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The distance between the western tip of Cuba and the eastern tip of Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula is approximately 120 miles (193 km). Situated to the north of Cuba is a country with which the island nation has had a tangled and troubled relationship: the United States. The Straits of Florida separates Cuba from southern Florida. About 90 miles (145 km) across the straits from northern Cuba lies Key West. It’s at the end of the string of islands known as the Florida Keys, which since the early 1960s have been the destination for tens of thousands of Cubans trying to flee their country by sea. Miami, where a majority of Cubans who made it to U.S. soil ultimately set- tled, is roughly 230 miles (370 km) from Havana, Cuba’s cap- ital city. Area and Coastline The independent country of Cuba consists of one large island, which is also called Cuba, and several thousand surrounding islands and cays . With one exception, these surrounding islands are small. The exception is Isla de la Juventud, which covers 934 square miles (2,219 sq km). It’s located south of the western part of the main island. In all, Cuba has an area of approximately 42,803 square miles (110,860 sq km). That makes the country a little bit big- ger than Tennessee. The island of Cuba is long and relatively narrow. The island stretches in a generally northwest to southeast direction, from Cabo San Antonio in the west to Punta de Maisí in the east. The distance between those two points is approximately 750

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Cuba Facts and Figures