Cuba

So...you're looking for Cuba From Holiday Inclusive. The Cubans will tell you that there is so much more to see and do in Cuba than just what you see in the brochure.

Whether its a holiday, on business, or for a short break Cuba continues to increase in popularity amongst us Brits - and rightly so!

That's why its important to get your travel plans sorted out properly, and in our opinion, flight, holiday and hotel specialists Opodo offer the best service online - but you can find that out for yourself here...

Cuba was first visited by Europeans when explorer Christopher Columbus landed on the island of Cuba for the first time on October 28, 1492. Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar led the Spanish invasion, conqueror, and became governor of Cuba for Spain. Cuba before 1492 was populated by two very distinct aborigine groups:

The good relations of Cuba and Chávez's Venezuela have resulted in agreements that Venezuela provides cheap oil and Cuba sends "missions" of their doctors to improve the Venezuelan health system

With increased fertilizers and management attention, subsequent harvests have improved but remain well below the 1989 level. Prospects for regaining that level of output are poor unless the Cuban Government undertakes substantial reform of the sugar industry, something it has been reluctant to do.

In response to the seizure of American properties and the increased repression carried out by Castro's government on the people, the U.S. broke diplomatic relations on January 3, 1961 and imposed the U.S. embargo against Cuba on February 3, 1962. The embargo is still in effect as of 2005, although some humanitarian trade in food and medicines is now allowed. At first, the embargo didn't extend to other countries and Cuba trades with most European, Asian and Latin American countries and especially Canada.

Faced with a corrupt and ineffective military, dispirited by a U.S. Government embargo on weapons sales to Cuba and public indignation and revulsion at his brutality toward opponents, Batista fled on January 1, 1959. Within months of taking control, Castro moved to consolidate power by marginalizing other resistance figures and imprisoning or executing opponents. As the revolution became more radical, hundreds of thousands of Cubans fled the island.

These reforms did not dampen the Cuban spirit for independence. José Martí Pérez, Cuba's national hero, began the final push for independence in 1895. He is joined by many veterans of the Ten Year War including Generals Máximo Gómez, Antonio Maceo and Calixto García. On May 19, José Martí is killed in the Battle of Dos Ríos. In 1896, General Maceo is successful in taking the war to the westernmost provinces, such as Mantua, of Cuba, although he is killed on December 7 in the Battle of Punta Brava.

The Organization of American States, under pressure from the US suspended Cuba's membership in the body on January 22, 1962 and the United States Government banned all US-related Cuban imports and exports a couple of weeks later on February 7. The Kennedy administration extended this on February 8, 1963 making travel, financial and commercial transactions by US citizens to Cuba illegal.

Tensions between the two governments peaked again during the October 1962 Cuban missile crisis, when the U.S. blockaded Cuba to force the USSR to withdraw their newly-installed MRBMs from the country. The USSR agreed to remove the missiles in exchange for an agreement that the United States would not invade Cuba. The U.S. has honored this agreement, although the CIA continued to support anti-Castro groups by mounting an extensive international campaign and several botched assassination attempts throughout the 1960s.

The elongated island of Cuba is the largest island in the Caribbean and is bounded to the north by the Straits of Florida and the greater North Atlantic Ocean, to the northwest by the Gulf of Mexico, to the west by the Yucatan Channel, to the south by the Caribbean Sea, and to the east by the Windward Passage.

However, as Castro's control of the island's assets tightened and more nationalization campaigns took place, promises such as these were not honored.

The number of followers of Palo Monte in Cuba is not known, though it is assumed that a slight majority of Cubans, particularly in the African-influenced cities of Havana, Matanzas, and in the Eastern provinces, believe in all or part of its principles, especially in conjunction with Santería.

The Communist Party is constitutionally recognised as Cuba's only legal political party, but is forbidden by law to nominate candidates. However this is largely a moot point since no known opponents of the government have been elected since the revolution.

In 1993, the United States Supreme Court ruled in Church of Lukumi Babalu Aye v. City of Hialeah that animal cruelty laws targeted specifically at Lukumí were unconstitutional, and the practice has seen no significant legal challenges since then. The group is the frequent target of animal rights organizations such as PETA. The group does not advocate human sacrifice.

In 1996, the Clinton Administration enacted the Helms-Burton law. This law states, among other things, that any foreign company that "knowingly traffics in property in Cuba confiscated without compensation from a U.S. person" can be subjected to litigation and that company's leadership can be barred from entry into the United States. Sanctions may be applied to non-U.S. companies trading with Cuba. This legislation was enacted after the shootdown of two civilian planes by the Cuban regime.

Cuba From Holiday Inclusive and Cuba online resources.