NewsTracker Answers for week of Feb. 14, 2011

Q: Cuba has welcomed the arrival of an undersea fiber-optic cable linking it to Venezuela, which will make download speeds 3,000 times faster for the very few Cubans with Internet connections. Where is Cuba?

Circle the area on this map


Q: The new cable is a about 1,000 miles long. Why didn't Cuba connect to Florida, which is only about 90 miles away?

A. Slow connections in Florida

B. U.S. embargo of Cuba

C. Cuban embargo of U.S.

D. Florida link too expensive


B. Cuba's government has always blamed its poor communications links with the outside world on the trade embargo imposed by the U.S. in 1961.


Q: Only 3 percent of Cubans have access to the web - the lowest figure in the western hemisphere. What is the poorest country in the western hemisphere?

A. Cuba

B. Bermuda

C. Haiti

D. Colombia


C. Haiti is the poorest county, while Bermuda enjoys the third highest per capita income in the world, more than 50 percent higher than that of the U.S. While much poorer than the U.S., Cubans have more income than those in many Latin American countries.


Q: Who is the president of Cuba?

A. Fidel Castro

B. Fulgencio Batista

C. Hugo Chavez

D. Raul Castro


D. In 2008, Raul Castro succeeded his ailing brother Fidel, who had been in power for nearly five decades. Fidel Castro led the communist revolution that toppled U.S.-backed Fulgencio Batista in 1959. Hugo Chavez is president of Venezuela and a frequent critic of the U.S.


Q: In 1902, Cuba gained its independence from . . .

A. United States

B. Britain

C. France

D. Spain


A. The Spanish-American War in 1898 ended Spain's rule which had begun soon after Christopher Columbus found the island in 1492. The Treaty of Paris established Cuban independence from the U.S. in 1902.