Cuba

**Cuba**, officially the **Republic of Cuba**, is an island country in the Caribbean. To the north is the United States, the Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands, Mexico lies to the west, the Cayman Islands and Jamaica lie to the south and Haiti to the east.

## History

### Twentieth Century

After the Spanish–American War, Spain and the United States signed the Treaty of Paris, by which Spain ceded Puerto Rico, the Philippines, and Guam to the United States for the sum of $20 million. Cuba gained formal independence from the U.S. on May 20, 1902, as the Republic of Cuba. Under Cuba's new constitution, the U.S. 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.

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. The U.S. intervened by occupying Cuba and named Charles Edward Magoon as Governor for three years. n 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, but was suppressed by General Monteagudo with considerable bloodshed.

In 1924, Gerardo Machado was elected president. During his administration, tourism increased markedly, and American-owned hotels and restaurants were built to accommodate the influx of tourists. The tourist boom led to increases in gambling and prostitution. The Wall Street Crash of 1929 led to precipitous drops in the price of sugar, political unrest, and repression. Protesting students, known as the Generation of 1930, turned to violence in opposition to the increasingly unpopular Machado. He was replaced by Carlos Manuel de Céspedes y Quesada. In September 1933, the Sergeants' Revolt, led by Sergeant Fulgencio Batista, overthrew Cespedes.

A new constitution was adopted in 1940, which engineered radical progressive ideas, including the right to labour and health care. Batista was elected president in the same year, holding the post until 1944. He is so far the only non-white Cuban to win the nation's highest political office. After running unsuccessfully for the presidency in 1952, Batista staged a coup. He outlawed the Cuban Communist Party in 1952. In 1958, Cuba was a relatively well-advanced country by Latin American standards, and in some cases by world standards.

### Communist Rule

In 1956, Fidel Castro and about 80 supporters landed from the yacht Granma in an attempt to start a rebellion against the Batista government. It was not until 1958 that Castro's July 26th Movement emerged as the leading revolutionary group. 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 with his family to the Dominican Republic on January 1, 1959. Later he went into exile on the Portuguese island of Madeira and finally settled in Estoril, near Lisbon. Fidel Castro's forces entered the capital on 8 January 1959. The liberal Manuel Urrutia Lleó became the provisional president.

From 1959 to 1966 Cuban insurgents fought a six-year rebellion in the Escambray Mountains against the Castro government. The government's vastly superior numbers eventually crushed the insurgency. The rebellion lasted longer and involved more soldiers than the Cuban Revolution. The United States government initially reacted favorably to the Cuban revolution, seeing it as part of a movement to bring democracy to Latin America. Castro's legalization of the Communist party and the hundreds of executions that followed caused a deterioration in the relationship between the two countries.

In March 1960, Eisenhower gave his approval to a CIA plan to arm and train a group of Cuban refugees to overthrow the Castro regime. The invasion (known as the Bay of Pigs Invasion) took place on April 14, 1961. About 1,400 Cuban exiles disembarked at the Bay of Pigs, but failed in their attempt to overthrow Castro. In January 1962, Cuba was suspended from the Organization of American States (OAS), and later the same year the OAS started to impose sanctions against Cuba of similar nature to the US sanctions. The Cuban Missile Crisis occurred in October 1962. By 1963, Cuba was moving towards a full-fledged Communist system modeled on the USSR.

In February 2008, Fidel Castro announced his resignation as President of Cuba. On 24 February his brother, Raúl Castro, was declared the new President. In his inauguration speech, Raúl promised that some of the restrictions on freedom in Cuba would be removed. On 3 June 2009, the Organization of American States adopted a resolution to end the 47-year ban on Cuban membership of the group. Effective January 14, 2013, Cuba ended the requirement established in 1961 that any citizens who wish to travel abroad were required to obtain an expensive government permit and a letter of invitation. As of December, 2014, talks with Cuban officials and American officials including President Barack Obama have resulted in the exchange of releasing Alan Gross, fifty-two political prisoners, and an unnamed non-citizen agent of the United States in return for the release of three Cuban agents currently imprisoned in the United States.

### Democratic Cuba

In September 2015, Obama signed an executive order easing trade and tourism and John Kerry promised to end the embargo as soon as possible. In exchange Raul Castro promised to rebuff any attempt made by Russian President Vladimir Putin to establish a military base in Cuba. In November, Putin visited Cuba offering to sell military equipment. Castro threatened to lease a naval base to Russia should Congress fail to lift the embargo. In April 2016, Obama managed to get Congress to lift the embargo.

In 2017, Castro, aided by US President Hillary Clinton, began instituting democratic reforms. On 1 March, a democratic constitution was introduced. Four days later Cuba signed a free trade agreement with the United States. Raul Castro acts as interim President until Juan Alvarez wins the July elections, formally ending the Cuban dictatorship. In 2026, US President Joseph P. Kennedy named Cuba a Major Non-NATO Ally.