public

Railways: 0 km

Highways: total: 23,810 km paved: 429 km unpaved: 23,381 km (2000)

Waterways: 900 km note: traditional trade carried on by means of
shallow-draft dugouts; Oubangui is the most important river, navigable
all year to craft drawing 0.6 m or less; 282 km navigable to craft
drawing as much as 1.8 m

Ports and harbors: Bangui, Nola, Salo, Nzinga

Airports: 51 (2001)

Airports - with paved runways: total: 3 2,438 to 3,047 m: 1 1,524 to
2,437 m: 2 (2001)

Airports - with unpaved runways: total: 48 2,438 to 3,047 m: 1 1,524
to 2,437 m: 9 914 to 1,523 m: 23 under 914 m: 15 (2001)

Military Central African Republic

Military branches: Central African Armed Forces (FACA) (including
Republican Guard, Ground Forces, Naval Forces, and Air Force),
Presidential Security Guard, Gendarmerie, National Police

Military manpower - availability: males age 15-49: 845,182 (2002 est.)

Military manpower - fit for military service: males age 15-49: 442,220
(2002 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure: $29 million (FY96)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP: 2.2% (FY96)

Transnational Issues Central African Republic

Disputes - international: none

This page was last updated on 1 January 2002

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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. Cuba's Communist revolution,
with Soviet support, was exported throughout Latin America and Africa
during the 1960s, 70s, and 80s. 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. Havana
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 3,000
Cubans attempted the crossing of the Straits of Florida in 2001; the US
Coast Guard interdicted only about 25% of these.

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

Map references: Central America and the Caribbean

Area: total: 110,860 sq km water: 0 sq km land: 110,860 sq km

Area - comparative: slightly smaller than