Disputes - international:
discussions continue with Bosnia and Herzegovina on sections of the
Una River and villages at the base of Mount Pljesevica;
parliamentarians are far from ratifying the Croatia-Slovenia land
and maritime boundary agreement, which would have ceded most of
Pirin Bay and maritime access to Slovenia and several villages to
Croatia; in late 2002, Croatia and Serbia and Montenegro adopted an
interim agreement to settle the disputed Prevlaka Peninsula,
allowing the withdrawal of the UN monitoring mission (UNMOP), but
discussions could be complicated by the inability of Serbia and
Montenegro to come to an agreement on the economic aspects of the
new federal union; Croatia and Italy continue to debate bilateral
property and ethnic minority rights issues stemming from border
changes after the Second World War
Illicit drugs:
transit point along the Balkan route for Southwest Asian heroin to
Western Europe; has been used as a transit point for maritime
shipments of South American cocaine bound for Western Europe
This page was last updated on 18 December, 2003
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@Cuba
Introduction Cuba
Background:
Fidel CASTRO led a rebel army to victory in 1959; his iron rule has
held the country together since then. Cuba's Communist revolution,
with Soviet support, was exported throughout Latin America and
Africa during the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. The country is now slowly
recovering from a severe economic recession in 1990, following the
withdrawal of former Soviet subsidies, worth $4 billion to $6
billion annually. Cuba portrays its difficulties as the result of
the US embargo in place since 1961. Illicit migration to the US -
using homemade rafts, alien smugglers, or falsified visas - is a
continuing problem. Some 2,500 Cubans attempted the crossing of the
Straits of Florida in 2002; the US Coast Guard apprehended about 60%
of the individuals.
Geography Cuba
Location:
Caribbean, island between the Caribbean Sea and the North Atlantic
Ocean, 150 km south of Key West, Florida
Geographic coordinates:
21 30 N, 80 00 W