Five international organizations: ACP ACS IAEA NAM SELA 

Since the 1959 revolution, and particularly after the 1962 stand-off over Soviet missiles, the US has considered Cuba a danger. The US trade blockade, first imposed in 1961, has left Cuba economically isolated despite regular votes in the UN condemning sanctions. The end of Soviet aid in the 1990s was another serious blow to Castro's embattled regime, but it has forced Cuba to soften its anti-Western stance in the search for alternative aid. Partly as a result, the US embargo has been progressively loosened since 1999 and now allows for more flights, direct mail, essential medicines, and more food imports.

Ties to Russia have been diluted further but relations with the US remain fraught, despite the arrival in 2001 of the first direct trade between the two countries' governments, in the form of emergency aid. In 2002 the US included Cuba in its "axis of evil" terrorist-sponsoring states and relations with the US and Europe were seriously dented in 2003 over the treatment of dissidents.

From "The Financial Times World Desk Reference" © Dorling Kindersley 2004