Genetics |volume=10 |issue=7 |at=e1004488 |year=2014 |last1=Marcheco-Teruel |first1=Beatriz |last2=Parra |first2=Esteban J. |last3=Fuentes-Smith |first3=Evelyn |last4=Salas |first4=Antonio |last5=Buttenschøn |first5=Henriette N. |last6=Demontis |first6=Ditte |last7=Torres-Español |first7=María |last8=Marín-Padrón |first8=Lilia C. |last9=Gómez-Cabezas |first9=Enrique J. |last10=Álvarez-Iglesias |first10=Vanesa |last11=Mosquera-Miguel |first11=Ana |last12=Martínez-Fuentes |first12=Antonio |last13=Carracedo |first13=Ángel |last14=Børglum |first14=Anders D. |last15=Mors |first15=Ole |doi-access=free }}</ref>

The 2002 Cuban census, in which respondents self-identified, found that 65.05% of the population was white, while the 2012 census recorded approximately 27% of Cubans as mestizo o mulato and just under 10% as negro (Black).<ref>{{cite journal |last=Burchardt |first=Tania |display-authors=etal |title=Racial inequality in Latin America |journal=Oxford Open Economics |volume=4 |issue=Supplement 1 |pages=i200–i218 |year=2025 |doi=10.1093/ooec/odae044 |doi-broken-date=29 May 2026 }}</ref> The 2012 Cuban census recorded, on the same basis, that 64.1% of the population was white (blanco), 26.6% mestizo o mulato (mixed race), and 9.3% Black (negro).<ref>{{cite report |author=Centro de Estudios de Población y Desarrollo (CEPDE) |publisher=Oficina Nacional de Estadísticas e Información (ONEI) |title=El Color de la Piel según el Censo de Población y Viviendas de 2012 |year=2016 |location=Havana |url=https://www.almendron.com/tribuna/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/publicacion-completa-color-de-la-piel.pdf |language=es}}</ref> As with the 2002 census, these figures reflect self-perception rather than genetic ancestry or externally assigned classification, and have been widely contested by independent researchers who argue that they significantly under-report the Black and mixed-race population.<ref>{{cite web |title=Afro-Cubans in Cuba |publisher=Minority Rights Group International |url=https://minorityrights.org/communities/afro-cubans/ |access-date=2026-05-28}}</ref>

These figures also diverge markedly from estimates produced by applying the one-drop rule, the hypodescent convention historically specific to the United States, under which any traceable African ancestry classifies a person as Black. The Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies at the University of Miami, using that framework, concluded that 62% of Cubans are Black.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.miamiherald.com/multimedia/news/afrolatin/part4/index.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130821113550/http://www.miamiherald.com/multimedia/news/afrolatin/part4/index.html|archive-date=21 August 2013|title=A barrier for Cuba's blacks|work=Miami Herald}}</ref> However, the one-drop rule does not reflect Cuban or broader Latin American racial classification. In Cuba, as across most of Latin America, people of mixed African and European ancestry — commonly designated mulato — have historically constituted and understood themselves as a distinct category, neither defined in opposition to Blackness nor in denial of it, but in acknowledgement of a mixed heritage that carries its own social and cultural meaning. The Cuban census formally recognises this through its separate mestizo o mulato classification.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Telles |first1=Edward E. |last2=Bailey |first2=Stanley R. |last3=Davoudpour |first3=Shahin |last4=Freeman |first4=Nicholas C. |title=Racial inequality in Latin America |journal=Oxford Open Economics |volume=4 |issue=Supplement_1 |pages=i200–i218 |year=2025 |doi=10.1093/ooec/odae022 |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=de la Fuente |first=Alejandro |title=A Nation for All: Race, Inequality, and Politics in Twentieth-Century Cuba |publisher=University of North Carolina Press |year=2001 |isbn=978-0-8078-4922-4}}</ref> Applying a binary Black/white framework derived from U.S. legal and social history to Cuban racial self-identification therefore imposes a classificatory logic that Cuban society does not use and that systematically erases the identities of a substantial portion of the population.<ref>{{cite book |last=de la Fuente |first=Alejandro |title=A Nation for All: Race, Inequality, and Politics in Twentieth-Century Cuba |publisher=University of North Carolina Press |year=2001 |isbn=978-0-8078-4922-4}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Sawyer |first=Mark Q. |title=Racial Politics in Post-Revolutionary Cuba |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2006 |isbn=978-0-521-61267-8}}</ref> In light of these methodological divergences, the Minority Rights Group International has cautioned that "an objective assessment of the situation of Afro-Cubans remains problematic due to scant records and a paucity of systematic studies both pre- and post-revolution," and that estimates of the percentage of people of African descent in the Cuban population vary enormously, ranging from 33.9% to 62%.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.refworld.org/docid/49749d342c.html |title=World Directory of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples – Cuba: Afro-Cubans |author=Minority Rights Group International |year=2008 |publisher=Minority Rights Group International |via=Refworld (UNHCR) |access-date=30 December 2019 |archive-date=17 January 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130117034058/http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/docid/49749d342c.html |url-status=usurped}}</ref>

Asians make up about 1% of the population and are largely of Chinese ancestry, followed by Japanese and Filipino.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.com/topics/cuba |title=Cuba |access-date=29 November 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161130040841/http://www.com/topics/cuba |archive-date=30 November 2016 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9HpqAAAAMAAJ&q=30,000+cantonese+immigrants+cuba|title=Cuba: a Lonely Planet travel survival kit |publisher=Lonely Planet|isbn=9780864424037|year=1997}}</ref> Many are descendants of farm laborers brought to the island by Spanish and American contractors during the 19th and early 20th century.<ref>{{cite web|last=Chiu|first=Lisa |url=http://chineseculture.about.com/od/thechinesediaspora/a/ChineseinCuba.htm|title=A Short History of the Chinese in Cuba|work=About.com News & Issues|access-date=26 July 2014|archive-date=3 November 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141103123851/http://chineseculture.about.com/od/thechinesediaspora/a/ChineseinCuba.htm}}</ref> The current recorded number of Cubans with Chinese ancestry is 114,240.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/cuba/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230606223728/https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/cuba/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=6 June 2023 |title=Central America :: Cuba – The World Factbook|publisher=Central Intelligence Agency|access-date=30 July 2019}}</ref>

===Migration=== ====Immigration==== {{Main|French immigration to Cuba|Spanish immigration to Cuba}}

Immigration and emigration have played a prominent part in Cuba's demographic profile. Between the 18th and early 20th century, large waves of Canarian, Catalan, Andalusian, Galician, and other Spanish people immigrated to Cuba. Between 1899 and 1930 alone, nearly one million Spaniards entered Cuba, although many eventually returned to Spain.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.tau.ac.il/eial/IV_2/bejarano.htm |title=La inmigración entre 1902 y 1920 |publisher=Tau.ac.il |access-date=7 November 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090606060146/http://www.tau.ac.il/eial/IV_2/bejarano.htm |archive-date=6 June 2009}}</ref> Other prominent immigrant groups included French,<ref>{{cite web |title=Etat des propriétés rurales appartenant à des Français dans l'île de Cuba |url=http://www.cubagenweb.org/french/index.htm#refugees |publisher=Cuban Genealogy Center |date=10 July 2007 |access-date=19 July 2013}}</ref> Portuguese, Italian, Russian, Dutch, Greek, British, and Irish, as well as small number of descendants of U.S. citizens who arrived in Cuba in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. As of 2015, the foreign-born population in Cuba was 13,336 inhabitants per the World Bank data.<ref>{{Cite web |title=International migrant stock, total – Cuba {{!}} Data |url=https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SM.POP.TOTL?locations=CU |access-date=8 September 2022 |publisher=World Bank}}</ref>

====Emigration==== {{Main|Cuban exile|Cuban immigration to the United States}}

[[File:6.6.10CubanParadeUCByLuigiNovi5.jpg|thumb|North Hudson, New Jersey, is home to a large Cuban American population.]] Post-revolution Cuba has been characterized by significant levels of emigration, which has led to a large and influential diaspora community. During the three decades after January 1959, more than one million Cubans of all social classes—constituting 10% of the total population—emigrated to the United States, a proportion that matches the extent of emigration to the U.S. from the Caribbean as a whole during that period.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |last=Powell |first=John |title=Cuban immigration |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of North American Immigration |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VNCX6UsdZYkC&q=%22cubans+are+usually+considered+to+be+the+most+successful%22&pg=PA68|access-date=30 November 2016 |pages=68–71 |publisher=Facts on File |year=2005 |isbn=9781438110127}}</ref>{{sfn|Pedraza|2007|p={{page needed|date=December 2023}}}}<ref>{{Harvnb|Falk|1988|p=74}}: "[A] tenth of the entire Caribbean population has ... [emigrated to the U.S.] over the past 30 years".</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/facts_for_features_special_editions/000797.html |access-date=19 July 2013 |date=3 September 2002 |archive-url=http://arquivo.pt/wayback/20090709154810/http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/facts_for_features_special_editions/000797.html |archive-date=9 July 2009 |title=US Census Press Releases}}</ref>{{sfn|Pedraza|2007|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=QCSJ61F4j34C&pg=PA5 5]}} Prior to 13 January 2013, Cuban citizens could not travel abroad, leave or return to Cuba without first obtaining official permission along with applying for a government-issued passport and travel visa, which was often denied.<ref>{{cite web |date=31 December 2005 |url=http://hrw.org/english/docs/2006/01/18/cuba12207.htm |publisher=Human Rights Watch|title=Essential Background: Overview of human rights issues in Cuba |access-date=13 April 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305201021/https://www.hrw.org/legacy/english/docs/2006/01/18/cuba12207.htm|archive-date=5 March 2016}}</ref> Those who left the country typically did so by sea, in small boats and fragile rafts.

On 9 September 1994, the U.S. and Cuban governments agreed that the U.S. would grant at least 20,000 visas annually in exchange for Cuba's pledge to prevent further unlawful departures on boats.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/10/13/world/visa-lottery-for-cubans.html|title=Visa Lottery for Cubans |agency=Associated Press|date=13 October 1994|work=The New York Times |access-date=16 January 2019 }}</ref>

In the 2020s Cuba is undergoing its most severe socioeconomic crisis since the fall of the Soviet Union, leading to a record number of Cubans fleeing the island.<ref name=":12">{{Cite web |last1=Hull |first1=Christopher |last2=Kent |first2=James Clifford |date=20 February 2023 |title=Cuba sufre el mayor éxodo ante su peor crisis desde el colapso de la URSS |url=http://theconversation.com/cuba-sufre-el-mayor-exodo-ante-su-peor-crisis-desde-el-colapso-de-la-urss-200237 |access-date=8 October 2023 |website=The Conversation |language=en}}</ref> The number of Cubans trying to enter the United States, primarily through the Mexican border, surged from 39,000 in 2021 to over 224,000 in 2022. In 2022, more than 2% of the population (almost 250,000 Cubans out of 11 million) migrated to the United States, and thousands more went to other countries, a number "larger than the 1980 Mariel boatlift and the 1994 Cuban rafter crisis combined", which were Cuba's previous largest migration events.<ref name="Augustin-11-12-22" /> Many resorted to selling their homes at very low prices to afford one-way flights to Nicaragua, hoping to travel through Mexico to reach the U.S.<ref name=":12" /> Internal migration has led to overpopulation in Havana, resulting in people living in makeshift shelters or overcrowded buildings, some of which are on the brink of collapse. Regular power outages harken back to the early 1990s, a time when Soviet subsidies ended, plunging the island into economic hardship.<ref name=":12" /> Emigration has continued into the 2020s, with the national population dipping below 10 million for the first time since 1980 in 2025. This signifies a 13% loss of population since 2012, when the Cuban population peaked at 11.2 million.<ref>{{Cite news |date=30 April 2025 |title=Cuba faces population decline and aging amid mass migration exodus |url=https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2025/04/30/cuba-faces-population-decline-and-aging-amid-mass-migration-exodus_6740756_4.html |access-date=6 August 2025 |language=en}}</ref>

Cuba's "Special Period" saw the country relying heavily on foreign tourism and the earnings of nationals working abroad. The 2020 pandemic, however, severely affected this revenue stream, decreasing the number of tourists by 75% in 2020. Monetary reforms in 2021 introduced shocks of inflation, further exacerbating the country's food scarcity and boosting the black market's prominence.<ref name=":12" /> Despite the increasing hardships, the Cuban spirit remains resilient. Access to the internet since 2018 and widespread use of social media have fueled calls for political and economic liberalization. The power of the internet was evident during the Cuban protests of 2021, which were promptly suppressed by the police, with many prominent artists and bloggers detained.<ref name=":12" />

As of 2013 the top emigration destinations were the United States, Spain, Italy, Puerto Rico, and Mexico.<ref>{{cite web |title=Cuba Migration Profiles |url=https://esa.un.org/miggmgprofiles/indicators/files/Cuba.pdf |access-date=16 January 2019 |website=UNICEF}}</ref>

===Languages=== {{Main|Cuban Spanish}} thumb|A trilingual sign encouraging social distancing in Cuba during the Covid-19 pandemic, written in Spanish, English, and Russian The official language is Spanish, and the vast majority of Cubans speak Cuban Spanish, a form of Caribbean Spanish. Lucumí, a dialect of the West African language Yoruba, is also used as a liturgical language by practitioners of Santería,<ref>{{cite book |last=Brandon |first=George |title=Santeria from Africa to the New World |url=https://archive.org/details/santeriafromafri00bran |url-access=registration |quote=lucumi language. |page=[https://archive.org/details/santeriafromafri00bran/page/56 56] |publisher=Indiana University Press |isbn=978-0-253-21114-9 |date=1 March 1997}}</ref> and so only as a second language.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=luq |title=Lucumi: A Language of Cuba (Ethnologue) |access-date=10 March 2010}}</ref> Haitian Creole is the second-most spoken language and is spoken by Haitian immigrants and their descendants.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10130814 |title=Cuban Creole choir brings solace to Haiti's children |access-date=10 March 2010 |publisher=BBC News}}</ref> Other languages spoken by immigrants include Galician and Corsican.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ethnologue.com/show_country.asp?name=CU |title=Languages of Cuba |access-date=31 October 2010}}</ref> Russian will be the first foreign language taught in schools, as of the 2026-2027 school year.<ref>{{Cite news |date=19 March 2026 |title=Russia, Cuba agreed to introduce Russian as 1st foreign language in Cuban schools from 2026/27 academic year |url=https://interfax.com/newsroom/top-stories/116719/ |access-date=23 April 2026 |work=Interfax}}</ref>

===Religion=== {{Main|Religion in Cuba}}

[[File:Havana Cathedral crop.jpg|thumb|Havana Cathedral, built between 1748 and 1777]] Cuba is officially a secular state. Religious freedom increased through the 1980s,<ref>{{Harvnb|Smith|1996|p=105}}: "The expansion of religious liberty began more than a decade ago, for example, and Cuban citizens, by and large, are free to practice their faiths without fear of persecution."</ref> with the government amending the constitution in 1992 to drop the state's characterization as atheistic.<ref name="Domínguez 2003 4">{{Harvnb|Domínguez|2003|p=4}}.</ref> In 2010, the Pew Forum estimated that religious affiliation is 59.2% Christian, 23% unaffiliated, 17.4% folk religion (such as Santería), and the remaining 0.4% consisting of other religions.<ref name=pewrel>{{cite web|title=Religious Composition by Country |url=http://www.pewforum.org/uploadedFiles/Topics/Religious_Affiliation/globalReligion-tables.pdf|work=Global Religious Landscape |publisher=Pew Forum|access-date=9 July 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130909201109/http://www.pewforum.org/files/2012/12/globalReligion-tables.pdf|archive-date=9 September 2013}}</ref> In a 2015 survey sponsored by Univision, 44% of Cubans said they were not religious, and 9% did not give an answer while only 34% said they were Christian.<ref>{{cite news|title=Cubans love the pope and the Catholic Church, but they're just not that into religion |newspaper=The Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2015/04/10/cubans-love-the-pope-and-the-catholic-church-but-theyre-just-not-that-into-religion/|access-date=20 July 2021 |date=April 10, 2015}}</ref>

Roman Catholicism is the largest religion, with its origins in Spanish colonization. Despite less than half of the population identifying as Catholics in 2006, it nonetheless remains the dominant faith.<ref name="catholic">{{cite web |url=http://natcath.org/NCR_Online/archives2/2006a/033106/033106o.php|title=Catholic church in Cuba strives to re-establish the faith |author=Einhorn|publisher=National Catholic Reporter|date=31 March 2006|access-date=7 September 2009|first=David}}</ref> Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI visited Cuba in 1998 and 2011, respectively, and Pope Francis visited in 2015.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2015/sep/21/pope-francis-in-cuba-pontiff-to-hold-mass-in-holguins-revolution-square-live |title=Pope Francis in Cuba: pontiff arrives in Santiago – as it happened |last1=Woolf |first1=Nicky |newspaper=The Guardian |access-date=21 March 2016 |last2=Holpuch |first2=Amanda |last3=Bruno |first3=Angela |last4=Watts |first4=Jonathan in |last5=Kirchgaessner |first5=Stephanie |date=22 September 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Cuba to Free 3,500 Prisoners Ahead of Pope Visit |url=https://www.voanews.com/a/cuba-pope-francis-visit-prisoners-amnesty/2959896.html |publisher=Voice of America |date=11 September 2015 |access-date=11 September 2015|url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160115200947/http://www.voanews.com/content/cuba-pope-francis-visit-prisoners-amnesty/2959896.html|archive-date=15 January 2016}}</ref> Prior to each papal visit, the government pardoned prisoners as a humanitarian gesture.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Miroff|first1=Nick|title=Cuba pardons more than 3,500 prisoners ahead of Pope Francis visit |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/cuba-pardons-more-than-3500-prisoners-ahead-of-pope-francis-visit/2015/09/11/5e1c1f27-ab63-444f-98ca-fff75cb92d3b_story.html |newspaper=The Washington Post|access-date=11 September 2015 |date=11 September 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Alexander |first=Harriett|date=11 September 2015|title=Cuba pardons 3,522 prisoners ahead of Pope Francis visit |work=The Telegraph|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/centralamericaandthecaribbean/cuba/11858266/Cuba-pardons-3522-prisoners-ahead-of-Pope-Francis-visit.html |access-date=11 September 2015 |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220110/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/centralamericaandthecaribbean/cuba/11858266/Cuba-pardons-3522-prisoners-ahead-of-Pope-Francis-visit.html |archive-date=10 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live }}{{cbignore}}</ref>

The government's relaxation of restrictions on house churches in the 1990s led to an explosion of Pentecostalism, with some groups claiming as many as 100,000 members. However, Evangelical Protestant denominations, organized into the umbrella Cuban Council of Churches, remain much more vibrant and powerful.<ref name="Edmonds">{{cite book |last1=Edmonds |first1=E.B. |last2=Gonzalez |first2=M.A. |title=Caribbean Religious History: An Introduction |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oFQ65RzBm5wC&pg=PA171 |publisher=NYU Press |year=2010 |page=171 |isbn=978-0-8147-2250-3}}</ref> Several well-known Cuban religious figures have operated outside the island, including the  humanitarian and author Jorge Armando Pérez.

The religious landscape of is strongly defined by syncretisms of various kinds. Christianity is often practiced in tandem with Santería, a mixture of Catholicism and mostly African faiths, which include a number of cults. La Virgen de la Caridad del Cobre (the Virgin of ''Cobre'') is the Catholic patroness of Cuba, and a symbol of Cuban culture. In Santería, she has been syncretized with the goddess Oshun. A breakdown of the followers of Afro-Cuban religions showed that most practitioners of Palo Mayombe were black and dark brown-skinned, most practitioners of Vodú were medium brown and light brown-skinned, and most practitioners of Santería were light brown and white-skinned.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Dodson |first1=Jualynne E. |last2=Millet Batista |first2=José |title=Sacred Spaces and Religious Traditions in Oriente Cuba |pages=12–13 |publisher=UNM Press |year=2008}}</ref>

Cuba hosts small communities of Jews (500 in 2012), Muslims (6,000 in 2011), and members of the Baháʼí Faith.<ref>{{cite web|date=13 June 2005 |url=https://news.bahai.org/story/377/government-officials-visit-bahai-center|title=Government officials visit Baha'i center|publisher=Baha'iWorldNewsService.com|access-date=23 April 2026}}</ref>

===Education=== {{Main|Education in Cuba}}

[[File:Front view of Universidad de La Habana.jpg|thumb|University of Havana, founded in 1728]] The University of Havana was founded in 1728, and there are several other well-established colleges and universities. In 1957, just before Castro came to power, the literacy rate was as low as fourth in Latin America at 76% according to the United Nations, yet higher than in Spain.<ref name=asce/> Castro created an entirely state-operated system and banned private institutions. School attendance is compulsory from ages six to the end of basic secondary education (normally at age 15), and all students, regardless of age or gender, wear school uniforms with the color denoting grade level. Primary education lasts for six years, secondary education is divided into basic and pre-university education.<ref name="siteresources.worldbank.org">{{Cite web |url=http://siteresources.worldbank.org/EDUCATION/Resources/278200-1099079877269/547664-1099080026826/The_Cuban_education_system_lessonsEn00.pdf |title=The Cuban Education System: Lessons and Dilemmas. Human Development Network Education. World Bank |access-date=5 April 2007 |archive-date=10 August 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110810172258/http://siteresources.worldbank.org/EDUCATION/Resources/278200-1099079877269/547664-1099080026826/The_Cuban_education_system_lessonsEn00.pdf }}</ref> Cuba's literacy rate of 99.8 percent<ref name=factbook/><ref name="Mdgs.un.org">{{cite web |url=http://mdgs.un.org/unsd/mdg/SeriesDetail.aspx?srid=656&crid=192 |title=unstats – Millennium Indicators |publisher=United Nations |date=23 June 2010 |access-date=7 November 2010 |archive-date=21 January 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120121152701/http://mdgs.un.org/unsd/mdg/SeriesDetail.aspx?srid=656&crid=192 |url-status=dead }}</ref> is eight points higher than the Caribbean average<ref name=":15" /> and the tenth-highest globally, largely due to the provision of free education at every level.<ref name="LiteracyC">{{cite news |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/latin-lessons-what-can-we-learn-from-the-worldrsquos-most-ambitious-literacy-campaign-2124433.html |title=Latin lessons: What can we Learn from the World's most Ambitious Literacy Campaign? |work=The Independent |date=7 November 2010 |access-date=19 July 2013}}</ref> The high school graduation rate is 94 percent.<ref>[https://www.tc.columbia.edu/articles/2009/december/getting-a-reading-on-high-literacy-in-cuba/ Getting a Reading on High Literacy in Cuba] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160408223929/http://www.tc.columbia.edu/news.htm?articleID=7292 |date=8 April 2016}}. Teachers College, Columbia University. 22 December 2009.</ref>

Higher education is provided by universities, higher institutes, higher pedagogical institutes, and higher polytechnic institutes. The Ministry of Higher Education operates a distance education program that provides regular afternoon and evening courses in rural areas for agricultural workers. Education has a strong political and ideological emphasis, and students progressing to higher education are expected to have a commitment to the goals of Cuba.<ref name="siteresources.worldbank.org" /> Cuba has provided free education to foreign nationals from disadvantaged backgrounds at the Latin American School of Medicine.<ref>{{cite web |title=Students graduate from Cuban school |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna19942866 |publisher=NBC News |date=25 July 2007 |access-date=7 November 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Cuba-trained US doctors graduate |url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6914265.stm |publisher=BBC News |date=25 July 2007 |access-date=7 September 2009}}</ref>

===Health=== {{Main|Healthcare in Cuba}}

thumb|Life expectancy development in Cuba After the revolution, Cuba established a free public health system.<ref name=":1" /> Cuba's life expectancy at birth is 80.1 years (77.8 for males and 82.6 for females), ranked 58th in the world and 5th in the Americas.<ref>{{Citation |title=Central America :: Cuba – The World Factbook – Central Intelligence Agency |url=https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/cuba/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230606223728/https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/cuba/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=6 June 2023 |date=6 June 2023 |access-date=12 June 2023}}</ref> Infant mortality declined from 32 infant deaths per 1,000 live births in 1957, to 10 in 1990–95,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.un.org/esa/population/publications/wpp2006/WPP2006_Highlights_rev.pdf|title=World population Prospects: The 2006 Revision: Highlights|publisher=United Nations.|access-date=19 July 2013}}</ref> 6.1 in 2000–2005 and 5.13 in 2009.<ref name="Mdgs.un.org" /><ref name="factbook" /> Historically, Cuba has ranked high in numbers of medical personnel and has made significant contributions to world health since the 19th century.<ref name="asce" />

Cuba has universal health care, and despite persistent shortages of medical supplies, there is no shortage of medical personnel.<ref name=whiteford>{{Harvnb|Whiteford|Branch|2008|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=lJe7uc7X3pYC&pg=PA2 2]}}</ref> Primary care is available throughout the island, and infant and maternal mortality rates compare favorably with those in developed nations.<ref name=whiteford/> That an impoverished nation like Cuba has health outcomes rivaling the developed world is referred to by researchers as the Cuban Health Paradox.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/billfrist/2015/06/08/cubas-most-valuable-export-its-healthcare-expertise/|title=Cuba's Most Valuable Export: Its Healthcare Expertise|last=Frist |first=Bill |date=8 June 2015 |website=Forbes |access-date=18 November 2018 }}</ref> Cuba ranks 29th on the 2024 Bloomberg Healthiest Country Index, the highest ranking of a developing country.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Miller |first1=Lee J. |last2=Lu |first2=Wei |date=24 February 2019 |title=These Are the World's Healthiest Nations |url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-02-24/spain-tops-italy-as-world-s-healthiest-nation-while-u-s-slips|publisher=Bloomberg News |access-date=16 March 2019 }}</ref> The healthcare system, renowned for its medical services, has emphasized the export of health professionals through international missions, aiding global health efforts.<ref name=":9">{{Cite web |last=Ramos |first=Javier |date=18 November 2021 |title=La otra cara de Cuba: el negocio de las batas blancas |url=https://es.globalvoices.org/2021/11/18/la-otra-cara-de-cuba-el-negocio-de-las-batas-blancas/ |access-date=8 October 2023 |website=Global Voices en Español |language=es}}</ref> However, while these missions generate significant revenue and serve as a tool for political influence, domestically, Cuba faces challenges including medication shortages and disparities between medical services for locals and foreigners.<ref name=":9" /> Despite the income from these missions, only a small fraction of the national budget has been allocated to public health, underscoring contrasting priorities within the nation's healthcare strategy.<ref name=":9" />

Disease and infant mortality increased in the 1960s immediately after the revolution, when half of Cuba's 6,000 doctors left the country.<ref>''Cuba: A Different America'', By Wilber A. Chaffee, Gary Prevost, Rowland and Littlefield, 1992, p. 106</ref> Recovery occurred by the 1980s,<ref name=bethell/> and the country's health care has been widely praised.<ref name="Feinsilver 1989 4to5">{{Harvnb|Feinsilver|1989|pp=4–5}}: "Its success has been acclaimed by Dr. Halfdan Mahler, the Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), and Dr. Carlysle Guerra de Macedo, Director-General of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), as well as by medical professionals from the United States and other capitalist countries who have observed the Cuban health system in action. Despite U.S. hostility toward Cuba, a U.S. government document stated in 1982 that the 'Cuban Revolution has managed social achievements, especially in education and health care, that are highly respected in the Third World ..., [including] a national health care program that is superior in the Third World and rivals that of numerous developed countries.{{' "}}</ref> The Communist government stated that universal health care was a priority of state planning and progress was made in rural areas.<ref>Lundy, Karen Saucier. ''Community Health Nursing: Caring for the Public's Health''. Jones and Bartlett: 2005, p. 377.</ref> After the revolution, the government increased rural hospitals from one to 62.<ref name=":1" /> Like the rest of the Cuban economy, medical care suffered from severe material shortages following the end of Soviet subsidies in 1991, and a tightening of the U.S. embargo in 1992.<ref>{{cite book|title=Global Health Policy, Local Realities: The Fallacy of the Level Playing Field|page=69 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gYc_LgzsRDMC&pg=PA69|editor-last=Whiteford|editor-first=Linda M.|editor2-last=Manderson|editor2-first=Lenore|publisher=Lynne Rienner Publishers|location=Boulder, Col.|year=2000|isbn=978-1-55587-874-0|access-date=14 September 2009}}</ref> Challenges include low salaries for doctors,<ref name=":7">{{cite news |author=Editorial |date=16 May 2015 |title=Be more libre |url=https://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21651216-transformation-economy-needs-happen-much-faster-be-more-libre |newspaper=The Economist |access-date=20 May 2015}}</ref> poor facilities, poor provision of equipment, and the frequent absence of essential drugs.<ref name=":8">{{cite web|author=The Committee Office, House of Commons |url=http://www.parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk/pa/cm200001/cmselect/cmhealth/30/30ap91.htm |title=Cuban Health Care Systems and its implications for the NHS Plan |publisher=Select Committee on Health |date=28 March 2001 |access-date=19 July 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130821213607/http://www.parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk/pa/cm200001/cmselect/cmhealth/30/30ap91.htm |archive-date=21 August 2013 }}</ref>

Cuba has the highest doctor-to-population ratio in the world and has sent thousands of doctors to more than 40 countries around the world.{{sfn|Breier|Wildschut|2007|pp=16, 81}} According to the World Health Organization, Cuba is "known the world over for its ability to train excellent doctors and nurses who can then go out to help other countries in need".<ref name="who140914">{{cite web |title=Cuban medical team heading for Sierra Leone |url=https://www.who.int/features/2014/cuban-ebola-team/en/ |publisher=World Health Organization |access-date=27 July 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140914045119/https://www.who.int/features/2014/cuban-ebola-team/en/ |archive-date=14 September 2014 |date=14 September 2014}}</ref> In 2014 there were around 50,000 Cuban-trained health care workers aiding 66 nations.<ref>{{Cite web |date=September 2014 |title=Cuban medical team heading for Sierra Leone |url=http://www.who.int/features/2014/cuban-ebola-team/en/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161228051729/http://www.who.int/features/2014/cuban-ebola-team/en/ |archive-date=2016-12-28 |access-date=2026-04-23 |website=World Health Organization}}</ref> Cuban physicians have played a leading role in combating the Ebola virus epidemic in West Africa.<ref>Alexandra Sifferlin (5 November 2014). [https://time.com/3556670/ebola-cuba/ Why Cuba Is So Good at Fighting Ebola] . ''Time.'' Retrieved 28 April 2015.</ref> Preventative medicine is very important within the Cuban medical system, which provides citizens with easy to obtain regular health checks.<ref name=":1" />

Import and export of pharmaceutical drugs is done by the Quimefa Pharmaceutical Business Group (FARMACUBA) under the Ministry of Basic Industry. This group also provides technical information for the production of these drugs.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.cepec.cu/farmacuba.php |title=Centro de Promoción del Comercio Exterior y la Inversión Extranjera de Cuba – CEPEC |publisher=Cepec.cu |access-date=10 June 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120620084258/http://www.cepec.cu/farmacuba.php |archive-date=20 June 2012}}</ref> Isolated from the West by the US embargo, Cuba developed the successful lung cancer vaccine, Cimavax, which is now available to US researchers for the first time, along with other novel Cuban cancer treatments. The vaccine has been available for free to the Cuban population since 2011.<ref>Erin Schumaker (14 May 2015). [https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/05/14/cuba-lung-cancer-vaccine_n_7267518.html Cuba's Had A Lung Cancer Vaccine For Years, And Now It's Coming To The U.S.] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160503231329/http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/05/14/cuba-lung-cancer-vaccine_n_7267518.html |date=3 May 2016 }} ''The Huffington Post.'' Retrieved 18 May 2015.</ref> According to Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center CEO Candace Johnson: "They've had to do more with less, so they've had to be even more innovative with how they approach things. For over 40 years, they have had a preeminent immunology community."<ref>Rob Quinn (12 May 2015). [https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2015/05/12/lung-cancer-vaccine-cimavax-cuba/27168559/ USA about to get Cuba's lung cancer vaccine] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160423115808/http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2015/05/12/lung-cancer-vaccine-cimavax-cuba/27168559/ |date=23 April 2016 }}. ''USA Today.'' Retrieved 14 May 2015.</ref> During the thaw in Cuba–U.S. relations, many U.S. lung cancer patients traveled to Cuba to receive vaccine treatment. The end of the thaw under the Trump Administration resulted in a tightening of travel restrictions, making it harder for U.S. citizens to travel to Cuba for treatment.<ref>{{cite news |last=Jacobs |first=Sally |date=10 January 2018 |title=Cuba has a lung cancer vaccine. Many U.S. patients can't get it without breaking the law |work=USA Today |url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2018/01/09/cuba-has-lung-cancer-vaccine-many-u-s-patients-cant-get-without-breaking-law/1019093001/ |access-date=16 October 2018}}</ref>

In 2015, Cuba became the first country to eradicate mother-to-child transmission of HIV and syphilis,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2015/mtct-hiv-cuba/en/| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150702063246/http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2015/mtct-hiv-cuba/en/| archive-date=2 July 2015| title=WHO validates elimination of mother-to-child transmission of HIV and syphilis in Cuba| publisher=World Health Organization| date=30 June 2015| access-date=30 August 2015}}</ref> a milestone hailed by the World Health Organization as "one of the greatest public health achievements possible".<ref>{{cite web |last=O'Carroll |first=Lisa |date=30 June 2015 |title=Cuba first to eliminate mother-to-baby HIV transmission |website=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/jun/30/cuba-first-eliminate-mother-baby-hiv-transmission |access-date=1 July 2015}}</ref>

==Culture== thumb|right|A local musical house, Casa de la Trova in Santiago de Cuba Cuban culture is influenced by its melting pot of cultures, primarily those of Spain, West Africa, and the indigenous Guanahatabey and Taíno. After the 1959 revolution, the government started a national literacy campaign, offered free education to all and established rigorous sports, ballet, and music programs.<ref name=hsas>{{cite news|title=For Cuba, a Harsh Self-Assessment |last1=Burnett |first1=Victoria |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/24/world/americas/harsh-self-assessment-as-cuba-looks-within.html |work=The New York Times |date=24 July 2013 |access-date=24 July 2013}}</ref>

=== Architecture === [[File:CU La Habana 9709 028 (17229424611).jpg|thumb|The 18th-century entrance of the Castillo del Príncipe in Havana, photo taken in 1997]] Cuban architecture reflects a range of historical influences, with its foundations rooted primarily in the Spanish colonial period. Early settlements, or villas, were typically organized around a central church, surrounded by residential structures. These homes often featured interior courtyards and iron grilles, a characteristic element of colonial domestic architecture. Spanish Baroque architecture played a significant role during this era, exemplified by religious buildings such as the Basílica de San Francisco in Havana. In response to the threat of piracy, large fortifications were also constructed, contributing to the island's defensive infrastructure.

Several historic urban centers developed during the colonial period, many of which have been recognized for their architectural and cultural value. Notable examples include Havana, Camagüey, Cienfuegos and Trinidad, all of which are inscribed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites. These cities display a variety of architectural styles, ranging from Baroque and Neoclassical to eclectic influences. Additional towns such as Santiago de Cuba, Matanzas or Remedios also preserve significant colonial-era architecture.

During the Republican period (1902–1959), Cuban architecture saw the construction of prominent public and commercial buildings. Notable examples include El Capitolio, inspired by the United States Capitol, as well as modern high-rise structures such as the FOCSA Building and the Habana Hilton (later renamed Habana Libre). Architect Antonio Quintana Simonetti emerged as a leading figure during the mid-20th century, contributing to the development of modern Cuban architecture.

Following revolution, architectural styles were heavily influenced by Soviet urban planning, emphasizing functionality, uniformity, and efficiency. Residential neighborhoods constructed during this period reflected the characteristics of socialist realism seen in cities like Moscow and Minsk. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, architecture became more varied. The 1990s and early 21st century saw a rise in the construction of luxury hotels, incorporating modern materials such as glass and steel, and reflecting global architectural trends similar to those found in cities like Mexico City, Caracas, and New York.

===Literature=== Cuban literature began to find its voice in the early 19th century. Dominant themes of independence and freedom were exemplified by José Martí, who led the Modernist movement in Cuban literature. Writers such as Nicolás Guillén and José Z. Tallet focused on literature as social protest. The poetry and novels of Dulce María Loynaz and José Lezama Lima have been influential. Romanticist Miguel Barnet, who wrote ''Everyone Dreamed of Cuba'', reflects a more melancholy Cuba.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.tobias-hauser.de/vortraege/?cmd=en|title=TOBIAS HAUSER | Lectures|website=www.tobias-hauser.de|accessdate=5 January 2026}}</ref>

Alejo Carpentier was important in the magic realism movement. Writers such as Reinaldo Arenas, Guillermo Cabrera Infante, and Daína Chaviano, Pedro Juan Gutiérrez, Zoé Valdés, Guillermo Rosales and Leonardo Padura have earned international recognition in the post-revolutionary era, though many of these have felt compelled to continue their work in exile due to ideological control of media by the Cuban authorities. However, some Cuban writers continue living and writing in Cuba, including Nancy Morejón.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Nancy Morejón |work=Smith College |url=https://www.smith.edu/academics/poetry-center/nancy-morej%C3%B3n|access-date=20 July 2021}}</ref>

===Music=== {{multiple image | align = left | total_width = 220 | image1 = Gloria Estefan 2009.jpg | alt1 = | caption1 = | image2 = Celia Cruz 1957 color.jpg | alt2 = | caption2 = | footer = Gloria Estefan and Celia Cruz }}

Cuban music is rich and is the most commonly known expression of Cuban culture. The central form of this music is ''son'', which has been the basis of many other musical styles like "Danzón de nuevo ritmo", mambo, cha-cha-chá and salsa music. Rumba ("de cajón o de solar") music originated in the early Afro-Cuban culture, mixed with Spanish elements of style.<ref>{{cite book|last=Moore|first=Robin|title=Nationalizing Blackness: Afrocubanismo and Artistic Revolution in Havana, 1920–1940|year=1997|publisher=University of Pittsburgh Press|isbn=978-0-8229-5645-7}}</ref> The tres was invented in Cuba from Spanish cordophone instruments models (the instrument is actually a fusion of elements from the Spanish guitar and lute). Other traditional Cuban instruments are of African origin, Taíno origin, or both, such as the maracas, güiro, marímbula and various wooden drums including the mayohuacán.

Popular Cuban music of all styles has been enjoyed and praised widely across the world. Cuban classical music, which includes music with strong African and European influences, and features symphonic works as well as music for soloists, has received international acclaim thanks to composers like Ernesto Lecuona. Havana was the heart of the rap scene in Cuba when it began in the 1990s.

===Dance=== {{Main|Dance from Cuba}}

The culture encompasses a wide range of dance forms.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Daniel|first1=Yvonne|title=Rumba: Dance and Social Change in Contemporary Cuba|date=1995|publisher=Indiana University Press|location=Bloomington, IN|page=28 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aek7fmzOnu4C|isbn=9780253209481}}</ref> Danzón was the official musical genre and dance of Cuba.<ref name="Urfé 1965">Urfé, Odilio 1965. ''El danzón''. La Habana.</ref> Mambo music and dance developed originally in Cuba, with further significant developments by Cuban musicians in Mexico and the US. The cha-cha-cha is another dance of Cuban origin,<ref>Orovio, Helio 2004. ''Cuban music from A to Z''. p50</ref> while the Cuban bolero originated in Santiago de Cuba in the 19th century.<ref>Cristobal Diaz offers 1885: "el bolero, creado aproximadamente para 1885". Diaz Ayala, Cristobal 1999. ''Cuando sali de la Habana 1898-1997: cien años de música cubana por el mundo''. 3rd ed, Cubanacán, San Juan P.R. p24-25</ref> Concert dance is supported by the government and includes internationally renowned companies such as the Ballet Nacional de Cuba.<ref name="Johnn">{{cite book | last=John | first=S. | title=Contemporary Dance in Cuba: Tecnica Cubana as Revolutionary Movement | publisher=McFarland & Company | year=2012 | isbn=978-0-7864-9325-8 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=drE0KI3h-7UC&pg=PA23 | page=23}}</ref> Salsa dancing originated in Cuba, and Cuban salsa is danced around the world.

===Media=== {{Main|Mass media in Cuba}}

thumb|Users of a public WiFi hotspot in Havana, Cuba ETECSA opened 118 cybercafes across the country in 2013.<ref name="bedroses">{{cite web|title=Cuba's New Internet Service is Also No Bed of Roses |work=MIT Technology Review |date=16 July 2013 |url=http://www.technologyreview.com/view/517241/cubas-new-internet-service-is-also-no-bed-of-roses/|access-date=19 July 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130718212018/http://www.technologyreview.com/view/517241/cubas-new-internet-service-is-also-no-bed-of-roses/|archive-date=18 July 2013}}</ref> The government of Cuba provides an online encyclopedia website called EcuRed that operates in a "wiki" format.<ref name="reuters">{{cite web |date=13 December 2010 |title=Cuba launches Wikipedia-like online encyclopedia |url=http://ca.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idCATRE6BD02E20101214?sp=true |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304050027/http://ca.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idCATRE6BD02E20101214?sp=true |archive-date=4 March 2016 |work=Reuters}}</ref> Internet access is controlled, and e-mail is closely monitored.<ref name="rsf">{{cite web |url=http://arabia.reporters-sans-frontieres.org/article.php3?id_article=10611 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110727014516/http://arabia.reporters-sans-frontieres.org/article.php3?id_article=10611 |archive-date=27 July 2011 |title=Internet in Cuba |publisher=Reporters Without Borders }}</ref>

Since 2018, access to Internet by mobile data is available. In 2019, 7.1 million Cubans could access the Internet.<ref>{{cite news |title=El acceso a internet en Cuba llega a 7,1 millones de usuarios en 2019 |url=https://www.efe.com/efe/america/tecnologia/el-acceso-a-internet-en-cuba-llega-7-1-millones-de-usuarios-2019/20000036-4182015 |access-date=3 June 2021 |agency=EFE |date=26 February 2020}}</ref> The prices of connections, since{{clarify|date=June 2021}} WiFi zones, or mobile data, or from houses through "Nauta Hogar" service have been decreasing, especially since the economic reform of January 2021, when all the salaries increased by at least 5 times, and the prices of Internet remain in the same point.<ref>{{cite news |title=Internet access in Cuba: How data plans work on the Island |url=https://blog.fonoma.com/internet-in-cuba-cb82c289a491 |access-date=3 June 2021}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.efe.com/efe/america/tecnologia/el-acceso-a-internet-en-cuba-llega-7-1-millones-de-usuarios-2019/20000036-4182015|title=El acceso a internet en Cuba llega a 7,1 millones de usuarios en 2019}}</ref> In 2024, it was reported that 8.19 million Cuban people have Internet access.<ref name=":2">{{cite news |date=23 February 2024 |title=Digital 2024: Cuba |url=https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2024-cuba |access-date=11 April 2025}}</ref> There were 6.68 million mobile connections in Cuba in January 2021.<ref name=":2"/>

===Cuisine=== thumb|A traditional meal of ''ropa vieja'' (shredded flank steak in a tomato sauce base), black beans, yellow rice, plantains and fried yuca with beer

Cuban cuisine is a fusion of Spanish and Caribbean cuisines. Cuban recipes share spices and techniques with Spanish cooking, with some Caribbean influence in spice and flavor. Food rationing, which has been the norm for the last four decades, restricts the common availability of these dishes.<ref>{{Harvnb|Alvarez|2001}}.</ref> The traditional meal is not served in courses; all food items are served at the same time.

The typical meal could consist of plantains, black beans and rice, ''ropa vieja'' (shredded beef), Cuban bread, pork with onions, and tropical fruits. Black beans and rice, referred to as ''moros y cristianos'' (or ''moros'' for short), and plantains are staples. Many of the meat dishes are cooked slowly with light sauces. Garlic, cumin, oregano, and bay leaves are the dominant spices.{{citation needed|date=April 2024}}

===Sports=== {{Main|Sport in Cuba}}

Due to historical associations with the United States, many Cubans participate in sports that are popular in North America, rather than sports traditionally played in other Latin American nations. Baseball is the most popular. Other popular sports include volleyball, boxing, athletics, wrestling, basketball and water sports.<ref>[https://www.whatcuba.com/cuban-sports.html Cuban Sports] whatcuba.com. Retrieved 23 February 2021.</ref> Cuba is a dominant force in amateur boxing, consistently achieving high medal tallies in major international competitions. Boxers Rances Barthelemy and Erislandy Lara defected to the U.S. and Mexico respectively.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://sports.yahoo.com/news/meet-the-cuban-boxer-who-failed-to-defect-38-times-before-realizing-u-s--dream-200229434-boxing.html|title=Cuban boxer defected unsuccessfully 38 times before realizing U.S. dream|publisher=Yahoo Sports|date=18 June 2015 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.premierboxingchampions.com/news/cuba-world-champion-arduous-defection-continues-drive-erislandy-lara |title=From Cuba to world champion: Arduous defection continues to drive Erislandy Lara |first=Lem |last=Satterfield |website=PBC Boxing |date=10 June 2015}}</ref> Cuba also provides a national team that competes in the Olympic Games.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.olympic.org/cuba |title=Cuba – Comité Olímpico Cubano – National Olympic Committee |publisher=International Olympic Committee |access-date=10 June 2013}}</ref> Jose R. Capablanca was a Cuban world chess champion from 1921 to 1927.

==See also== {{portal|Cuba|Countries|Caribbean|Islands|Latin America|North America }} * Human rights in Cuba * List of Caribbean islands * Outline of Cuba * ''The Cuba Libre Story'' {{Clear}}

==Notes== {{notelist}} {{Clear}}

==References== {{reflist}}

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==External links== {{Sister project links|auto=1|wikt=y|v=y}} * [https://cubaminrex.cu/en Official site of the Government of Cuba] {{in lang|en}} * [https://web.archive.org/web/20080830044824/http://ucblibraries.colorado.edu/govpubs/for/cuba.htm Cuba] from University of Colorado Boulder Libraries * {{Cite CIA World Factbook|country=Cuba}} * [https://www.ifs.du.edu/IFs/frm_CountryProfile/CU Key Development Forecasts for Cuba] from International Futures * {{Wikiatlas|Cuba}}

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