LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Cuba
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The capital of Cuba, Havana, is a vibrant and captivating city. The former glory of the colonial palaces is still evident and a Cuba holiday will have you feeling as if you have gone back in time seeing the 1950’s cars on the streets. A Cuba holiday would not be complete without picking up some world famous Havana cigars and Cuban coffee, then popping in to a bar for a Cuba libre. Cuba holidays are ideal for those seeking vibrant nightlife, choose from a wide range of restaurants, bars and clubs which pulse to the sounds of salsa at night.
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Cuba is a totalitarian state controlled by Fidel Castro, who is chief of state, head of government, First Secretary of the PCC, and commander in chief of the armed forces. The Castro regime seeks to control most aspects of Cuban life through the Communist Party and its affiliated mass organizations, the government bureaucracy, and the state security apparatus. In March 2003, Castro announced his intention to remain in power for life. On July 31, 2006 the Castro regime announced a "temporary" transfer of power from Fidel Castro to his brother Raul, who until that time served as head of the Cuban armed forces and second-in-command of the government and the Communist Party. It was the first time in the 47 years of Fidel Castro’s rule that power had been transferred. The transfer took place due to intestinal surgery of an undetermined nature.
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Cuba has a multitude of faiths reflecting the island’s diverse cultural elements. Catholicism, which was brought to the island by Spanish colonialists at the beginning of the 16th century, is the most prevalent professed faith. The Roman Catholic Church is made up of the Cuban Catholic Bishops’ Conference (COCC), led by Jaime Cardinal Ortega, Archbishop of Havana. It has eleven dioceses, 56 orders of nuns and 24 orders of priests. In January 1998, Pope John Paul II paid an historic visit to the island, invited by the Cuban government and Catholic Church.
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Today, Cuba has had considerable success in the area of vaccines, interferon, and monoclonal antibodies. HIV/AIDS research is very intense. Dr. Vicente Verez, head of the University of Havana's Synthetic Antigens Laboratory has announced Cuban production of Hemophilus influenza type B synthetic vaccine. Cuba hopes to develop an effective HIV vaccine in addition to producing abundant (enough for national use and international sales) of anti-HIV medications. Cuba takes the position that patents should not be enforced and poor nations and individuals should not have to pay for "expensive" medications manufactured by multinational "for profit" pharmaceutical corporations. So, Cuba offers an alternative...as controversial as many other political postures Cuba embraces in the New Millennium.
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Following a visit by Pope John Paul II to Cuba in 1998, the United States eased restrictions on food and medicine sales to Cuba, and on the sending of money to relatives by Cuban-Americans. U.S. legislation in 2000 exempted food and medicine from the embargo but prohibited U.S. financing of any Cuban purchases. Former U.S. president Jimmy Carter visited the country in 2002. During his visit he criticized both the Cuban government and U.S. policy toward the island. President George W. Bush tightened certain aspects of the embargo, mainly affecting Cuban Americans; the regulations took effect in 2004. The same year the government began reasserting control over areas of the economy that had been liberalized in the 1990s; among the changes was a ban on transactions involving the dollar and other foreign currencies, which were required to be converted to special Cuban pesos.
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Cuba's government says the trial was political and accuses the US of double standards in the fight against terror. They are considered national heroes and figure prominently on billboards all over the country and are the subject of regular rallies and demonstrations. One of Cuba's most celebrated spies was born in a flat along Chicago's bustling Ashland Avenue in 1956. Back then, Rene Gonzalez, now in a Florida prison cell, was just like any other kid on the North Side, enjoying outings at the lake, Lincoln Park Zoo and the bygone Riverview amusement park. But after his parents returned home to Cuba in 1961 to join Fidel Castro's young communist nation, Gonzalez grew up to become a Cuban agent. He eventually worked in an intelligence ring called the Wasp Network, which US authorities accused of entering the US and spying on an American naval base in Key West and militant anti-Castro groups in Miami -- with deadly results.
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