Island of Youth

Presentation

The province of Isla of Juventud (translated into French: Island of Youth) is the largest island of the country after the island of Cuba and the larger sixth of the Caribbean. It is located at 100km approximately in the South-west of the island of Cuba, separated by the Golfe from Batabanó. The province is almost directly in the South of Havana and Pinar del Rio. Because of its surface increase in population and little of economic investments possible, she is regarded a special municipality and not as a province with whole share. She is thus managed directly by the central government of Cuba.

The island was named Ile of the Pines until in 1978.

History

One knows little civilization pre-Colombian of the island, but a series of cave, close to the beach of Punta del Este was preserved. One finds there 235 old paintings carried out by the indigenous population. The island was discovered by Europeans during the third voyage of Christophe Colomb towards the Nouveau World in 1494. It named it Evangelista and took possession for Spain of it. The island had several names during its history: Isla de Cotorras (“island of the parrots”) and Isla de Tesoros (“island with the treasures”).

After the victory of the the United States in the War Spanish-American, the Spain yielded all its possessions of Cuba according to the terms of the Traité of Paris of 1898. Isla of Juventud was not mentioned in the Amendement Platt, which defined the borders of Cuba and which carried out the United States to claim the possession of the island against now independent Cuba. In 1907, the Supreme court of the United States decided that the island forever be étatsunienne. A treaty was signed between the the United States and Cuba in 1925, recognizing the cuban property of the island.

Geography and economy

The majority of the island is covered with forests of pines, which is source of an big industry of the timber. The northern area of the island has low peaks from which Marbre is extracted, whereas the southern area is a high plain. The Agriculture and the fishing are principal industries of the island, where push citrus fruits and vegetables. A sand beach black was consisted volcanic activity.

The island has a soft climate, but is known for frequent hurricanes. It is a tourist destination famous, with much of beaches and vacation resorts, like the beach of Bibijagua. Until the cuban government exproprié all the properties of foreign membership at the beginning of the the Sixties, much of grounds were had by of Americans.

Transport

The principal means of transport towards the island are the boat or the plane. Hydrofoil (kometas) and Catamaran motorized makes the voyage between two and three hours. A vat much slower and larger of cargo takes around six hours to make the crossing, but is cheaper.

The prison Presidio Modelo

Of 1953 with 1955, the cuban chief Fidel Castro was imprisoned in Presidio Modelo on Isla of Juventud by the mode of Fulgencio Batista after having conducted the attack failed of July 1953 on barracks of Moncada in the province of Cuba Oriente. Later, Castro employed the same means to imprison dissenting counter-revolutionary and , as Huber Matos (Ordering rebellious troops which joined the cuban Révolution but which later entered in conflict with the cuban government), which claims to be tortured in this prison, and Armando F. Valladares.

Presidio Modelo now is closed and transformed into museum. It was replaced by several modern prisons

Be-X-old: Ізла-дэ-ла-Хувэнтуд Simple: Isla of Juventud

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