Cuba

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Cuba is an island located in the Caribbean Sea, 90 miles south of Florida. It is the only Communist country in the Western Hemisphere.

History

In 1492, Cuba was Christopher Columbus's first sight in his first and most famous voyage to the Americas.

For many years, Cuba was an United States territory. Cuba relied on slavery longer than all nations in the Western Hemisphere except Brazil. Cuba had a slave trade from 1521 to 1884. In 1868, a Creole farmer started a revolution for racial equality, freedom of speech and association.^{[Citation Needed]}It was then a colony of Spain, which put down the insurgency after a ten-year struggle. In 1880, the Spanish Cortes approved the abolition law, which provided for an eight-year period of patronato (tutelage) for all slaves liberated according to the law. This only amounted to indentured servitude ^{[Who says?]} as slaves were required to spend those eight years working for their masters at no charge. On October 7, 1884, slavery was finally abolished in Cuba by a Royal Decree that also made the patronato illegal.

By 1895 it took 200,000 Spanish soldiers to suppress the Cuban independence movement.^{[Citation Needed]} Americans were shocked at how Spain sent tens of thousands of Cubans to concentration camps, where many died of starvation or disease. After increasing tension between the United States and Spain. When the USS Maine blew up while docked in Cuba, Spain was blamed and the United States declared the Spanish American War. President McKinley approved this Resolution of Congress:

Whereas the abhorrent conditions which have existed for more than three years in the island of Cuba, so near our own borders, have shocked the moral sense of the people of the United States, have been a disgrace to Christian civilization, culminating, as they have, in the destruction of a United States battle ship, with 266 of its officers and crew, while on a friendly visit in the harbor of Havana, and cannot longer be endured ...

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives ... That the people of the island of Cuba are and of right ought to be free.

1962, the Soviet Union, placed missile in Cuba while the United States was under the rule of President John F. Kennedy. The high-pressure controversy that resulted quickly subsided when both sides withdrew.

Government

Cuba's lone party has been ruled by Fidel Castro since 1959, when, notably, Castro and Che Guevara led a revolution to overthrow Fulgencio Batista. In 1960, Cuba became a communist nation, and the United States and Cuba relationship went into turmoil.

Relations between the United States and Cuba have been shaky at best since the revolution. In 1960, after officially declaring themselves communist, the US began a trade-embargo on Cuba that last to this day.

Due to Cuba's Communist philosophy, many are not allowed to freely travel or move, thus, those who disagree with the Communist teachings or Fidel Castro, will risk their life to escape it - often attempting to reach Havana, Florida. Each year since Castro's oppressive regime was installed, tens of thousands have done so.

Health-care and education

Health care in Cuba follows the model of socialized medicine; all doctors are employees of the government, and the government does not charge citizens for health care, though the services provided are alarmingly inferior for anyone but the party elite. Fred Thompson wrote:

Castro won't allow observers in to monitor his nation's true state, but defectors tell us that many Cubans live with permanent malnutrition and long waits for even basic medical services. Many treatments we take for granted aren't available at all -- except to the Communist elite or foreigners with dollars. For them, Castro keeps "show" clinics equipped with the best medicines and technologies available.

The country's chief neurosurgeon publicly protested the government's role in the deterioration of the health care system (see Dr. Hilda Morina).

The present government falsely claims it has achieved a 97% literacy (able to read a street map, bus schedules, and signs detailing hazards) rate on the island, though the school system as a whole continues to produce poor results.

References

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