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Republic of Cuba República de Cuba
Flag Coat of arms
Motto: Patria o Muerte (Spanish) "Our Homeland or Death"a
Anthem: La Bayamesa  ("The Bayamo Song")
Capital (and largest city)		Havana 23°8′N 82°23′W / 23.133, -82.383
Official languages		Spanish
Ethnic groups		65.05% European (Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese), 10.08% West African, 23.84% Mulatto/Mestizo, 1.03% Chinese
Demonym		Cuban
Government		Socialist Republic
-	President	Raúl Castro
Independence		from Spain
-	Declaredc	October 10, 1868
-	Republic declared	May 20, 1902 from United States
-	Cuban Revolution	January 1, 1959
Area
-	Total	110,861 km² (105th) 42,803 sq mi
-	Water (%)	negligible
Population
-	2007 estimate	11,394,0431 (73rd)
-	2002 census	11,177,743
-	Density	102/km² (97th) 264/sq mi
GDP (PPP)		2007 estimate
-	Total	$125.5 billion (2007 est.)2 (not ranked)
-	Per capita	$11,000 (2007 est.)2 (not ranked)
HDI (2007)		0.8383 (high) (51st)
Currency		Cuban peso (CUP) Convertible peso d (CUC)
Time zone		(UTC-5)
-	Summer (DST)	(Starts March 11; ends November 4) (UTC-4)
Drives on the		right
Internet TLD		.cu
Calling code		53
a As shown on the obverse of the 1992 coin4 (Note that the Spanish word "Patria" is feminine and is translated into English as either "Cradle" or "Place of Birth" or "Homeland".) bThe Constitution of Cuba states that "Cuba is an independent and sovereign socialist state [Article 1] and that the name of the Cuban state is Republic of Cuba [Article 2]."5 The usage "socialist republic" to describe the style of government of Cuba is nearly uniform, though forms of government have no universally agreed typology. For example, Atlapedia6 describes it as "Unitary Socialist Republic"; Encyclopædia Britannica7 omits the word "unitary", as do most sources. c At the start of the Ten Years' War. d From 1993 to 2004 the U.S. dollar was used in addition to the peso until the dollar was replaced by the convertible peso.

The Republic of Cuba (IPA: /ˈkjuːbə/, Spanish: Cuba (help·info) or República de Cuba (help·info) Spanish pronunciation: [reˈpuβlika ðe ˈkuβa]), consists of the island of Cuba (the largest and second-most populous island of the Greater Antilles), Isla de la Juventud and several adjacent small islands. Cuba is located in the northern Caribbean at the confluence of the Caribbean Sea, the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean. Cuba is south of the eastern United States and The Bahamas, west of the Turks and Caicos Islands and Haiti and east of Mexico. The Cayman Islands and Jamaica are to the south. The national flower is the "flor de mariposa" (Butterfly Flower) and the national bird is the Tocororo or Cuban Trogon.⁸

Cuba is the most populous insular nation in the Caribbean. Its people, culture and customs draw from several sources including the aboriginal Taíno and Ciboney peoples, the period of Spanish colonialism, the introduction of African slaves, and its proximity to the United States. The name "Cuba" comes from the Taíno language the exact meaning of which is unclear, but may be translated either "where fertile land is abundant" (cubao)⁹ or "great place" (coabana).¹⁰ The island has a tropical climate that is moderated by the surrounding waters; however, the warm temperatures of the Caribbean Sea and the fact that the island of Cuba sits across the access to the Gulf of Mexico combine to make Cuba prone to frequent hurricanes. Cuba's main island, at 766 miles (1,233 km) long, is the world's 17th largest.

Contents 1 History 1.1 Colonial Cuba 1.2 The Maine incident 1.3 Independence 1.4 1912 Race War 1.5 World War I 1.6 After World War I 1.7 Batista's control ends with democratic rule 1.8 World War II 1.9 After World War II 1.10 From Batista to Castro 1.11 Cuba following revolution 1.12 Marxist-Leninist Cuba 1.13 Post Cold War Cuba 1.14 Transfer of presidency from Fidel Castro to Raúl Castro 2 Government and politics 2.1 Domestic politics 3 Cuban Internationalism / Foreign relations 3.1 Latin America 3.2 Africa 3.3 Cuba-United States relations 4 Human rights 4.1 Freedom of information in Cuba 4.2 Trade unions 4.3 International intrigue in Cuba 4.4 Soviet advisers 5 Provinces and municipalities 6 Geography 6.1 Climate 6.2 Natural resources 6.2.1 Education 6.2.2 Public health 7 Demographics 7.1 Exodus 8 Religion 9 Culture 10 Economy 11 Military 12 See also 13 References 14 External links

History

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Main articles: History of Cuba and Timeline of Cuban history

The recorded history of Cuba began on October 12, 1492, when Christopher Columbus sighted the island during his first voyage of discovery and claimed it for Spain.¹¹ Columbus named the island Isla Juana in reference to Prince Juan, the heir apparent.¹² The island had been inhabited by Native American peoples known as the Taíno and Ciboney whose ancestors had come from South America and possibly North and Central America in a complex series of migrations at least several centuries before, and perhaps 6,000 to 8,000 years ago.¹³ The Taíno were farmers and the Ciboney (far more commonly written Siboney in neo-Taino nations) were both farmers and hunter-gatherers; some have suggested that copper trade was significant and mainland artifacts¹⁴ have been found.

The coast of Cuba was fully mapped by Sebastián de Ocampo in 1511, and in that year the first Spanish settlement was founded by Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar at Baracoa. Other towns including the future capital of the island San Cristobal de la Habana (founded in 1515) soon followed. The Spanish, as they did throughout the Americas, oppressed and enslaved the approximately 100,000 indigenous people that resisted conversion to Christianity on the island. Within a century they had all but disappeared as a distinct nation as a result of the combined effects of European-introduced disease, forced labor and other mistreatment, though aspects of the region's aboriginal heritage have survived. Most scholars now believe that, among the various contributing factors, infectious disease was the overwhelming cause of the population decline of the indigenous people.¹⁵¹⁶

Colonial Cuba

Cuba was in Spanish possession for almost 400 years (circa 1511-1898). Its economy was based on plantation agriculture, mining and the export of sugar, coffee and tobacco to Europe and later to North America. Havana was seized by the British in 1762, but restored to Spain the following year. The Spanish population was boosted by settlers leaving Haiti when that territory was ceded to France. As in other parts of the Spanish Empire, the small land-owning elite of Spanish-descended settlers held social and economic power, supported by a population of Spaniards born on the island and called Criollos by the Iberian born Spaniards, other Europeans and African-descended slaves.

In the 1820s, when the other parts of Spain's empire in Latin America rebelled and formed independent states, Cuba remained loyal, although there was some agitation for independence. Due to Cuba's loyalty to the Spanish government, the Spanish Crown gave the following motto to the island government "La Siempre Fidelisima Isla" (The Always Most Faithful Island). This was partly because the prosperity of Cuban settlers depended on trade with Europe, partly through fears of a slave rebellion (as had happened in Haiti) if the Spanish withdrew, and partly because the Cubans feared the rising power of the United States more than they disliked Spanish rule.

An additional factor was the continuous migration of Spaniards to Cuba from all social strata, a trend that had ceased in other Spanish possessions decades earlier and which contributed to the slow development of a Cuban national identity. Pirates were also still a problem and defense against them depended heavily on the presence of Spanish troops.¹⁷

Cuba's proximity to the U.S. has been a powerful influence on its history. Throughout the 19th century, Southern politicians in the U.S. plotted the island's annexation as a means of strengthening the pro-slavery forces in the U.S., and there was usually a party in Cuba which supported such a policy. In 1848 a pro-annexation rebellion was defeated and there were several attempts by annexation forces to invade the island from Florida. There were also regular proposals in the U.S. to buy Cuba from Spain. During the summer of 1848 President James K. Polk quietly authorized his ambassador to Spain, Romulus Mitchell Saunders, to negotiate the purchase of Cuba and offer Spain up to $100 million. While an astonishing sum at the time for one territory, trade in sugar and molasses from Cuba exceeded $18,000,000 in 1838 alone.¹⁸ Spain, however, refused to consider ceding one of its last possessions in the Americas.

After the American Civil War apparently ended the threat of pro-slavery annexation, agitation for Cuban independence from Spain revived, leading to a rebellion in 1868 led by Carlos Manuel de Céspedes, a wealthy lawyer landowner from Oriente province who freed his slaves, proclaimed a war and was named president of the Cuban Republic-in-arms. This resulted in a prolonged conflict known as the Ten Years' War between pro-independence forces and the Spanish army, allied with local supporters. There was much sympathy in the U.S. for the independence cause, but the U.S. declined to intervene militarily or to recognize the legitimacy of the Cuban government in arms, even though many European and Latin American nations had done so.¹⁹ In 1878 the Pact of Zanjón ended the conflict, with Spain promising greater autonomy to Cuba.

The island was exhausted after this long conflict and pro-independence agitation temporarily died down. There was also a prevalent fear that if the Spanish withdrew or if there was further civil strife, the increasingly expansionist U.S. would step in and annex the island. In 1879-1880, Cuban patriot Calixto Garcia attempted to start another war, known in Cuban history as the Little War, but received little support.²⁰ Partly in response to U.S. pressure, slavery was abolished in 1886, although the African-descended minority remained socially and economically oppressed, despite formal civic equality granted in 1893. During this period rural poverty in Spain provoked by the Spanish Revolution of 1868 and its aftermath led to even greater Spanish emigration to Cuba.

During the 1890s pro-independence agitation revived, fueled by resentment of the restrictions imposed on Cuban trade by Spain and hostility to Spain's increasingly oppressive and incompetent administration of Cuba. Few of the promises for economic reform made by the Spanish government in the Pact of Zanjon were kept. In April 1895 a new war was declared, led by the writer and poet José Martí who had organized the war over 10 years while in exile in the U.S. and proclaimed Cuba an independent republic — Martí was killed at Dos Rios shortly after landing in Cuba with the eastern expeditionary force. His death immortalized him and he has become Cuba's national hero.

The Spanish armed forces totaled about 200,000 troops against a much smaller rebel army which relied mostly on guerilla and sabotage tactics to fight battles, and the Spaniards retaliated with a campaign of suppression. General Valeriano Weyler was appointed military governor of Cuba, and as a repressive measure he herded the rural population into what he called reconcentrados, described by international observers as "fortified towns." These reconcentrados are often considered the prototype for the 20th century concentration camps.²¹ Between 200,000 and 400,000 Cuban civilians died from starvation and disease during this period in the camps. These numbers were verified by the Red Cross and U.S. Senator (and former Secretary of War) Redfield Proctor. U.S. and European protests against Spanish conduct on the island followed.²²

In 1897, fearing U.S. intervention, Spain moved to a more conciliatory policy, promising home rule with an elected legislature. The rebels rejected this offer and the war for independence continued.

The Maine incident

Main article: USS Maine (ACR-1)

The U.S. battleship Maine, the largest Navy ship built in an American shipyard, arrived in Havana on January 25, 1898. The Spanish and their Cuban supporters saw the uninvited arrival as intimidation, though McKinley claimed it was to offer protection to the 8,000 American residents in the island.

On February 15 the Maine exploded in Havana harbor, killing 266 men. Forces in the U.S. blamed the Spanish for blowing up the Maine. Those skeptical of the U.S. accusations were suspicious because the most important officers were at a party on shore. There were 81 foreigners and 82 black seamen among the 25 officers and 318 enlisted killed.

An investigative commission arrived in Havana on February 21 aboard USS Mangrove where Judge Advocate of the Navy Adolf Marix reported the ship had been sunk by a mine placed under the ship by a diver named Pepe "Taco" Barquin. Marix reported Barquin had been offered $6,000 and was killed the day after. Another diver was killed by guards and another wounded and jailed on the night of the explosion. The one in jail (his arrest was recorded in Regla's official documents), Marix reported, was being poisoned by the Spanish authorities.²³

A naval court of inquiry found on March 22, 1898, after examination of the ship, "In the opinion of the court, the Maine was destroyed by the explosion of a submarine mine, which caused the partial explosion of two or more of her forward magazines."²⁴ Although the court also concluded, "The court has been unable to obtain evidence fixing the responsibility for the destruction of the Maine upon any person or persons",²⁴ the inference was widely drawn that if there was a submarine mine, the Spanish government had probably caused that mine to be laid. Swept on a wave of nationalist sentiment, the U.S. Congress passed a resolution calling for intervention²⁵ and President William McKinley was quick to comply.

According to a letter from Brigadier Freyre de Andrade, the chief planners were Garcia Corujedo, Villasuso, Maribona and other Freemason businessmen, associated with gun runner Maximo Gomez and New York politician William Astor Chanler, a friend of Theodore Roosevelt.^{citation needed}

Commonly authors find the matter far less definitive and assignment of guilt less clear.²⁶ McMorrow states: "Thus, the conclusion that the explosion which destroyed the ship was triggered by an external blast, as reached by both the Sampson and Vreeland inquiries, seems to be a valid one. Having reached that same conclusion, we still don't know what actually caused the blast. Was the Maine destroyed by a Spanish mine, as so many believed in 1898, by sabotage, or by some kind of infernal machine?"²⁷

Independence

Theodore Roosevelt, who had fought in the Spanish-American War and had some sympathies with the independence movement, succeeded McKinley as President of the United States in 1901 and abandoned the 20-year treaty proposal. Instead, the Republic of Cuba gained formal independence on May 20, 1902, with the independence leader Tomás Estrada Palma becoming the country's first president. Under the new Cuban constitution, however, the U.S. retained the right to intervene in Cuban affairs and to supervise its finances and foreign relations. Under the Platt Amendment, Cuba also agreed to lease to the U.S. the naval base at Guantánamo Bay. Cuba today does not celebrate May 20 as their date of independence, but instead October 10, as the first declaration of independence, May 1 international (but not US) Labour day, and also July 26, the date of Castro's first attack on Moncada Barracks.²⁸

In 1906, following disputed elections, an armed revolt led by Independence War Veterans broke out that defeated the meager government forces loyal to Estrada Palma and the U.S. exercised its right of intervention.²⁹ The country was placed under U.S. occupation and a U.S. governor, Charles Edward Magoon, took charge for three years. Magoon's governorship in Cuba was viewed in a negative light by many Cuban historians for years thereafter, believing that much political corruption was introduced during Magoon's years as governor.³⁰ In 1908 self-government was restored when José Miguel Gómez was elected President, but the U.S. retained its supervision of Cuban affairs.

1912 Race War

In 1912 Partido Independiente de Color attempted to establish a separate black republic in Oriente Province.³¹ Perhaps because the group lacked sufficient weaponry, the main tactic was to set businesses and private residences on fire.³² The movement was a failure and General Monteagudo suppressed the rebels with considerable bloodshed. Historians differ on the interpretation of this circumstance. Some view it as suppression of Black rights, others as an attempt at racial cleansing and secession on part of the Black activists.³³

World War I

Cuba shipped considerable sugar to Britain, via smuggling which avoided U-boat attack by the subterfuge of shipping sugar to Sweden (this operation was managed by Cuban Ambassador Carlos Garcia Velez, General Calixto Garcia's eldest surviving son). During the unsuccessful revolt against the Menocal government in 1917, the government attributed this in part to pro-German sentiment on part of the "Liberales." However, this was not proven to most historians' satisfaction. The Menocal government declared war on Germany very soon after the U.S. did, and as a result the Mexican government broke off relations with Cuba.

After World War I

Machado's government had considerable local support despite its violent suppression of critics. However, it was during this period that Soviet intrusion into Cuban affairs began with the arrival in Cuba of Fabio Grobart.

Despite frequent outbreaks of disorder, constitutional government was maintained until 1930, when Gerardo Machado y Morales suspended the constitution. During Machado's tenure, a nationalistic economic program was pursued with several major national development projects undertaken (see Infrastructure of Cuba. Carretera Central and El Capitolio).

Machado's hold on power was weakened following a decline in demand for exported agricultural produce due to the Great Depression, the attacks first by War of Independence veterans, and later by covert terrorist organizations, principally the ABC.³⁴

During a general strike in which the communist party took the side of Machado³⁵ the senior elements of the Cuban army forced Machado into exile and installed Carlos Manuel de Céspedes, son of Cuba's founding father, as President. During September 4-5, 1933 a second coup (led by sergeants, most notably Fulgencio Batista) overthrew Céspedes, leading to the formation of the first Ramón Grau San Martín government. Notable bloody events in this violent period include the separate sieges of Hotel Nacional and Atares Castle (see Blas Hernandez). This government lasted 100 days but engineered radical socialistic changes in Cuban society and a rejection of the Platt amendment.

In 1934 Batista and the army, who were the real center of power in Cuba, replaced Grau with Carlos Mendieta y Montefur. In 1940 Batista decided to run for president himself. Because of a split with the leader of the opposition, Ramón Grau San Martín, Batista turned instead to the Communist Party of Cuba, which had grown in size and influence during the 1930s.

Batista's control ends with democratic rule

With the support of the communist-controlled labor unions, Batista was elected President and his administration carried out major social reforms. Several members of the Communist Party held office under his administration. Batista's administration formally took Cuba into World War II as a U.S. ally, declaring war on Japan on December 9, 1941, then on Germany and Italy on December 11, 1941, but Cuba did not significantly participate militarily in World War II hostilities. At the end of his term in 1944, in accordance with the constitution, Batista stepped down and Ramón Grau was elected to succeed him. Grau initiated increased government spending on health, education and housing. Grau's auténticos were bitter enemies of the Communists and Batista, which opposed most of Grau's programs.

World War II

Cuba, although supplying vast quantities of sugar and strategic manganese, was not greatly involved in combat during World War II, although U.S. air bases were established, Cuban freighters were sunk, a German spy was discovered and executed, and a German submarine was sunk by the Cuban navy. During World War II the Nazis counterfeited vast sums of U.S. currency which was sent via the Dozenberg group to Cuba and other parts of Latin America; Soviet directions to the Cuban communist party seem to have been sent via radio from Switzerland by the Alexander Foote Network.³⁶

After World War II

Grau completed his presidential term, and in 1948 Grau was succeeded by Carlos Prío Socarrás, who had been Grau's minister of labor and was particularly hated by the Communists. Corruption is generally believed to have increased notably under Prío's administration; however not all accusations of corruption were proven, and Eduardo Chibás, leader of the Ortodoxo party to which Fidel Castro belonged, committed suicide when his allegations were not substantiated. Corruption is partially attributed to the influx of gambling money into Havana, which became a safe haven for mafia operations. Prío carried out major reforms such as founding a National Bank and stabilizing the Cuban currency. The influx of investment fueled a boom which did much to raise living standards across the board and create a prosperous middle class in most urban areas, although the gap between rich and poor became wider and more obvious.³⁷

From Batista to Castro

Main article: Cuban Revolution

The 1952 election was a three-way race. Roberto Agramonte of the Ortodoxos party led in all the polls, followed by Dr Aurelio Hevia of the Auténtico party, and running a distant third was Batista, who was seeking a return to office. Both front runners, Agramonte and Hevia in their own camps, had decided to name Col. Ramon Barquin, then a diplomat in Washington, DC to head the Cuban armed forces after the elections. Barquin was a top officer who commanded the respect of the professional army and had promised to eliminate corruption in the ranks. Batista feared that Barquin would oust him and his followers, and when it became apparent that Batista had little chance of winning, he staged a coup on March 10, 1952 and held power with the backing of a nationalist section of the army as a “provisional president” for the next two years. Justo Carrillo told Barquin in Washington in March 1952 that the inner circles knew that Batista had aimed the coup at him; they immediately began to conspire to oust Batista and restore democracy and civilian government in what was later dubbed La Conspiracion de los Puros de 1956 (Agrupacion Montecristi). In 1954 Batista agreed to elections. The Partido Auténtico put forward ex-President Grau as their candidate, but he withdrew amid allegations that Batista was rigging the elections in advance. Batista could then claim to be an elected president.

Fidel Castro directed a failed assault on the Moncada Barracks, in Santiago de Cuba, and on the smaller Carlos Manuel de Cespedes Barracks and on the Feast of Saint Ann July 26, 1953.²⁸

In April 1956 Batista had given the orders for Barquin to become General and chief of the army. But it was too late. Even after Barquin was informed, he decided to move forward with the coup to rescue the morale of the armed forces and the Cuban people. On April 4, 1956 a coup by hundreds of career officers led by Col. Barquin (then vice-chairman of the Inter-American Defense Board in Washington and Cuban military attaché of sea, Air and land to the US) was frustrated by Rios Morejon. The coup broke the backbone of the Cuban armed forces. The officers were sentenced to the maximum terms allowed by Cuban Martial Law. Barquin was sentenced to solitary confinement for eight years. La Conspiración de los Puros resulted in the imprisonment of the commanders of the armed forces and the closing of the military academies. Barquin was the founder of La Escuela Superior de Guerra (Cuba's war college) and past director of La Escuela de Cadetes (Cuba's military academy). Without Barquin's officers the army's ability to combat the revolutionary insurgents was severely curtailed.

On December 2, 1956 a party of 82 revolutionaries, led by Castro, landed in a yacht named Granma with the intention of establishing an armed resistance movement in the Sierra Maestra. The yacht had come from Mexico, where Castro had been exiled and where his army was strengthened with the help of Ernesto Che Guevara, who became one of the most important people in the Cuban revolution and one of Castro's closest allies. Castro had gone to Mexico after serving two years of a 20-year prison sentence for his part in a 1953 rebel attack on the Moncada Barracks in Santiago de Cuba.^{38copyvio source?} Castro received his pardon from Batista after being requested by the Archbishop of Santiago, Monseñor Enrique Perez Serantes and Senator Rafael Diaz-Balart, at the time Fidel Castro's brother-in-law. After the landing, Batista launched a campaign of repression against the opposition, which only served to increase support for the insurgency. With Barquin's professional officers in La Prison Modelo de Isla de Pinos in the Gulf of Mexico, the army lacked the leadership and will to fight the insurgents.

Through 1957 and 1958 opposition to Batista grew, especially among the upper and middle classes and the students, among the hierarchy of the Catholic Church and in many rural areas. In response to Batista's plea to purchase better arms from the U.S. to root out insurgents in the mountains, the United States government imposed an arms embargo on the Cuban government on March 14, 1958. By late 1958 the rebels had broken out of the Sierra Maestra and launched a general insurrection, joined by hundreds of students and others fleeing Batista's crackdown on dissent in the cities. When the rebels captured Santa Clara, east of Havana, Batista decided the struggle was futile and fled the country to exile in Portugal and later Spain. Batista named Gen. Eulogio Cantillo chief of the army and gave him instructions not to release Barquin and his officers. Nevertheless, Barquin, who had the backing of the U.S., was rescued from Isla de Pinos in the early hours and taken to Campamento Ciudad Militar Columbia where he relieved Cantillo and assumed the post of chief of Staff (serving as chief of the armed forces and de facto president of Cuba for a short period) in an effort to establish order in the streets and the armed forces. He negotiated the symbolic change of command between Camilo Cienfuegos, Che Guevara, Raul Castro and his brother Fidel Castro, after the Supreme Court decided that the Revolution was the source of law and its representative should assume command. With fewer than 300 men, Camilo assumed the post from Barquin who in Columbia alone commanded 12,000 professional soldiers. Castro's rebel forces entered the capital on January 8, 1959. Shortly afterwards Dr Manuel Lleo Urrutia assumed power.

Cuba following revolution

Fidel Castro became prime minister of Cuba in February 1959. In its first year, the new revolutionary government carried out measures such as the expropriation of private property with no or minimal compensation (sometimes based on property tax valuations that the owners themselves had kept artificially low),^{citation needed} the nationalization of public utilities, and began a campaign to institute tighter controls on the private sector such as the closing down of the gambling industry. The government also evicted many Americans, including mobsters (who, in collaboration with Batista, ran the gambling casinos in Havana)³⁹⁴⁰ from the island. Some of these measures were undertaken by Fidel Castro's government in the name of the program that he had outlined in the Manifesto of the Sierra Maestra,⁴¹ while in the Sierra Maestra. However, he failed to enact one element of his reform program, which was to call elections under the Electoral Code of 1943 within the first 18 months of his time in power and to restore all of the provisions of the Constitution of 1940 that had been suspended under Batista.

Castro flew to Washington, D.C. in April 1959, but was not met by President Eisenhower, who decided to attend a golf tournament rather than meet the Cuban leader.⁴² Castro returned to Cuba after a series of meetings with African-American leaders in New York's Harlem district, and after a lecture on "Cuba and the United States" at the headquarters of the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.^{4344copyvio source?45copyvio source?} Summary executions of thousands of suspected Batista supporters^{citation needed} and members of the opposition through the paredones that took place after show trials, coupled with the seizure of privately owned businesses and the rapid demise of the independent press, nominally attributed to the powerful pro-revolution printing unions,³⁰ raised questions about the nature of the new government.^who?

The nationalization of private property and businesses, totaling about $25 billion U.S. dollars⁴⁶ and, particularly, U.S.-owned companies (to an excess of 1960 value of US $1.0 billions)⁴⁷⁴⁸ aroused immediate hostility within the Eisenhower administration. Anti-Castro Cubans began to leave their country in great numbers and formed a burgeoning expatriate community in Miami that was opposed to the Castro government.

The United States government became increasingly hostile towards the Castro-led government throughout 1959. This may have influenced Castro's movement away from the liberal elements of his revolutionary movement and increased the power of hardline Marxist figures in the government, notably Che Guevara. This theory has been attacked in publications which have argued that Castro undertook the Revolution with the goal of turning Cuba towards socialism.^{citation needed}

Marxist-Leninist Cuba

In 1961, John F. Kennedy became President of the United States. He supported the failed Bay of Pigs invasion, which led to closer ties between Cuba and the Soviet Union. One immediate strategic result of the Cuban-Soviet alliance was the decision to place Soviet medium-range and intermediate-range ballistic missiles in Cuba. This precipitated the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. The Kennedy administration, confronted with a next-door nuclear threat from the Soviet Union, denounced the missiles at the United Nations and demanded their immediate withdrawal. The idea to place missiles in Cuba was brought up either by Castro or Khrushchev, but agreed by the USSR for the reason that the U.S. had their nuclear missiles placed in Turkey and the Middle East. With minutes to go until the Soviet ships carrying a further shipment of missiles reached a United States Navy blockade (which was referred to as a "quarantine," as blockades are acts of war), the Soviets backed down, and made a agreement with Kennedy in which all missiles were to be withdrawn from Cuba and the U.S. would secretly remove its missiles from Turkey and elsewhere in the Middle East within a few months. Kennedy also agreed not to invade Cuba in the future.

In the aftermath of the Cuban Missile Crisis, there was a resumption of contact between the U.S. and Cuba, resulting in the release of the anti-Castro fighters captured at the Bay of Pigs to the U.S. in exchange for an aid package. However in 1963 relations deteriorated again as Castro moved Cuba towards a full-fledged Communist system modeled on the Soviet Union.⁴⁹ The U.S. imposed a complete diplomatic and commercial embargo on Cuba, and began Operation Mongoose. In the beginning, U.S. influence in Latin America was strong enough to make the embargo very effective and Cuba was forced to divert virtually all its trade towards the Soviet Union and Soviet-aligned states. However, public declarations of support from Latin American governments for American policies were harder to come by. The Mexican Ambassador to the United States told the Kennedy administration: "If we publicly declare that Cuba is a threat to our security, forty million Mexicans will die laughing."

In 1965 Castro merged his revolutionary organizations with the Communist Party, of which he became First Secretary, with Blas Roca as Second Secretary. Roca was succeeded by Raúl Castro, who, as Defense Minister and Fidel's closest confidant, became and has remained the second most powerful figure in the government. Raúl Castro's position was strengthened by the departure of Che Guevara to launch unsuccessful attempts at insurrectionary movements in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and then Bolivia, where he was killed in 1967. Osvaldo Dorticós Torrado, President of Cuba from 1959 to 1976, was a figurehead of little importance. Castro introduced a new constitution in 1976 under which he became President himself, while remaining chairman of the Council of Ministers.

Although Cuba's relations with the Soviet Union deteriorated considerably during the mid 1960s, relations between the two countries improved following the Cuban government's endorsement of the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968. As a result, the Soviet Union increased its aid to Cuba. Indeed, through the 1970s and 1980s, the Soviets were prepared to subsidise all this in exchange for the strategic asset of an ally under the nose of the United States and the undoubted propaganda value of Castro's considerable prestige in the developing world.⁵⁰

During the 1970s Castro moved onto the world stage as a leading spokesperson for Third World “anti-imperialist” governments. He provided invaluable military assistance to pro-Soviet forces in Angola (see Cuba in Angola), Ethiopia, Yemen and other African and Middle Eastern trouble spots. Although the bills for these expeditionary forces were paid by the Soviets^{citation needed}, the significant size of the force placed a considerable strain on Cuba's fragile economy^{citation needed}, which was adversely affected by the loss of manpower. Cuba's economic growth was also hampered by its dependence on sugar exports, which forced the Soviets to provide further economic assistance by buying the entire Cuban sugar crop, even though domestic producers in the Soviet Union grew enough sugar beet to supply domestic demand. In exchange the Soviets had to supply Cuba with all its fuel, since it could not import oil from any other source.

By the 1970s the ability of the U.S. to keep Cuba isolated was declining. Cuba had been expelled from the Organization of American States in 1962 and the OAS had cooperated with the U.S. trade boycott for the next decade, but in 1975 the OAS lifted all sanctions against Cuba and both Mexico and Canada broke ranks with the U.S. by developing closer relations with Cuba. Both countries said that they hoped to foster liberalization in Cuba by allowing trade, cultural and diplomatic contacts to resume — in this they were disappointed, since there was no appreciable easing of repression against domestic opposition. Castro did stop openly supporting insurrectionist movements against Latin American governments, although pro-Castro groups continued to fight the military dictatorships which then controlled most Latin American countries.

The Cuban exile community in the U.S. grew in size, wealth and power and politicized elements effectively opposed liberalization of U.S. policy towards Cuba, and have been accused of many terrorist acts, including the bombing of civilian Cubana flight 455 in 1976, resulting in the death of all 73 passengers.⁵¹ However, the efforts of the exiles to foment an anti-Castro movement inside Cuba, let alone a revolution there, met with limited success. On Sunday, April 6, 1980 ten thousand Cubans stormed the Peruvian embassy in Havana seeking political asylum. On Monday, April 7 the Cuban government granted permission for the emigration of Cubans seeking refuge in the Peruvian embassy.⁵² On April 16 500 Cuban citizens left the Peruvian Embassy for Costa Rica. On April 21 many of those Cubans started arriving in Miami via private boats and were halted by the US State Department on April 23. The boat lift continued, however, since Castro allowed anyone who desired to leave the country to do so through the port of Mariel and this emigration became known as the Mariel boatlift. The Cuban government took the opportunity to empty Cuban prisons of all serious offenders, place them on boats and dupe the US into accepting them. Many formerly incarcerated individuals established themselves in Miami, Florida, and help to account for the high crime rate in that area. In all, over 125,000 Cubans emigrated to the United States before the flow of vessels ended on June 15.⁵³

Post Cold War Cuba

The fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 dealt Cuba a giant economic blow. It led to another unregulated exodus of asylum seekers to the United States in 1994, but was eventually slowed to a trickle of a few thousand a year by the U.S.-Cuban accords. It again increased in 2004-06 although at a far slower rate than before.

Castro's popularity, which is difficult to assess, was severely tested by the aftermath of the Soviet collapse (a time known in Cuba as the Special Period). The loss of the nearly five billion US Dollars, which the Soviet government provided the Cuban government in aid in the form of a guaranteed export market for Cuban sugar and cheap oil, had a significant impact on the country's economy.

As in all Communist countries, the collapse of the Soviet Union caused a crisis in confidence for those who believed that the Soviet Union was successfully “building socialism” and providing a model that other countries should follow. However, this event, even combined with a tightening of the embargo by the US government, was insufficient to undermine the Communist society of Cuba. There were numerous popular uprisings in the early 1990s, the most notable of which was the "Maleconazo" of 1994. By the later 1990s the situation in the country had stabilized.⁵⁴⁵⁵

By then Cuba had more or less normal economic relations with most Latin American countries and had improved relations with the European Union, which began providing aid and loans to the island. Communist China also emerged as a new source of aid and support, even though Cuba had sided with the Soviets during the Sino-Soviet split of the 1960s. Cuba also found new allies in President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela and President Evo Morales of Bolivia, both major oil and gas exporters.

Transfer of presidency from Fidel Castro to Raúl Castro

Main article: 2006–2008 Cuban transfer of presidential duties

On July 31, 2006 Fidel Castro delegated his duties as President of the Council of State, President of the Council of Ministers, First Secretary of the Cuban Communist Party and the post of commander in chief of the armed forces to his brother and First Vice President, Raúl Castro. This transfer of duties was described as temporary while Fidel Castro recovered from surgery undergone after suffering from an "acute intestinal crisis with sustained bleeding". Fidel Castro was too ill to attend the nationwide commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the Granma boat landing on December 2, 2006, which fueled speculation that Castro had stomach cancer,⁵⁶ though Spanish doctor Dr. García Sabrido stated that his illness was a digestive problem and not terminal, after an examination of the subject on Christmas Day.⁵⁷⁵⁸

On January 31, 2007 footage of Castro meeting with Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez was broadcast, in which, according to international media reports, Castro "appeared frail but stronger than three months ago",⁵⁹ and the Cuban leader made a lengthy surprise appearance by phone on Chávez's radio talk show Aló Presidente the following month.⁶⁰ Though Castro loyalists in the Cuban government had maintained that he would stand in the 2008 elections to the Cuban National Assembly, speculation continued as to whether he would ever return to power.⁶¹ Recent requests for mass donations of copper ornaments are interpreted by some to suggest support for persistent rumors that massive memorial statues are being prepared.⁶²

On February 19, 2008 Fidel Castro announced that he was resigning as President of Cuba.⁶³ On February 24, 2008 Raúl Castro was elected as the new President of Cuba.⁶⁴ In his acceptance speech, Raúl Castro promised that some of the restrictions that limit Cubans' daily lives would be removed; according to an official memo, a ban on the purchase of computers, DVD players and microwaves is to be lifted.⁶⁵

Government and politics

Main article: Politics of Cuba

Domestic politics

Following enactment of the Socialist Constitution of 1976, adopted without following procedures laid out in the Constitution of 1940, the Republic of Cuba was defined as a socialist republic. This constitution was replaced by the Socialist Constitution of 1992, the present constitution, which claimed to be guided by the ideas of José Martí, and the political ideas of Marx, Engels and Lenin.⁶⁷ The present constitution also ascribes the role of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC) to be the "leading force of society and of the state".⁶⁷ The first secretary of the Communist Party, Fidel Castro, is concurrently President of the Council of State (President of Cuba) and President of the Council of Ministers (sometimes referred to as Prime Minister of Cuba).⁶⁸ Members of both councils are elected by the National Assembly of People's Power.⁶⁹ The President of Cuba, who is also elected by the Assembly, serves for five years and there is no limit to the number of terms of office.⁶⁹ Fidel Castro has been in government since the adoption of the Constitution in 1976 when he replaced Osvaldo Dorticós Torrado. The Supreme Court of Cuba serves as the nation's highest judicial branch of government. It is also the court of last resort for all appeals from convictions in provincial courts.

Cuba's national legislature, the National Assembly of People's Power (Asamblea Nacional de Poder Popular), is the supreme organ of power and has 609 members who serve five-year terms.⁶⁹ The assembly meets twice a year, between sessions legislative power is held by the 31 member Council of Ministers. Candidates for the Assembly are approved by public referendum. All Cuban citizens over 16 who have not been found guilty of a criminal offense can vote. Article 131 of the Constitution states that voting shall be "through free, equal and secret vote". Article 136 states: "In order for deputies or delegates to be considered elected they must get more than half the number of valid votes cast in the electoral districts". Votes are cast by secret ballot and counted in public view. Individual vote totals, which are invariably high, are not verified by non-partisan, independent, or non-state organs and observers. Nominees are chosen at local gatherings from multiple candidates before gaining approval from election committees. In the subsequent election, there is one candidate for each seat, who must gain a majority to be elected.

No political party is permitted to nominate candidates or campaign on the island, though the Communist Party of Cuba has held five party congress meetings since 1975. In 1997 the party claimed 780,000 members, and representatives generally constitute at least half of the Councils of state and the National Assembly. The remaining positions are filled by candidates nominally without party affiliation. Other political parties campaign and raise finances internationally, while activity within Cuba by oppositional groups is minimal and illegal. While the Cuban constitution has language pertaining to freedom of speech, rights are limited by Article 62, which states that "None of the freedoms which are recognized for citizens can be exercised contrary to... the existence and objectives of the socialist state, or contrary to the decision of the Cuban people to build socialism and communism.⁷⁰ Violations of this principle can be punished by law." Because the means of production are in the hands of the state and under the control of the government, there have been numerous cases where violations of this law have cost dissidents their employment.

Because of these conditions, opponents of the present Cuban government sustain Cuban elections are neither free nor fair.⁷¹

Members of the Communist Party Cubans participate in the community-based Committees for the Defense of the Revolution, which play a central role in daily life. These groups are designed to coordinate public projects, ensure that the population remains loyal to the government's specific brand of socialism, and act as neighbourhood watchdogs against "counter-revolutionary" activities.

The Cuban Communist Party has not openly held its statutorily required Congress for ten years, which is at least five years overdue. It is not expected that one will be held until either Fidel Castro recovers or an open public and permanent successor is named.⁷²

Cuban Internationalism / Foreign relations

From its inception the Cuban Revolution defined itself as internationalist. Within a year after the revolution Cuba took on civil and military assignments in the southern hemisphere; supporting anti-colonial liberation movements, leftist governments and insurgencies against dictatorships. Although still a third world country itself, Cuba supported African, Central American and Asian countries with military, health and educational resources. These "overseas adventures" not only irritated the US, but quite often were a "major headache" for the Kremlin.⁷³

Latin America

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The Cuban Government's military involvement in Latin America has been extensive. The Sandinista insurgency in Nicaragua, which lead to the demise of the Somoza dictatorship in 1979, was openly supported by Cuba and can be considered its greatest success in Latin America. Apart from that, Cuban efforts have borne little fruit in this region.

The most well-known of these failures was the attempted insurgency by Ernesto Guevara in Bolivia in 1967. Lesser known actions include the 1959 missions into the Dominican Republic⁷⁴ and Panama. Almost all countries in Latin America, most of which had autocratic governments at the time, witnessed this kind of infiltration. Arnaldo Ochoa, the eventual commander of Cuban forces in Angola, is said to be the only survivor of the Camilo Cienfuegos contingent sent on the doomed expedition to the Dominican Republic.⁷⁵

The official position of the Cuban government is that although allegations of the Cuban government's military involvement in other countries of the Americas have been extensive, these are not well substantiated. The alleged presence of "armed Cuban military advisors" on the island of Grenada was given as one reason for the US government invasion of the island and the overthrow of its government in 1981. The commercial airport that was being built on Grenada with Cuban assistance was also cited by US President Ronald Reagan as evidence of Cuban interference in the region. In a 1983 speech, Reagan stated that satellite images of baseball diamonds in Nicaragua in the 1980s was proof of Cuban infiltration.^{citation needed} Critics would observe that Reagan ignored the fact that baseball had been popular in Nicaragua since the turn of the century. However, far more solid data backed up Reagan's statements.⁷⁶

All Cuban personnel in Nicaragua, both military and civilian, have instructions to organize into combat units to assist the Sandinista Army in the event of a U.S. invasion of Nicaragua, according to Brig. Gen. Rafael del Pino Diaz, a high-ranking Cuban defector . The State Department has said there are between 2,500 and 3,500 Cuban military personnel in Nicaragua and an estimated 5,000 civilians, including doctors, teachers, and others. Brig. Gen. Del Pino says there are only 300 to 400 Cuban soldiers in the country, but adds that even Cuban civilians there are regularly trained to ensure that they are in adequate physical condition in case the cross-border march is ordered. Maj. Roger Miranda Bengoechea, a recent Nicaraguan Army defector, put the number of Cuban soldiers in Nicaragua at 500. The Reagan administration has said there are no plans for an invasion and instead is hoping that the Contra rebels will either oust the Sandinistas or force them, through military pressure, to adopt Western-style democracy. According to Brig. Gen. del Pino and Maj. Miranda, both Cuba and Nicaragua place high priority on avoiding a similar fate (as Grenada) for the Sandinista government. Brig. Gen. Del Pino has told U.S. officials that each Cuban in Nicaragua has instructions on where to report once an invasion begins. Arms for the Cuban forces have been stashed for this eventuality, he has said. Defense Minister Humberto Ortega, corroborating Maj. Miranda's comments in many aspects, said two weeks ago that a 600,000 member Nicaraguan military force, comprised mostly of militia and reserves, is being planned with a 1995 target date. Casualty ratios in Grenada indicate that vigorous defense of the landing strip by the Cuban construction workers was one of the bravest ever carried out by nominal civilians.⁷⁷

U.S. soldiers dug up a burned and badly decomposed body from a shallow pit Tuesday, and an officer said he was "relatively sure" it was the remains of slain Erime Minister Maurice Bishop. Bishop, Foreign Minister Unison Whiteman, Housing Minister Norris Bain, Education Minister Jacqueline Creft, and others were killed October 19 after a crowd freed Bishop from house arrest and marched with him to the army headquarters at Fort Rupert (by Military Junta). U.S. forces invaded October 25. The pit is next to a bombed supply shed at the Calivigny barracks, a camp where the U.S army believes the Cubans were training the Grenadian army. Gen. Jack Farris said that he thinks it's kind of important to find the body (of Bishop). He was a hero to some people here. Bishop and other members of the socialist New Jewel Movement party seized power in 1979 in a coup which toppled the government of Sir Eric Gairy. In Washington, the State Department said Tuesday an estimated 50 Cubans were killed and 59 wounded In fighting following the U.S. landing on Grenada. Until Tuesday, the administration had withheld its estimate of the number of Cuban dead. The Pentagon has said 18 Americans died in the conflict, and that 18 inmates at a mental hospital were killed in an accidental U.S. bombing." Others estimate the size of the Cuban and Grenadian forces much higher.⁷⁸ “…they faced one thousand Grenadian, another one thousand local Grenadian militia, and about 600 Cubans. The Cubans in the construction force working in the southwest corner of the island at Point Salinas airfield were expected to resist a landing by American Forces. There were additionally forty Cuban advisers assigned to the Grenadian Army, eighty seven Cuban soldiers, eighteen diplomats from a number of countries with military ties to Grenada, and of course, Cuban Colonel Comas Tortoló (Colonel Pedro Tortoló), who had just been sent by Castro to supervise the defense. Colonel Tortolo senior Cuban commander, and his staff were stripped of their rank and sent to Angola.⁷⁹

Africa

Unlike the rather limited success in Latin America the situation was quite different on the African continent, where, in all, Cuba supported 17 liberation movements or leftist governments. In some countries it suffered setbacks, such as in eastern Zaire (Simba Rebellion), but in others Cuba garnered significant successes. Major engangements took place in Algeria, Zaire, Yemen,⁸⁰ Ethiopia, Guinea-Bissau and Mozambique. Among all the countries Cuba ever supported, Angola takes an exceptional position (see Cuba in Angola and Namibia).

Cuba-United States relations

Main article: Cuba-United States relations

Since Cuba became a declared socialist republic in 1961 the United States Government has initiated various policy measures against Cuba's government, applying standards on Cuba which some believe it did not apply to countries with arguably equally poor human rights records, including other Communist countries such as Vietnam and China. These measures have had a considerable political and economic effect on the island; these have variously been designed to encourage Cubans to remove the leadership and to undertake political change towards liberal democracy. The most significant of these measures was the United States embargo against Cuba and the subsequent Helms-Burton Act of 1996. The US government, its supporters and other observers contend that the Cuban government does not meet the minimal standards of a democracy, especially through its lack of multi-party contests for seats and the limitations on free speech that limit a candidate's ability to campaign.⁸¹ The Cuban government, its supporters and other observers within and outside Cuba argue that Cuba has a form of democracy, citing the extensive participation in the nomination process at the national and municipal level.

The US government has budgeted $39 million in 2008 for "broadcasting to Cuba".⁸² Broadcasts to Cuba are managed by the International Broadcasting Bureau and consist of Radio Marti and TV Marti, both of which include news and cultural programming intended for residents of Cuba.[6] Radio Marti is broadcast primarily from a transmission station located in Boot Key Harbor, within the City of Marathon, FL. TV Marti is broadcast from an aerostat ballon 10,000 feet above Cudjoe Key in the Florida Keys.⁸³⁸⁴

In 2000 the Trade Sanctions Reform and Enhancement Act allowed for exports directly from the United States to Cuba in the areas of food and medical products with approval from the U.S. Department of the Treasury and the U.S. Department of Commerce.

Human rights

Main article: Human rights in Cuba

See also: Guantanamo Bay detention camp

The Cuban government has been accused of numerous human rights abuses, including torture, arbitrary imprisonment, unfair trials, and extra-judicial executions.⁸⁵ Dissidents complain of harassment and torture.⁸⁶ While the Cuban government placed a moratorium on capital punishment in 2001, it made an exception for perpetrators of an armed hijacking 2 years later. Groups like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have issued reports on Cuban prisoners of conscience.⁸⁷ Opponents claim the Cuban government represses free expression by limiting access to the Internet.⁸⁸

Human Rights Watch claims that the true number of political prisoners may well be vastly understated.⁸⁹ According to Human Rights Watch, political prisoners, along with the rest of Cuba's prison population, are confined to jails with substandard and unhealthy conditions.⁸⁹

In the last weeks of March 2003 the Cuban government sentenced 75 members of the opposition to prison terms of up to 28 years. The activists were charged with "disrespect" toward the Revolution, “treason,” and “giving information to the enemy,” in the harshest backlash against peaceful dissent that the island had seen in years.⁹⁰⁹¹ Since 2003 human rights supporters have sent thousands of appeals to the Cuban authorities calling for the release of the prisoners. The numbers of recognized political prisoners varies over time, increasing and decreasing with circumstances. However all former political prisoners are subject to arbitrary re-arrest.⁹² Political arrests continue.⁹³

On the fourth anniversary of a major crackdown on human rights activists in Cuba that saw dozens sentenced to long prison terms for peaceful promotion of basic rights and freedoms, human rights organizations called for the release of the 59 prisoners who remain in jail, several of whom are seriously ill.⁹⁴ Organizations like Human Rights First called on the Cuban government and, in particular, to interim leader Raul Castro, to immediately and unconditionally release the 59 individuals who remain in prison since their arrest in the spring of 2003.

The Ladies in White are the wives and relatives of a group imprisoned in 2003 for collusion with the United States and attempting to overthrow the Cuban government. They have persistently and peacefully advocated their release since then.⁹⁵ The Ladies in White have received criticism for working with and receiving funding from United States agencies.⁹⁶ The president of the Madres de la Plaza de Mayo, the respected Argentine based human rights group, who the Ladies in White have attempted to imitate by using symbolic white scarves, has said:

The so-called Ladies in White defend the terrorism of the United States, the Madres de la Plaza de Mayo symbolise our love for our children who were murdered by tyrants imposed by the United States.⁹⁷

Marta Beatriz Roque has been twice detained for her opposition to the government. In July 1997 she and three other dissidents were detained for publishing a paper titled "The Homeland Belongs to All,"⁹⁸ which discussed Cuba's human rights situation and called for political and economic reforms. The paper, which was labeled seditious by the government, led to her being imprisoned for a little over three years. On April 3, 2003 Roque was brought to trial and convicted. She was sentenced to 20 years in prison for engaging in “activities aimed at subverting the internal order of the Cuban State, provoking its destabilization and the loss of its independence,” and receiving “substantial monetary funds from the U.S. Government.” On July 22, 2004 Roque was unexpectedly released from prison due to her declining health. Medical parole, however, is given only for the duration of the illness. As such, she is subject to rearrest and detainment in the event that there is any improvement in her health. According to Amnesty International, Roque has been harassed repeatedly by Cuban government supporters and state security agents, including receiving death threats and being physically assaulted since her early release from prison.⁹⁹¹⁰⁰

Normando Hernández González is an independent journalist sentenced to 25 years in prison in the spring of 2003 for his commentaries on Cuban society, including pieces on the Cuban health, educational and judicial systems, and for his promotion of free expression. Mr. Hernández was apparently held in a cell for more than a year with a prisoner known to have tuberculosis, despite repeated concerns expressed by him and his family. He was recently confirmed to have contracted tuberculosis and is suffering from high fevers, fatigue and fainting. The doctors at Prison Kilo 7 in Camagüey, where he is being held, are reportedly refusing him medical assistance. There have also been reports that he has been physically assaulted by prison guards.¹⁰¹

José Luis García Paneque was sentenced to 24 years in prison in 2003 for his work as an independent journalist, as well as for his involvement in a civic initiative to promote democratic reforms, known as the Varela Project. García Paneque's health has dramatically worsened since his imprisonment; he suffers from intestinal problems that have caused him to lose almost 90 pounds and at one point left him emaciated at a weight of around 110 p