Cuba: Introduction

Cuba is an island country in the Caribbean consisting of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Its nearest neighbors are the United States, Bahamas, Mexico, Cayman Islands, Jamaica, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic. Cuba is tropical and mostly flat with mountains in the southeast. The government system is a communist state; the chief of state and head of government is the president. Cuba has a state-controlled planned economy in which most of the means of production are owned and run by the state.