Overview

Cuba is an island nation located on the northern rim of the Caribbean Sea. It is the largest of the Greater Antilles islands. To Cuba's east is the island of Hispaniola, shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Off the southeastern coast of Cuba lies Jamaica, and to the north is the state of Florida. In 1992 Cuba had an estimated population of nearly 11 million. Since 1959, Cuba has been led by President Fidel Castro, whose socialist revolution overthrew dictator Fulgencio Batista. In the years before the breakup of the Soviet Union, Cuba maintained a close political and economic relationship with that nation. Cuba has had a distant and antagonistic relationship with the United States. Sugar is the principal export of Cuba, but the Cuban economy, by most accounts, is weak.

The Cuban people are descendants of Spanish colonizers and of African slaves once employed in the...