Isla de la Juventud Isla de la Juventud Gravitation (manga) Category="Caribbean islands"Category="Provinces of Cuba"[image] The Isla de la Juventud (Spanish) or Isle of Youth (English) is the largest Island of Cuba after Cuba proper. The island is 3,056 km² (1,180 miles²) and is 100 km to the southwest of mainland Cuba, across the Batabanó Gulf. The island lies almost directly south of Havana and is a special municipality (municipio especial) of the Province of Havana.

Isla de la Juventud is the largest of the 672 islands in the Canarreos Archipelago. Population is about 100,000; the capital and largest city is Nueva Gerona in the north, and the second-largest city is La Fe in the interior. The island was called Isla de Pinos (Isle of Pines) until 1978.

History

Little is known of the Pre-Columbian history of the island, though a cave complex near the Punta del Este beach preserves 235 ancient drawings made by the native population. The island first became known to Europeans during Christopher Columbus's third voyage to the New World in 1494. Columbus named the island La Evangelista and claimed it for Spain; the island would also come to be known Isla de Cotorras ("Isle of Parrots") and Isla de Tesoros ("Treasure Island") at various points in its history.

Pirate activity around in the area left its trace in English literature. Both Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson and Peter Pan by James Matthew Barrie are rooted in part on accounts of the island and its native and pirate inhabitants, as well as long dugout canoes (which were often used by pirates as well as indigenous peoples) and the great American Crocodile (Crocodylus acutus) on the island.

Following the victory of the United States in the Spanish-American War, Spain dropped all claims to Cuba under the terms of the 1898 Treaty of Paris. Isla de la Juventud was not mentioned in the Platt Amendment, which defined Cuba's boundaries, and this led to competing claims to the island by the United States and the now-independent Cuba. In 1907, the U.S. Supreme Court decided that the island did not belong to the United States. A treaty was signed between the U.S. and Cuba in 1925, recognizing Cuban ownership.

Geography and economy

[image] [image] Much of the island is covered in pine forests, which is the source of the island's large Lumber industry. The northern region of the island has low ridges from which Marble is quarried, while the southern region is an elevated plain. Agriculture and Fishing are the island's main industries, with citrus fruit and vegetables being grown. A black sand beach was formed by volcanic activity.

The island has a mild climate, but is known for frequent hurricanes. It is a popular tourist destination, with many beaches and resorts, including Bibijagua Beach. Until Castro seized all foreign-owned property in the early 1960s, much land was owned by Americans.

Transportation

Prisons

From 1953 to 1955, Cuban leader Fidel Castro was imprisoned in the Presidio Modelo on the Isla de la Juventud by the regime of Fulgencio Batista after leading the failed July 1953 attack on the Moncada Barracks in the Oriente Province. Later, Castro used the same facility to imprison counterrevolutionaries and dissidents, such as Huber Matos (once a supporter of the Cuban Revolution), who claimed he had been tortured there.

Presidio Modelo is now closed, replaced by more modern prisons. These include (MAS = maximum security prison; COR = correctional):

Prison El Guayabo (MAS)
Center for Reeducation of Minors (COR)
Correctional Los Colonos (COR)
Paquito Rosales Cueto (1 y 11) (COR)
Prison la 60 (Columbia) (COR)

External link

Supreme Court decision of 1907