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About Cuba
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LEGAL SYSTEM
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Judicial power rests with the People's
Supreme Court, which is elected by, and accountable to, the National
Assembly. All judges, from the highest to the lowest, are elected
by the respective Popular Power Assemblies; in other words, the Supreme
Court judges are elected by the National Assembly; the provincial
judges by provincial assemblies and the municipal judges by municipal
assemblies.
The People's Supreme Court comprises a president, a vice president,
and all professional and lay judges and is structured as follows:
the Whole, the State Council, criminal, civil, administrative, labour,
crimes-against-the-estate and military courts.
The judicial system is based on the principle that all judges, be
they professional or lay, are independent and are subject only to
the law, and all professional or lay judges are elected, accountable
and can be replaced. |
POPULATION
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| Approximately three-quarters of Cuba's population (estimated
at 11.64 million in 1993) lives in urban areas, and one out of three
persons is aged less than 26. Two-thirds of its inhabitants are of
European descent, mainly Spanish, nearly one-third are of African
origin or mestizo, and about one percent are of Chinese roots. Cuba's
population has been growing at about 1.1 percent a year since 1981.
The birth rate was 17.6 per 1,000 in 1993 and the mortality rate 9.4
per 1,000. Life expectancy at birth is 76 years, the highest in Latin
America. Cuba's population is ageing, with 12 percent being over 60
years old, placing Cuba at a similar level to that of more developed
western industrial countries. |
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Excerpted from the book "Doing Business with
Cuba", written by Fred D. Bloch and Prof. Constantino Torres,
Faculty of History, Havana University, and published electronically,
Copyright © 1997.
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