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COUNTRY FACTS: INFORMATION ABOUT CUBA
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Baracoa is a municipality/city in Guantánamo Province, where
Christopher Columbus landed on his first voyage to eastern Cuba.
Founded by first governor, Spanish conquistador Diego Velázquez de
Cuéllar in 1511, it is the oldest Spanish settlement, Cuba's first capital
(nicknamed Ciudad Primada, "First City"). Spaniards, who recognized
the importance to build harbor fortifications as English, French, and
Dutch sea marauders attacked the city, transferred the governor’s
residence in 1553 from Santiago de Cuba (eastern Cuba) to Havana
(de facto capital). King Philip II of Spain granted Havana the title of City
in 1592. A royal decree in 1634 officially recognized it as "Key to the
New World and Rampart of the West Indies." Sinking of U.S. Battleship
Maine in Havana's harbor in 1898 was immediate cause of the Spanish-
American War. Formerly named Villa de San Cristóbal de La Habana,
modern-day Havana, officially Ciudad de La Habana, is the largest city
in Cuba and the Caribbean region. It is the country’s capital, center
for the Cuban government, various ministries, leading commercial
business headquarters, and a major port. Havana extends mostly
westward and southward from the bay, entered through a narrow inlet
that divides into three harbors: Marimelena, Guanabacoa and Atarés.
Almendares River traverses the city from south to north, entering
the Straits of Florida a few miles west of the bay. Population:
City >2.3 million; Metropolitan >3 million.
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