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=> US CIA World Factbook: Cuba

US CIA World Factbook: Cuba
Posted by Jeff (Guest) jeff@attoz.com - Thursday, February 5 2004, 11:19:40 (EST)
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In general, information available as of 1 January 2003
was used in the preparation of The World Factbook 2003.


This page was last updated on 18 December, 2003

Map of Cuba

Legend: DefinitionDefinition Field ListingField Listing Rank OrderRank Order
Introduction Cuba
Top of Page
Background:
Definition Field Listing
Fidel CASTRO led a rebel army to victory in 1959; his iron rule has held the country together since then. Cuba's Communist revolution, with Soviet support, was exported throughout Latin America and Africa during the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. The country is now slowly recovering from a severe economic recession in 1990, following the withdrawal of former Soviet subsidies, worth $4 billion to $6 billion annually. Cuba portrays its difficulties as the result of the US embargo in place since 1961. Illicit migration to the US - using homemade rafts, alien smugglers, or falsified visas - is a continuing problem. Some 2,500 Cubans attempted the crossing of the Straits of Florida in 2002; the US Coast Guard apprehended about 60% of the individuals.
Geography Cuba
Top of Page
Location:
Definition Field Listing
Caribbean, island between the Caribbean Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean, 150 km south of Key West, Florida
Geographic coordinates:
Definition Field Listing
21 30 N, 80 00 W
Map references:
Definition Field Listing
Central America and the Caribbean
Area:
Definition Field Listing Rank Order
total: 110,860 sq km
water: 0 sq km
land: 110,860 sq km
Area - comparative:
Definition Field Listing
slightly smaller than Pennsylvania
Land boundaries:
Definition Field Listing
total: 29 km
border countries: US Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay 29 km
note: Guantanamo Naval Base is leased by the US and thus remains part of Cuba
Coastline:
Definition Field Listing
3,735 km
Maritime claims:
Definition Field Listing
exclusive economic zone: 200 NM
territorial sea: 12 NM
Climate:
Definition Field Listing
tropical; moderated by trade winds; dry season (November to April); rainy season (May to October)
Terrain:
Definition Field Listing
mostly flat to rolling plains, with rugged hills and mountains in the southeast
Elevation extremes:
Definition Field Listing
lowest point: Caribbean Sea 0 m
highest point: Pico Turquino 2,005 m
Natural resources:
Definition Field Listing
cobalt, nickel, iron ore, copper, manganese, salt, timber, silica, petroleum, arable land
Land use:
Definition Field Listing
arable land: 33.04%
other: 59.35% (1998 est.)
permanent crops: 7.61%
Irrigated land:
Definition Field Listing
870 sq km (1998 est.)
Natural hazards:
Definition Field Listing
the east coast is subject to hurricanes from August to October (in general, the country averages about one hurricane every other year); droughts are common
Environment - current issues:
Definition Field Listing
air and water pollution; biodiversity loss; deforestation
Environment - international agreements:
Definition Field Listing
party to: Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands
signed, but not ratified: Antarctic-Environmental Protocol, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Marine Life Conservation
Geography - note:
Definition Field Listing
largest country in Caribbean and westernmost island of the Greater Antilles
People Cuba
Top of Page
Population:
Definition Field Listing Rank Order
11,263,429 (July 2003 est.)
Age structure:
Definition Field Listing
0-14 years: 20.1% (male 1,164,376; female 1,103,061)
15-64 years: 69.6% (male 3,932,604; female 3,909,523)
65 years and over: 10.2% (male 531,608; female 622,257) (2003 est.)
Median age:
Definition Field Listing
total: 34.5 years
male: 33.9 years
female: 35.1 years (2002)
Population growth rate:
Definition Field Listing
0.34% (2003 est.)
Birth rate:
Definition Field Listing Rank Order
11.87 births/1,000 population (2003 est.)
Death rate:
Definition Field Listing Rank Order
7.38 deaths/1,000 population (2003 est.)
Net migration rate:
Definition Field Listing
-1.05 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2003 est.)
Sex ratio:
Definition Field Listing
at birth: 1.06 male(s)/female
under 15 years: 1.06 male(s)/female
15-64 years: 1.01 male(s)/female
65 years and over: 0.85 male(s)/female
total population: 1 male(s)/female (2003 est.)
Infant mortality rate:
Definition Field Listing Rank Order
total: 7.15 deaths/1,000 live births
female: 6.19 deaths/1,000 live births (2003 est.)
male: 8.06 deaths/1,000 live births
Life expectancy at birth:
Definition Field Listing Rank Order
total population: 76.8 years
male: 74.38 years
female: 79.36 years (2003 est.)
Total fertility rate:
Definition Field Listing Rank Order
1.61 children born/woman (2003 est.)
HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
Definition Field Listing Rank Order
less than 0.1% (2001 est.)
HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
Definition Field Listing Rank Order
3,200 (2001 est.)
HIV/AIDS - deaths:
Definition Field Listing Rank Order
120 (2001 est.)
Nationality:
Definition Field Listing
noun: Cuban(s)
adjective: Cuban
Ethnic groups:
Definition Field Listing
mulatto 51%, white 37%, black 11%, Chinese 1%
Religions:
Definition Field Listing
nominally 85% Roman Catholic prior to CASTRO assuming power; Protestants, Jehovah's Witnesses, Jews, and Santeria are also represented
Languages:
Definition Field Listing
Spanish
Literacy:
Definition Field Listing
definition: age 15 and over can read and write
female: 96.9% (2003 est.)
male: 97.2%
total population: 97%
People - note:
Definition Field Listing
illicit migration is a continuing problem; Cubans attempt to depart the island and enter the US using homemade rafts, alien smugglers, direct flights, or falsified visas; some 2,500 Cubans took to the Straits of Florida in 2002; the US Coast Guard interdicted about 60% of these migrants; Cubans also use non-maritime routes to enter the US; some 1,500 Cubans arrived overland via the southwest border and direct flights to Miami in 2002
Government Cuba
Top of Page
Country name:
Definition Field Listing
conventional long form: Republic of Cuba
conventional short form: Cuba
local short form: Cuba
local long form: Republica de Cuba
Government type:
Definition Field Listing
Communist state
Capital:
Definition Field Listing
Havana
Administrative divisions:
Definition Field Listing
14 provinces (provincias, singular - provincia) and 1 special municipality* (municipio especial); Camaguey, Ciego de Avila, Cienfuegos, Ciudad de La Habana, Granma, Guantanamo, Holguin, Isla de la Juventud*, La Habana, Las Tunas, Matanzas, Pinar del Rio, Sancti Spiritus, Santiago de Cuba, Villa Clara
Independence:
Definition Field Listing
20 May 1902 (from Spain 10 December 1898; administered by the US from 1898 to 1902)
National holiday:
Definition Field Listing
Independence Day, 10 December (1898); note - 10 December 1898 is the date of independence from Spain, 20 May 1902 is the date of independence from US administration; Rebellion Day, 26 July (1953)
Constitution:
Definition Field Listing
24 February 1976, amended July 1992 and June 2002
Legal system:
Definition Field Listing
based on Spanish and American law, with large elements of Communist legal theory; has not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction
Suffrage:
Definition Field Listing
16 years of age; universal
Executive branch:
Definition Field Listing
chief of state: President of the Council of State and President of the Council of Ministers Fidel CASTRO Ruz (prime minister from February 1959 until 24 February 1976 when office was abolished; president since 2 December 1976); First Vice President of the Council of State and First Vice President of the Council of Ministers Gen. Raul CASTRO Ruz (since 2 December 1976); note - the president is both the chief of state and head of government
elections: president and vice president elected by the National Assembly; election last held 6 March 2003 (next to be held in 2008)
election results: Fidel CASTRO Ruz reelected president; percent of legislative vote - 100%; Raul CASTRO Ruz elected vice president; percent of legislative vote - 100%
cabinet: Council of Ministers proposed by the president of the Council of State, appointed by the National Assembly; note - there is also a Council of State whose members are elected by the National Assembly
head of government: President of the Council of State and President of the Council of Ministers Fidel CASTRO Ruz (prime minister from February 1959 until 24 February 1976 when office was abolished; president since 2 December 1976); First Vice President of the Council of State and First Vice President of the Council of Ministers Gen. Raul CASTRO Ruz (since 2 December 1976); note - the president is both the chief of state and head of government
Legislative branch:
Definition Field Listing
unicameral National Assembly of People's Power or Asemblea Nacional del Poder Popular (609 seats, elected directly from slates approved by special candidacy commissions; members serve five-year terms)
elections: last held 19 January 2003 (next to be held in 2008)
election results: percent of vote - PCC 97.6%; seats - PCC 609
Judicial branch:
Definition Field Listing
People's Supreme Court or Tribunal Supremo Popular (president, vice president, and other judges are elected by the National Assembly)
Political parties and leaders:
Definition Field Listing
only party - Cuban Communist Party or PCC [Fidel CASTRO Ruz, first secretary]
Political pressure groups and leaders:
Definition Field Listing
NA
International organization participation:
Definition Field Listing
ECLAC, FAO, G-77, IAEA, ICAO, ICC, ICRM, IFAD, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM (observer), ISO, ITU, LAES, LAIA, NAM, OAS (excluded from formal participation since 1962), OPANAL, OPCW, PCA, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WCL, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTrO
Diplomatic representation in the US:
Definition Field Listing
none; note - Cuba has an Interests Section in the Swiss Embassy, headed by Principal Officer Dagoberto RODRIGUEZ Barrera (since August 2001); address: Cuban Interests Section, Swiss Embassy, 2630 16th Street NW, Washington, DC 20009; telephone: [1] (202) 797-8518
Diplomatic representation from the US:
Definition Field Listing
none; note - the US has an Interests Section in the Swiss Embassy, headed by Principal Officer James C. CASON; address: USINT, Swiss Embassy, Calzada between L and M Streets, Vedado, Havana; telephone: [53] (7) 33-3551 through 3559 (operator assistance required); FAX: [53] (7) 33-3700; protecting power in Cuba is Switzerland
Flag description:
Definition Field Listing
five equal horizontal bands of blue (top and bottom) alternating with white; a red equilateral triangle based on the hoist side bears a white, five-pointed star in the center; design influenced by the US flag
Economy Cuba
Top of Page
Economy - overview:
Definition Field Listing
The government continues to balance the need for economic loosening against a desire for firm political control. It has undertaken limited reforms in recent years to increase enterprise efficiency and alleviate serious shortages of food, consumer goods, and services but is unlikely to implement extensive changes. A major feature of the economy is the dichotomy between relatively efficient export enclaves and inefficient domestic sectors. The average Cuban's standard of living remains at a lower level than before the severe economic depression of the early 1990s, which was caused by the loss of Soviet aid and domestic inefficiencies. High oil import prices, recessions in key export markets, damage from Hurricanes Isidore and Lili, and the tourist slump after 11 September 2001 hampered growth in 2002.
GDP:
Definition Field Listing Rank Order
purchasing power parity - $30.69 billion (2002 est.)
GDP - real growth rate:
Definition Field Listing Rank Order
1.1% (2002 est.)
GDP - per capita:
Definition Field Listing Rank Order
purchasing power parity - $2,700 (2002 est.)
GDP - composition by sector:
Definition Field Listing
agriculture: 7.6%
industry: 34.5%
services: 57.9% (2000 est.)
Population below poverty line:
Definition Field Listing
NA%
Household income or consumption by percentage share:
Definition Field Listing
lowest 10%: NA%
highest 10%: NA%
Inflation rate (consumer prices):
Definition Field Listing Rank Order
7.1% (2002 est.)
Labor force:
Definition Field Listing Rank Order
4.3 million
note: state sector 78%, non-state sector 22% (2000 est.)
Labor force - by occupation:
Definition Field Listing
agriculture 24%, industry 25%, services 51% (1999)
Unemployment rate:
Definition Field Listing Rank Order
4.1% (2001 est.)
Budget:
Definition Field Listing
revenues: $14.9 billion
expenditures: $15.6 billion, including capital expenditures of $NA (2000 est.)
Industries:
Definition Field Listing
sugar, petroleum, tobacco, chemicals, construction, services, nickel, steel, cement, agricultural machinery, biotechnology
Industrial production growth rate:
Definition Field Listing Rank Order
0.2% (2001 est.)
Electricity - production:
Definition Field Listing Rank Order
14.38 billion kWh (2001)
Electricity - production by source:
Definition Field Listing
fossil fuel: 93.9%
hydro: 0.6%
other: 5.4% (2001)
nuclear: 0%
Electricity - consumption:
Definition Field Listing Rank Order
13.38 billion kWh (2001)
Electricity - exports:
Definition Field Listing
0 kWh (2001)
Electricity - imports:
Definition Field Listing
0 kWh (2001)
Oil - production:
Definition Field Listing Rank Order
50,000 bbl/day (2001 est.)
Oil - consumption:
Definition Field Listing Rank Order
163,000 bbl/day (2001 est.)
Oil - exports:
Definition Field Listing Rank Order
NA (2001)
Oil - imports:
Definition Field Listing Rank Order
NA (2001)
Oil - proved reserves:
Definition Field Listing Rank Order
532 million bbl (37257)
Natural gas - production:
Definition Field Listing
600 million cu m (2001 est.)
Natural gas - consumption:
Definition Field Listing
600 million cu m (2001 est.)
Natural gas - exports:
Definition Field Listing
0 cu m (2001 est.)
Natural gas - imports:
Definition Field Listing
0 cu m (2001 est.)
Natural gas - proved reserves:
Definition Field Listing Rank Order
42.62 billion cu m (37257)
Agriculture - products:
Definition Field Listing
sugar, tobacco, citrus, coffee, rice, potatoes, beans; livestock
Exports:
Definition Field Listing Rank Order
$1.8 billion f.o.b. (2002 est.)
Exports - commodities:
Definition Field Listing
sugar, nickel, tobacco, fish, medical products, citrus, coffee
Exports - partners:
Definition Field Listing
Netherlands 19.1%, Russia 18.1%, Canada 14.3%, Spain 9.5%, China 7.3% (2002)
Imports:
Definition Field Listing Rank Order
$4.8 billion f.o.b. (2001 est.)
Imports - commodities:
Definition Field Listing
petroleum, food, machinery and equipment, chemicals
Imports - partners:
Definition Field Listing
Spain 17.2%, China 12%, Italy 9.1%, France 7.6%, Mexico 7.3%, Canada 6.2%, US 5.6%, Brazil 4.7% (2002)
Debt - external:
Definition Field Listing Rank Order
$12.3 billion (convertible currency); another $15 billion -$20 billion owed to Russia (2002 est.)
Economic aid - recipient:
Definition Field Listing
$68.2 million (1997 est.)
Currency:
Definition Field Listing
Cuban peso (CUP)
Currency code:
Definition Field Listing
CUP
Exchange rates:
Definition Field Listing
Cuban pesos per US dollar - 1.0000 (nonconvertible, official rate, for international transactions, pegged to the US dollar); convertible peso sold for domestic use at a rate of 1.00 US dollar per 27 pesos by the Government of Cuba (2002)
Fiscal year:
Definition Field Listing
calendar year
Communications Cuba
Top of Page
Telephones - main lines in use:
Definition Field Listing Rank Order
473,031 (2000)
Telephones - mobile cellular:
Definition Field Listing Rank Order
2,994 (1997)
Telephone system:
Definition Field Listing
general assessment: NA
domestic: principal trunk system, end to end of country, is coaxial cable; fiber-optic distribution in Havana and on Isla de la Juventud; 2 microwave radio relay installations (one is old, US-built; the other newer, built during the period of Soviet support); both analog and digital mobile cellular service established
international: satellite earth station - 1 Intersputnik (Atlantic Ocean region)
Radio broadcast stations:
Definition Field Listing
AM 169, FM 55, shortwave 1 (1998)
Television broadcast stations:
Definition Field Listing
58 (1997)
Internet country code:
Definition Field Listing
.cu
Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
Definition Field Listing
5 (2001)
Internet users:
Definition Field Listing Rank Order
120,000 (2002)
Transportation Cuba
Top of Page
Railways:
Definition Field Listing Rank Order
total: 3,442 km
standard gauge: 3,442 km 1.435-m gauge (142 km electrified)
note: an additional 7,742 km of track is used by sugar plantations; about 65% of this track is standard gauge; the rest is narrow gauge (2002)
Highways:
Definition Field Listing Rank Order
total: 60,858 km
paved: 29,820 km (including 638 km of expressway)
unpaved: 31,038 km (1999 est.)
Waterways:
Definition Field Listing
240 km
Pipelines:
Definition Field Listing
gas 49 km; oil 230 km (2003)
Ports and harbors:
Definition Field Listing
Cienfuegos, Havana, Manzanillo, Mariel, Matanzas, Nuevitas, Santiago de Cuba
Merchant marine:
Definition Field Listing
total: 15 ships (1,000 GRT or over) 59,257 GRT/90,295 DWT
ships by type: bulk 3, cargo 5, chemical tanker 1, liquefied gas 1, petroleum tanker 3, refrigerated cargo 2 (2002 est.)
Airports:
Definition Field Listing
161 (2002)
Airports - with paved runways:
Definition Field Listing
total: 70
over 3,047 m: 7
2,438 to 3,047 m: 10
1,524 to 2,437 m: 22
under 914 m: 31 (2002)
Airports - with unpaved runways:
Definition Field Listing
total: 91
914 to 1,523 m: 28
under 914 m: 63 (2002)
Military Cuba
Top of Page
Military branches:
Definition Field Listing
Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR) including Revolutionary Army (ER), Revolutionary Navy (MGR), Air and Air Defense Force (DAAFAR), Territorial Militia Troops (MTT), and Youth Labor Army (EJT); note - the Border Guard Troops (TGF) are controlled by the Interior Ministry
Military manpower - military age:
Definition Field Listing
17 years of age (2003 est.)
Military manpower - availability:
Definition Field Listing
males age 15-49: 3,120,702
note: both sexes are liable for military service (2003 est.)
females age 15-49: 3,049,927
Military manpower - fit for military service:
Definition Field Listing
males age 15-49: 1,923,967
females age 15-49: 1,875,412 (2003 est.)
Military manpower - reaching military age annually:
Definition Field Listing
males: 81,095
females: 87,780 (2003 est.)
Military expenditures - dollar figure:
Definition Field Listing Rank Order
$NA
Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
Definition Field Listing Rank Order
roughly 4% (FY95 est.)
Military - note:
Definition Field Listing
Moscow, for decades the key military supporter and supplier of Cuba, cut off almost all military aid by 1993
Transnational Issues Cuba
Top of Page
Disputes - international:
Definition Field Listing
US Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay is leased to US and only mutual agreement or US abandonment of the area can terminate the lease
Illicit drugs:
Definition Field Listing
territorial waters and air space serve as transshipment zone for cocaine and heroin bound for the US and Europe; established the death penalty for certain drug-related crimes in 1999

This page was last updated on 18 December, 2003




---------------------------------
Tiglath wrote:
>A history of cuban counter-revolution
>
>While we're still on the subject of Cuba...
>By Michael Moore
>
>Have you ever wondered how Fidel Castro has stayed in power for so long?
>
>No one, other than the King of Jordan, has been in the top spot for a greater period of time. The man has outlasted eight U.S. presidents, ten Olympic Games, and the return of Halley's Comet. And no matter what the United States government does to try to dethrone him, he's got more lives than Cher has comebacks.
>
>It's not that our American leaders haven't given it their best effort. Ever since Castro liberated his country from the corrupt U.S.- and Mafia backed Batista regime, Washington has tried a variety of methods to unseat him. These have included taxpayer-funded assassination attempts, invasions, blockades, embargoes, threats of nuclear annihilation, internal disruption, and biological warfare (the CIA dropped a bunch of African Swine Fever germs over the country in 1971, forcing the Cubans to destroy 500,000 pigs).
>
>And, something that has always seemed strange to me, there is an actual US naval base on the island of Cuba! Imagine if we after defeating the British in our Revolution, we then let them keep a few thousand troops and a bunch of battleships in New York Harbor. Weird.
>
>President Kennedy, who followed through with President Eisenhower's plan to invade Cuba at the Bay of Pigs, ordered the CIA to kill Castro, trying everything from a pen filled with poison ink to an exploding cigar. (No I do not get my information from Maxwell Smart; it's all in the Church committee report from the U.S. congress, 1975.)
>
>Of course nothing worked. Castro became stronger and the U.S. continued to go nuts. Cuba was seen as "the one that got away." It became an embarrassment to us. Here we had every nation in this hemisphere in our back pocket - except those damn Cubans. It looked bad. Like when the whole family goes out to dinner and the one bad seed, little Billy, just won't sit still and do what he is told. Everyone in the place is looking at the parents and wondering just what kind of job they're doing. The appearance that they have no discipline or control is the worst humiliation. So they start whacking little Billy, but forget about it - he ain't ever going to finish his peas.
>
>That's how silly we look to the rest of the world. Like we've been driven insane over this little island ninety miles from our shores. We don't feel that way about a real threat to humanity, like the one posed by the Chinese government. Talk about a bunch of thugs! Yet we can't move fast enough to hop in bed with them. Washington spent twenty-three years getting us all worked up against the Chinese - and then, suddenly, one day they're our friends. It turned out that the Republicans and their corporate buddies weren't really against communist dictators - just those who wouldn't let them come in and make a buck.
>
>And that, of course, has been Castro's fatal mistake. Once he took over and nationalized all the American businesses and booted the Mob out of Havana, he might as well have taken a seat on the San Andreas fault, because the wrath of Uncle Sam came down on him hard, and it hasn't let up for over thirty-seven years. Yet Castro has survived. For that accomplishment alone, despite all his flaws (political repression, four hour speeches, and a literacy rate of 100 percent), you gotta admire the guy.
>
>So why do we continue to fight this leftover turkey leg from the Cold War? The answer can be found by looking no further than a town called Miami. It is there that a nutty bunch of Cuban exiles have controlled U.S. foreign policy regarding this insignificant island nation. These Cubans, many of whom were Batista supporters and lived high on the hog while that crook ran the country, seem not to have slept a wink since they grabbed their assets and headed to Florida.
>
>And since 1960, they have insisted on pulling us into their madness. Why is it that every incident of national torment that has deflated our country for the past three decades-the Kennedy assassination, Watergate, Iran-Contra, our drug abuse epidemic-the list goes on and on-we find that the Cuban exiles are always present and involved? First it was Lee Harvey Oswald's connection to the Cubans in New Orleans. (Or was it the Cuban exiles acting alone to kill Kennedy, or Castro ordering the assassination 'cause he just got bored with Kennedy trying to bump him off? Whichever theory you subscribe to, the Cubans are lurking in the neighborhood.)
>
>Then on the night of June 17, 1972, three Cubans - Bernard Barker, Eugenio Martinez, and Virgilio Gonzalez (plus Americans Frank Sturgis and James McCord Jr.) - were caught breaking into the Watergate offices of the chairman of the Democratic Party. This covert operation eventually brought down Richard Nixon, so I guess there is a silver lining to that particular Cuban-exile operation.
>
>Today, Barker and Gonzalez are considered heroes in Miami's Cuban community. Martinez, later pardoned by Ronald Reagan, is the only one who feels bad. "I did not want myself to be involved in the downfall of the President of the United States." Oh, well, how nice of you!
>
>When Ollie North needed a cover group to run arms into Nicaragua to help overthrow the government, who else could he turn to but the Miami Cubans? Bay of Pigs veterans Ramon Medina and Rafael Quintero were key managers of the air-transport company that supplied weapons to the Contras. The U.S. backed Contra War was responsible for the deaths of thirty thousand Nicarguans.
>
>One of the big bonuses to come out of our funding of these Cuban exiles was the help they gave us in bringing illegal drugs into the States, destroying families and whole sections of our cities. Beginning in the early sixties, a number of Cubans (who also participated in the Bay of Pigs invasion) began running major narcotics rings in this country. The DEA found little support within the federal government to go after these Cuban exiles, because they had organized themselves under the phony banner of "freedom groups." In fact, most were nothing more than fronts for massive drug-smuggling operations. These same drug runners later helped to run arms to the Contras.
>
>U.S. based Cuban terrorist organizations have been responsible for more than two hundred bombings and at least a hundred murders since Castro's revolution. They have got everyone so afraid to stand up to them that I probably shouldn't even be writing this chapter. I am, after all, one of the few unarmed Americans.
>
>So why am I not worried? Because these Cuban exiles, for all their chest thumping and terrorism, are really a bunch of wimps. That's right. Wimps.
>
>Need proof? For starters, when you don't like the oppressor in your country, you stay there and try to overthrow him. This can be done by force (American Revolution, French Revolution) or through peaceful means (Gandhi in India or Mandela in South Africa). But you don't just turn tail and run like these Cubans.
>
>Imagine if all the American colonists had all run to Canada - and then insisted the Canadians had a responsibility to overthrow the British down in the States. The Sandanistas never would have freed their country from Somoza if they had all been sitting on the beach in Costa Rica, drinking margaritas and getting rich. Mandela went to prison, not to Libya or London.
>
>But the wealthy Cubans scooted off to Miami - and got wealthier. Ninety percent of these exiles are white, while the majority of Cubans, 62 percent, are black or of mixed race. The whites knew they couldn't stay in Cuba because they had no support from the people. So they came here, expecting us to fight their fight for them. And, like morons, we have.
>
>It's not that these Cuban crybabies haven't tried to help themselves. But a quick look at their efforts resembles an old Keystone Kops movie. The Bay of Pigs is their best known fiasco. It had all the elements of a great farce - wrong boats, wrong beach, no ammo for the guns, no one shows up to meet them, and, finally, they are left for dead, wandering around a part of their island completely unfamiliar to them (their limo drivers, I guess, had never taken them there in the good old days).
>
>This embarrassment was so monumental the world still hasn't stopped laughing - and the Miami Cubans have never forgotten or forgiven this. Say "Bay of Pigs" to any of them, and you might as well be a dentist with a drill on raw, decaying nerve.
>
>You would think that the Bay of Pigs defeat would have taught them a lesson, but then you would probably be projecting. YOU would have given up. Not this crowd. Since 1962, numerous Cuban exile groups have attempted even more raids to "liberate" their homeland.
>
>Let's go to the highlights reel:
>
>In 1981, a group of Miami Cuban exiles landed on Prividenciales Island in the Caribbean on their way to invading Cuba. Their boat, the only one of four exile boats to make it out of the Miami River (the other three were turned back by the Coast Guard due to foul weather, engine trouble, or too few life jackets), ran aground on a reef near Providenciales. Stuck there on the island with no food or shelter, the Miami Cubans started fighting among themselves. They begged the people of Miami to rescue them off the island, and after three weeks they were airlifted back to Florida. The only one of their group to make it to Cuban waters, Geraldo Fuentes, suffered an appendicitis attack while at sea and had to be helicoptered by the Coast Guard to Guantanamo for treatment.
>
>In 1968, a group of Miami Cubans learned that a Polish ship was docked in the port of Miami and that a Cuban delegation might be aboard the freighter. From the MacArthur Causeway, according to the ST. PETERSBURG TIMES, the Cuban exiles fired a homemade bazooka and hit the ship's hull. It only put a nick in the ship, and the group's leader, Orlando Bosch, was sentenced to ten years of prison, but was released in 1972. Bosch explained that they had hoped to cause more damage, but, he pleaded, "It was a BIG ship!" Bosch had earlier been arrested for towing a torpedo through downtown Miami during rush hour, and another time he was caught with six hundred aerial bombs loaded with dynamite in the trunk of his Cadillac. In 1990, the Bush administration released him from prison, where he was serving time for parole violations.
>
>According to Washington Monthly, "During the summer and early fall of 1963, five commando raids were launched against Cuba in the hopes of destabilizing the regime. The negligible Cuban underground was instructed to leave faucets running and lightbulbs burning to waste energy."
>
>In 1962, according to the SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE, Cuban exile, Jose Basulto, on a CIA-sponsored mission, fired a 20-mm cannon from a speedboat at the Incan Hotel next to Havana Bay, hoping to kill Fidel Castro. The shell missed, and Basulto, seeing gasoline spilling all over his boat, high-tailed it back to Florida. "One of our gas tanks, made of plastic, began to leak," Basulto explained later. "Gas ran all over the deck. We didn't know what to do."
>
>Years later, Basulto would go on to form "Brothers to the Rescue," an exile group that for the past few years has been flying missions over Cuba, buzzing Cuban sites, dropping leaflets, and generally trying to intimidate the Cuban government. In February 1996, Castro was apparently fed up with this harassment, and after the twenty-fifth incident in the past twenty months of the Brothers violating Cuban air-space, he ordered that two of their planes be shot down.
>
>Even though Brothers to the Rescue was violating U.S. law by flying into Cuban airspace (a fact that FAA acknowledges), the Clinton administration again went to the exile trough and instantly got a bill passed to tighten the embargo against Cuba. This embargo has brought the wrath of the rest of the world against us - UN General Assembly voted 117 to 3 to "condemn" the United States for its economic violence against Cuba (as it has in every vote since the embargo was imposed).
>
>The week after the planes were shot down, the exiles tried to force the hand of the U.S., hoping to get the military to engage in some kind of action against Castro. They announced that on the following Saturday they would take a flotilla of boats from Florida to just off the Cuban coast, to protest the loss of the two planes. Clinton decided to stage the greatest show of force against Cuba since the Missile Crisis, and sent a squadron of F-15 fighters, eleven Coast Guard cutters, two Navy missile cruisers, one Navy frigate, two C-130 planes, and a bevy of choppers, AWACs, and six hundred coast guardsmen to support the flotilla.
>
>All he forgot to send was the Dramamine - which, it turned out, was what the Miami Cubans really needed. Just forty miles out of Key West, the Cubans on the boats started getting seasick, heaving up big chunks and begging their skippers to turn the damn yachts around. With the whole world watching, the Cubans once again turned tail and ran. When they got back to port, they held a press conference to explain their retreat. One spokesman was still a little woozy, and you could see the journalists backing away from him, expecting any moment to be covered with a Linda Blair Special.
>
>"A horrible storm arose out of the sea," said the rapidly paling Cuban exit leader. "The waves were over ten feet high, and we had to turn back or lose our ships!" As he spoke some creative genius working the weekend shift at CNN ran footage of the flotilla taken from the air as it headed towards Cuba. The sun was shining, the sea was as smooth as glass, and the wind blew gently, if at all. Reporters out at sea did say that after the CNN cameras left, the waters became "rather rough." I'm sure they did.
>
>Castro has to be laughing his ass off.



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