Cuba
AndalusiaWorld Factbook - Central News Agency
Cuba' s Indian populations began to fall over the next few hundred years after the discoveries of the continent by Christopher COLUMBUS in 1492 and its evolution as a Hispanic settlement. Finally, Spain's reign led to an independent struggle and casual rebellion, which was severely repressed. U.S. interventions during the Spanish-American War of 1898 helped the Cubans overthrow Cuban domination.
In 1959 Fidel CASTRO brought a revolting force to the triumph; his dictatorial reign kept the following regimes together for almost five years. Hurricane Irma struck the northern Cuban coastline on September 8 and 9, 2017, inflicting considerable damages on buildings, streets and electricity supply systems. From time to time Cuba presents the US ban, which has been in force since 1961, as a cause of its problems.
In the last ten years, there has been an increase in communications with the government of Cuba to take account of the interests of the nation. Following the resumption of ambassadorial ties with the Government of Cuba in December 2014, which were broken off in January 1961, the United States and Cuba re-opened their embassies in their own country on 20 July 2015.
Illegal immigration of Cuban citizens to the USA by sea and land has long been a major problem. The United States and Cuba on 12 January 2017 issued a joint declaration to end the so-called "wet-foot, dry-foot" policies, which allowed Cubans who arrived on US territory to remain in order to facilitate the return of Cubais.
Since then, illegal migration from Cuba has declined significantly. The US Coast Guard banned 1,606 Cubans at sea in 2017. In the 2017 financial year, 20,995 Cubaese immigrants again presented themselves at various US frontier crossing points. At the first Communist Party Conference in Cuba in almost 13 years, in April 2011, the heads of state and governments adopted a far-reaching programme for far-reaching economical changes.
From then on, the Cuban authorities have carried out slow and gradual restricted business revisions, such as the purchase of electronics and mobile telephones, staying in a hotel and buying and selling used vehicles. As part of the transition processes, the federal administration has reduced the number of public service employees and opened up some retailing activities to the "self-employed", which has led to the emergence of the so-called "Cuentapropistas" or businessmen.
Over 500,000 Cuba' s employees are currently listed as self-employed. Cuba has been attributing the slowdown in the economy since 2016 partly to difficulties in the supply of crude goods from Venezuela. Venezuela has been delivering crude to Cuba at special conditions since the end of 2000, sometimes delivering almost 100,000 bpd. Some of Cuba's pay for the crude came from Venezuelan staff, some 30,000 of whom were health care providers.