FROM: U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT
U.S. Relations With Cuba
Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs
Fact Sheet
June 21, 2012
PROFILE
Cuba's authoritarian regime assumed power by force in 1959 and has severely restricted fundamental freedoms, repressed political opponents, and violated human rights. The United States imposed an embargo on Cuba in 1960 and broke diplomatic relations in 1961, following the Cuban Government's expropriation of U.S. properties and its move toward adoption of a one-party communist system.
U.S. policy toward Cuba is focused on encouraging democratic and economic reforms and increased respect for human rights on the part of the Cuban Government. The U.S. Government has taken steps to reach out to the Cuban people in support of their desire to freely determine their country’s future. Although Cuba is subject to U.S. trade sanctions, the United States remains Cuba’s second largest supplier of food. The United States is committed to supporting safe, orderly, and legal migration from Cuba through the effective implementation of the 1994-95 U.S.-Cuba Migration Accords.
U.S. Assistance to Cuba
U.S. programs in Cuba include humanitarian support to political prisoners and their families, human rights and democracy promotion, and facilitating the free flow of information to, from and within the island.
Bilateral Economic Relations
Remittances play an important role in Cuba's state-controlled economy, with much of that funding coming from families in the United States. In 2009, the United States announced the lifting of restrictions on family travel and remittances to Cuba, expanded the list of items eligible for humanitarian export to Cuba, and announced new regulations for U.S. telecommunications companies to expand the flow of information to Cuba. In 2011, the United States announced regulatory changes that increase purposeful travel including religious, cultural, educational, and people-to-people travel; expand the individuals and groups eligible to send and receive remittances; and allow all U.S. international airports to apply to provide charter services to Cuba (previously only three airports were authorized).
Travel to Cuba is restricted by U.S. regulations to licensed travelers engaged in a set of specified activities. All U.S. travel to Cuba must be licensed by the Department of Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), and must fall into one of 12 categories. Further information on the licensing process can be obtained from OFAC or at its website. Those contemplating a visit to Cuba should consult the consular information page about the country.
All exports to Cuba must be licensed by the Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS). Further information on exports to Cuba can be found at the BIS website.
Cuba's Membership in International Organizations
Cuba has an activist foreign policy and aims to find new sources of trade, aid, foreign investment, and political support, as well as to promote opposition to U.S. policy toward Cuba, in particular U.S. trade sanctions. Cuba and the United States belong to a number of the same international organizations, including the United Nations and the World Trade Organization. Cuba was readmitted to the Organization of American States in 2009 after having been expelled in 1962, but the country has refused to rejoin.
Geography
Area: 110,860 sq. km. (44,200 sq. mi.); slightly smaller than Pennsylvania.
Cities: Capital--Havana (pop. 2 million). Other major cities--Santiago de Cuba, Camaguey, Santa Clara, Holguin, Guantanamo, Matanzas, Cienfuegos, Pinar del Rio.
Terrain: Flat or gently rolling plains, hills; mountains up to 2,000 meters (6,000 ft.) in the southeast.
Climate: Tropical, moderated by trade winds; hurricane season (August-November); dry season (November-April); rainy season (May-October).
People
Population (official 2010 statistics): 11.2 million; 76% urban, 24% rural.
Ethnic groups (official 2002 Cuba census): 65% white, 25% mixed, 10% black.
Language: Spanish. Literacy (25 years and older; Cuban Government sources)--99.8%.
Work force (5.07 million): Services (including education, health and social services)--42%; agriculture--19%; commerce and tourism--12%; industry--11%; transport, storage, and communications--6%; construction--5%; mining, electricity, gas and water--2%.
Government
Type: Totalitarian communist state; current government assumed power by force on January 1, 1959.
Independence: May 20, 1902.
Political party: Cuban Communist Party (PCC); only one party allowed.
Administrative subdivisions: 16 provinces, including the city of Havana, and one special municipality (Isle of Youth).
Economy
GDP (official 2010 statistics, based on constant 1997 prices): $51.01 billion.
Real annual growth rate: 3.2% (2001); 1.4% (2002); 3.8% (2003); 5.8% (2004); 11.2% (2005); 12.1% (2006); 7.3% (2007); 4.1% (2008); 1.4% (2009); 2.1% (2010).
GDP per capita income (2010 est., based on constant 1997 prices): $4,545.
Average monthly salary: $20.
Natural resources: Nickel, cobalt, iron ore, copper, manganese, salt, timber, oil, natural gas.
Agriculture: Products--sugar, citrus and tropical fruits, tobacco, coffee, rice, beans, meat, vegetables.
Industry: Types--sugar and food processing, oil refining, cement, electric power, light consumer and industrial products, pharmaceutical and biotech products.
Trade: Exports (2009)--$2.88 billion f.o.b.: nickel/cobalt, oil and oil derivatives, pharmaceutical and biotech products, sugar and its byproducts, tobacco, seafood, citrus, tropical fruits, coffee. Major export markets (2009)--Venezuela $533 million (19%); China $517 million (18%); Canada $434 million (15%); Netherlands $237 million (8%); Spain $155 million (5%); Russia $88 million (3%); Brazil $69 million (2%); Netherlands Antilles $59 million (2%); France $45 million (2%); others $742 million (26%). Imports (2009)--$8.91 billion f.o.b.: petroleum, food, machinery, chemicals.Major import suppliers (2009)--Venezuela $2.6 billion (29%); China $1.17 billion (13%); Spain $753 billion (8%); United States $675 million (8%); Brazil $509 million (6%); Italy $324 million (4%); Mexico $303 million (3%); Canada $292 million (3%); Vietnam $276 million (3%); Germany $275 million (3%); others $1.7 billion (19%).
Cuba has two currencies in circulation: the peso (CUP), and the convertible peso (CUC), both of which are fixed by the government. The CUC is fixed at 1:1 with the U.S. dollar, and 24:1 with the Cuban peso (CUP). State enterprises, however, must exchange CUP and CUC at a 1:1 ratio, an artificial rate that hinders domestic fiscal accounting. The Cuban Government levies a penalty of 10% on CUC-U.S. dollar transactions.
Official statistics are available from the Cuban Office of National Statistics. For alternative statistics, see the Economist Intelligence Unit.
PEOPLE AND RELIGION
Cuba is a multiracial society with a population of mainly Spanish and African origins. Cuba was officially an atheist state from 1959 until a constitutional change in 1992 abolished atheism as the state creed and provided for the separation of church and state. At that time, the Communist Party also lifted its ban on members with religious beliefs. The largest organized religion is the Roman Catholic Church, but evangelical protestant denominations continue to grow rapidly. Baptists, Methodists, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and Pentecostal churches are some of the largest Protestant denominations. Afro-Cuban religions, a blend of native African religions and Roman Catholicism, are widely practiced. There are also small groups of Jews and Muslims. See the Department's report on international religious freedom for further information regarding religion in Cuba.
HISTORY
Spanish settlers established the raising of cattle, sugarcane, and tobacco as Cuba's primary economic pursuits. As the native Indian population died out, African slaves were imported to work the ranches and plantations. Slavery was abolished in 1886.
Cuba was the last major Spanish colony to gain independence, following a lengthy struggle begun in 1868. Jose Marti, Cuba's national hero, helped initiate the final push for independence in 1895. In 1898, the United States entered the conflict after the USS Maine sank in Havana Harbor on February 15 due to an explosion of undetermined origin. In December of that year, Spain relinquished control of Cuba to the United States with the Treaty of Paris. On May 20, 1902, the United States granted Cuba its independence but retained the right to intervene to preserve Cuban independence and stability in accordance with the Platt Amendment. In 1934, the Platt Amendment was repealed. The United States and Cuba concluded a Treaty of Relations in 1934 which, among other things, continued the 1903 agreements that leased the Guantanamo Bay naval base to the United States.
Independent Cuba was often ruled by authoritarian political and military figures who either obtained or remained in power by force. Fulgencio Batista, an army sergeant, organized a non-commissioned officer revolt in September 1933 and wielded significant power behind the scenes until he was elected president in 1940. Batista was voted out of office in 1944 and did not run in 1948. Both those elections were won by civilian political figures with the support of party organizations. Running for president again in 1952, Batista seized power in a bloodless coup 3 months before the election was to take place, suspended the balloting, and began ruling by decree. Many political figures and movements that wanted a return to the government according to the constitution of 1940 disputed Batista's undemocratic rule.
On July 26, 1953, Fidel Castro, who had been involved in increasingly violent political activity before Batista's coup, led a failed attack on the Moncada army barracks in Santiago de Cuba in which more than 100 died. After defending himself in a trial open to national and international media, he was convicted and jailed, and subsequently was freed in an act of clemency, before going into exile in Mexico. There he organized the "26th of July Movement" with the goal of overthrowing Batista, and the group sailed to Cuba on board the yacht Granma, landing in the eastern part of the island in December 1956.
Batista's dictatorial rule fueled increasing popular discontent and the rise of many active urban and rural resistance groups, a fertile political environment for Castro's 26th of July Movement. Faced with a corrupt and ineffective military--itself dispirited by a U.S. Government embargo on weapons sales to Cuba--and public indignation and revulsion at his brutality toward opponents, Batista fled on January 1, 1959. Although he had promised a return to constitutional rule and democratic elections along with social reforms, Castro used his control of the military to consolidate his power by repressing all dissent from his decisions, marginalizing other resistance figures, and imprisoning or executing thousands of opponents. An estimated 3,200 people were executed by the Cuban Government between 1959 and 1962 alone. As the revolution became more radical, hundreds of thousands of Cubans fled the island.
Castro declared Cuba a socialist state on April 16, 1961. For the next 30 years, Castro pursued close relations with the Soviet Union and worked to advance the geopolitical goals of the Soviet Union, funding and fomenting violent subversive and insurrectional activities and participating in foreign interventions until the demise of the U.S.S.R. in 1991.
Relations between the United States and Cuba deteriorated rapidly as the Cuban Government expropriated U.S. properties and moved toward adoption of a one-party communist system. In response, the United States imposed an embargo on Cuba in October 1960, and, in response to Castro's provocations, broke diplomatic relations on January 3, 1961. Tensions between the two governments peaked during the October 1962 missile crisis.
GOVERNMENT AND POLITICAL CONDITIONS
Cuba is a totalitarian communist state headed by General Raul Castro and a cadre of party loyalists. Castro replaced his brother Fidel Castro as chief of state, president of Cuba, and commander-in-chief of the armed forces on February 24, 2008. The first Communist Party Congress (CPC) since 1997 was held in April 2011, where Raul Castro was officially named first secretary of the Communist Party. He announced that 80-year-old Jose Ramon Machado Ventura would remain second-in-charge and Vice President Ramiro Valdes would remain as number three. The CPC also marked Fidel Castro’s formal resignation from official responsibilities within the party, although he will likely remain an important symbolic figure. Also proposed at the congress were two 5-year term limits for top party and government positions, but the party will not take up the issues of succession and its role in government again until January 2012, when it will hold a smaller party conference. The Cuban Government seeks to control most aspects of Cuban life through the Communist Party and its affiliated mass organizations, the government bureaucracy, and the state security apparatus. The Ministry of Interior is the principal organ of state security and control.
According to the Soviet-inspired Cuban constitution of 1976, the National Assembly and its Council of State have supreme authority. Since the National Assembly meets only twice a year for a few days each time, the 31-member Council of State wields power. A Council of Ministers, through its nine-member executive committee, handles the administration of the economy, which is state-controlled except for a small private market sector. Raul Castro is President of the Council of State and Council of Ministers, and Jose Ramon Machado Ventura serves as First Vice President of both bodies. In total, there are five Vice Presidents in the Council of State and seven in the Council of Ministers.
Although the constitution theoretically provides for independent courts, it explicitly subordinates them to the National Assembly and to the Council of State. The Supreme Court is the highest judicial body. Due process is routinely denied to Cuban citizens, particularly in cases involving political offenses. The constitution states that all legally recognized civil liberties can be denied to anyone who opposes the "decision of the Cuban people to build socialism."
The Communist Party is constitutionally recognized as Cuba's only legal political party. The party monopolizes all government positions, including the Council of State and judicial offices. Though not a formal requirement, party membership is a de facto prerequisite for high-level official positions and professional advancement in most areas. A small number of non-party members have been permitted by the controlling Communist authorities to serve in the National Assembly. The Communist Party through its front organizations approves candidates for all elected offices. Citizens do not have the right to change the government.
Human Rights
Cuba is a signatory to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and sits on the UN Human Rights Council. In February 2008, Cuba signed the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, but has yet to ratify either document. In spite of this, Cuba places severe restrictions on many of the rights described in the UDHR and continues to engage in harassment, surveillance, arbitrary detention, and imprisonment of peaceful human rights activists and political opponents.
In 2010 and 2011, Cuba freed dozens of political prisoners, including those arrested during a crackdown in 2003 known as the “Black Spring.” Most of the releases were conditioned on the immediate departure of the prisoners for third countries, although a few have been allowed to remain in Cuba. Since the government does not allow international monitoring of its prisons and does not release information about the prison population, it is difficult to accurately count the number of political prisoners in Cuba. Estimates from human rights groups range from as low as 30 to more than 100. In addition, human rights groups have noted that while the number of political prisoners has decreased, the number of short-term detentions (typically aimed at disrupting planned civil society activities) increased significantly in 2010 and 2011.
The law subordinates freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and freedom of assembly to the aim of building a “socialist society.” Criticism of national leaders can lead to imprisonment. The government maintains complete control over all forms of mass media, including newspapers, radio and television. The Communist Party, enshrined in the constitution as “the superior leading force of society and of the state,” determines content and editorial tone, resulting in almost complete uniformity across all broadcasts and publications. Independent journalists face censorship as well as detention and harassment by state security. Similarly, the government limits access to the Internet to a small number of professionals and party faithful and employs monitoring and blocking technologies to further restrict freedom. Cuba estimates that 14% of its population has access to the Internet; international estimates are lower, making Cuba among the least-wired countries in the world.
Authorities have used surveillance, short-term detentions, and state-organized mobs to interfere with unauthorized meetings and public demonstrations. Civil society groups have reported dozens of cases in which state security and police prevented or broke up meetings using house arrests, short-term detentions, and checkpoints around planned meeting sites. The government also continues to regularly employ organized mobs to humiliate opponents and interfere with peaceful assemblies. Although the government characterizes counter-demonstrations as spontaneous, participants arrive in government buses and openly coordinate with state security officials.
The government also restricts freedom of movement, both domestically and internationally. Cubans must obtain permission to change their place of residence and can be forcibly returned to their home province if they are illegally resident. This law is most commonly employed in the capital, where thousands of people reside illegally and at least dozens are returned to the provinces on a weekly basis.
For international travel to all destinations, Cubans must receive an exit permit. The Cuban Government routinely denies exit permits to political opponents and human rights activists. In addition to political opponents, the government will not grant an exit visa to some types of professionals (e.g., doctors, nurses, etc.) until they have worked in Cuba for a certain number of years after completing their education. In 2011, President Castro announced that travel restrictions would be loosened in the near future, but that restrictions would remain in place to prevent educated professionals and others from leaving the country.
The Cuban Government routinely violates international labor standards. The law does not allow workers to form and join independent unions of their choice. All unions must be recognized and affiliated with the Central de Trabajadores de Cuba (CTC), or the Workers’ Central Union of Cuba, whose leaders are chosen by the Communist Party. The CTC's principal responsibility is to ensure that government production goals are met. It does not bargain collectively, promote worker rights, or protect the right to strike. The government harasses, detains, and has imprisoned leaders of unauthorized labor movements.
For additional information, see also the Department's Country Report on Human Rights Practices for Cuba.
NATIONAL SECURITY
With the loss of Soviet-era subsidies in the early 1990s, Cuba's armed forces have shrunk considerably, both in terms of numbers and assets. Combined active duty troop strength for all three services is estimated at 50,000 to 55,000 personnel (compared to some 235,000 on active duty 10 years ago) and much of Cuba's weaponry appears to be in storage. Cuba's air force, once considered among the best equipped in Latin America, no longer merits that distinction, though it still possesses advanced aircraft and weapons systems; the navy has become primarily a coastal defense force with no blue water capability. The Cuban army is still one of the region's more formidable, but it also is much reduced and no longer has the considerable resources necessary to project power abroad. Exchanges and visits with foreign military allies like Russia, China, and Venezuela have become common over the past few years.
The military plays a dominant role in the economy, particularly in tourism, civil aviation, foreign trade, and retail operations. Cuba’s National Civil Defense, responsible for preparing for and responding to natural disasters and oil spills, is also under the Ministry of Armed Forces. The country's two paramilitary organizations, the Territorial Militia Troops and the Youth Labor Army, have a reduced training capability. Cuba also adopted a "war of the people" strategy that highlights the defensive nature of its capabilities. In this respect, and despite the drain on the country’s resources, the government has continued to hold national military drills in preparation for hypothetical military aggression from the United States. The government continues to maintain a large state security apparatus under the Ministry of Interior to repress dissent within Cuba.
ECONOMY
GDP Growth
Real gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 2.1% in 2010, according to official statistics. However, Cuba uses a unique “social” method for calculating GDP which makes its figures impossible to compare with any other country in the world. The reported growth reflected a slight improvement on the 1.4% growth in 2009 and 1.9% growth the Cuban Government had forecast for 2010.
Economic Structure
The Cuban Government continues to adhere to socialist principles in organizing its state-controlled economy. Most of the means of production are owned and run by the government and, according to Cuban Government statistics, about 83% of the labor force is employed by the state. An additional 5% of the labor force is employed by cooperatives closely connected with the state. Only 12% of the labor force works in the private sector, including private farmers, artists, and 142,000 self-employed ("cuentapropistas"), representing less than 3% of the entire workforce. More than 60% of the workforce is employed in non-productive sectors.
