Countries of the World/COUNTRYS.BIN/dp/0099/00993.txt

Text File | 1991-06-24 | 34KB | 550 lines

$Unique_ID{COW00993}
$Pretitle{352}
$Title{Cuba
Chapter 2A.   The Society and Its Environment}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{James D. Rudolf}
$Affiliation{HQ, Department of the Army}
$Subject{cuba
education
percent
de
population
students
school
cuban
government
high}
$Date{1986}
$Log{Sugarcane Cutter*0099301.scf
Figure 3.*0099303.scf
}
Country:     Cuba
Book:        Cuba, A Country Study
Author:      James D. Rudolf
Affiliation: HQ, Department of the Army
Date:        1986

Chapter 2A.   The Society and Its Environment

[See Sugarcane Cutter: Sugarcane Cutter]

     Cuban society in early 1985 reflected the years of efforts by the
leadership of the Communist Party of Cuba to build a classless society based
on state ownership of most means and instruments of production. The government
was the nation's major employer and controlled all social services and
facilities, including the educational and health systems. Work identification
cards containing labor and political data were required to be carried at all
times. Food was rationed, housing was scarce, and geographical mobility was
restricted.

     Cuba continued to uphold a long-standing tradition of high standards in
the fields of education and health. By the 1980s illiteracy had almost
disappeared, and most of the adult population had reached an educational level
equivalent to the sixth grade. The school system was highly politicized, and
only supporters of the regime were able to obtain higher education. Health
standards were high, and Cuba's infant mortality rate was among the lowest in
the Western Hemisphere. A network of government-sponsored urban and rural
medical services and facilities was developed, and most of the nation's
municipalities in all 14 provinces were adequately served.

     Although considerable advances in health, education, and narrowing of
income differences had taken place, Cuba was not the truly classless,
egalitarian society the regime claimed it to be. A new power elite consisting
of the Party faithful had come into being, replacing the prerevolutionary
oligarchy. Far from being the grassroots-based "people's" society painted in
Fidel Castro Ruz' speeches, Cuban society operated from the top down through a
system of comprehensive mechanisms of social control. People were, in effect,
classified as either supporters or enemies of the Revolution and were rewarded
or punished through a wide variety of means at the government's disposal,
ranging from access to jobs, education, and housing to the right to obtain
scarce consumer goods. Although most Cubans enjoyed better standards of health
and education than many people elsewhere in the hemisphere, the price was
high both in terms of the drain on Cuba's economy and the national treasury
and in terms of a wide range of effective restrictions on personal freedom.

Physical Setting

     The Republic of Cuba comprises the Cuban archipelago, a formation of some
3,715 islands, islets, and keys with a combined area of 110,860 square
kilometers. The archipelago is situated in the Atlantic Ocean, just south of
the Tropic of Cancer, at the entrance of both the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf
of Mexico and forms an important element of the Greater Antilles islands
chain. Cuba, the largest island, lies very close to various strategic
sealanes, and is situated some 150 kilometers south of the Florida keys and
210 kilometers to the east of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula. The island of Cuba
is also flanked by the island of Jamaica, some 140 kilometers to the south; by
the island of Hispaniola, across the Windward Passage, some 77 kilometers to
the southeast; and by the Bahamas in the northeast (see fig. 2).

     Composed of a total area of 104,945 square kilometers, the island of Cuba
is the largest in the archipelago. It runs from northwest to southeast and is
1,250 kilometers long and only 191 kilometers across at its widest point and
31 kilometers at its narrowest point. Its shape resembles an irregular
crescent convex to the north.

     The Isla de la Juventud (Isle of Youth; formerly known as the Isle of
Pines, or Isla de Pinos), covering a total area of 2,200 square kilometers in
the Golfo de Batabano, is the second largest island in the archipelago, rising
to the southwest of Cuba itself. Other islands and shoal groups include the
Archipielago de los Colorados to the northwest; the Archipielago de Sabana and
the Archipielago de Camaguey, both off the north-central coast; the Jardines
de la Reina off the south-central coast; and the Archipielago de los Canarreos
(technically including the Isla de la Juventude) off the southwest coast. The
total area of these islands is 3,715 square kilometers.

     Cuba's coastline measures 6,073 kilometers, of which 5,746 kilometers
corresponds to the coastline of the island of Cuba and 327 kilometers to the
coast of the Isla de la Juventud. The islands' irregular coastlines are
characterized by the many bays, rugged cliffs, coral reefs, swamps, and
mangroves.

     Many of Cuba's bays, which have narrow entrances but ample inner areas,
make some of the world's best harbors. Among the most important on the
northern coast-from west to east-are Bahia Honda in the province of Pinar del
Rio; Bahia Cabanas and Bahia del Mariel in the province of La Habana; Bahia de
La Habana in the province of Ciudad de La Habana; Bahia de Matanzas in the
province of Matanzas; Bahia de Nuevitas in the province of Camaguey; Bahia de
Puerto Padre in the province of Las Tunas; and Puerto Gibara and Bahia de Nipe
in the province of Holguin. Major harbors on the southern coast are located at
Guantanamo Bay, Santiago de Cuba, and Cienfuegos.

Topography and Drainage

     The least mountainous of the Greater Antilles, the island of Cuba has an
estimated median elevation of less than 100 meters above sea level. Its three
principal mountainous zones-locally known as the alturas (literally,
altitudes)-are isolated and separated by extensive plains and flatlands that
cover almost two-thirds of the island's surface.

     The alturas are zones of moderate elevation. The first, the Cordillera de
Guaniguanico, is in the western province of Pinar del Rio and comprises the
Sierra de los Organos and the Sierra del Rosario. El Pan de Guajaibon
mountain, which has an altitude of 692 meters, is its highest point. The
second, known as the Sierra de Escambray, is found in the southern areas of
the provinces of Cienfuegos and Sancti Spiritus. This mountainous region
includes the Sierra de Trinidad, peaking with the 1,156-meter Pico San Juan
(also known as La Cuca) and the Sierra de Sancti Spiritus to the east. A third
mountainous zone, and the highest, is found in the eastern provinces of
Guantanamo, Santiago de Cuba, and Granma. It includes the Sierra Maestra,
Sierra de Nipe, Sierra de Nicaro, Sierra del Cristal, and Cuchillas de Toa
among its ranges.

     The Sierra Maestra, the steepest of the Cuban ranges, is historically
significant because from December 1956 until January 1959 it sheltered the
revolutionary forces of Castro (see Fidel Castro and the Overthrow of
Bastista, ch. 1). The Sierra Maestra rises abruptly from the southeast coast
west of Guantanamo Bay, except where it is broken into a small lowland
depression where Santiago de Cuba, the nation's second largest city, is
located. It contains the island's highest mountains; Pico Real del Turquino,
with an altitude of 1,872 meters, is the nation's highest.

     Cuba has over 500 watercourses classified as rivers, most of which are
short and have meager volume. The island's heaviest rainfall, as well as its
largest rivers, is in the southeast, where the Rio Cauto (370 kilometers long)
and its tributaries, notably the Rio Salado, drain the Sierra Maestra and the
uplands to the north into the Golfo de Guacanayabo. River levels rise
significantly during the rainy season, when 80 percent of the flow occurs, and
seasonal flooding is common.

     The coastal basins of Guantanamo and Santiago de Cuba that lie in the
eastern part of the islan