Sandino is a municipality and town in the

Pinar del Río Province The Pinar del Río Province is one of the 15 provinces of Cuba. It is at the western end of the island of Cuba. The capital and largest city is Pinar del Río (191,081 pop. in 2022). Geography The Pinar del Río province is Cuba's westernmost p ...

Cuba Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...

. The town is located close to the coast and as such, fishing is the main economic resource of this place. It is also the gateway to the

Guanahacabibes Peninsula Guanahacabibes Peninsula is the westernmost point on the island of Cuba. It is located in Pinar del Río Province, in the municipality of Sandino, and is sparsely populated. The waters surrounding the peninsula are important spiny lobster and r ...

, a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve.

History

The municipality was named after the Nicaraguan revolutionary,

Augusto César Sandino Augusto César Sandino (; 18 May 1895 21 February 1934), full name Augusto Nicolás Calderón Sandino, was a Nicaraguan revolutionary, founder of the militant group EDSN, and leader of a rebellion between 1927 and 1933 against the United Sta ...

. In January 2019 Sacred Heart of Jesus Catholic Church in Sandino became the first Catholic church in Cuba to be inaugurated since the

Cuban Revolution The Cuban Revolution () was the military and political movement that overthrew the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista, who had ruled Cuba from 1952 to 1959. The revolution began after the 1952 Cuban coup d'état, in which Batista overthrew ...

Geography

Located in the westernmost area of Cuba, the municipality borders with the territories of Guane and

Mantua Mantua ( ; ; Lombard language, Lombard and ) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Italian region of Lombardy, and capital of the Province of Mantua, eponymous province. In 2016, Mantua was designated as the "Italian Capital of Culture". In 2 ...

. Its westernmost point is Cape San Antonio (''Cabo de San Antonio''), on the

. The municipality includes the hamlets of Babineyes, Bolívar, Cayuco, Cortés, Covadonga, La Bajada, La Conchita, La Fe, La Furnia, La Grifa, Las Martinas, La Yana, Las Tumbas, Los Cayuelos, María la Gorda, Marina Cabo San Antonio, Roncali, San Julián, Santa Barbara, Valle San Juan and Veinte de Mayo.

Demographics

In 2022, the municipality of Sandino had a population of 35,437. With a total area of , it has a population density of .

Education

Various high schools (Spanish ''secundarias'') are established in Sandino, with students from San Juan y Martinez, San Luis, all the way to Guane and Isabel Rubio (approximately an area of about ). Sandino is the newest pole of the Cuban university program ELAM (Escuela Latinoamericana de Medicina) where the Cuban government has placed many similar medical faculties. Many of the students are from Latin America and Caribbean countries such as Guyana, Argentina, Ecuador, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Bolivia, Peru, Suriname, Dominica, St. Lucia, Belize, Jamaica, Haiti, St. Vincent, Antigua, Solomon Islands, Nauru, Grenada, Barbados and more countries to be expected like Tuvalu and the Philippines. They are part of the new education program of the ''Escuela Latin Americana de Medicina''. There are several campuses located in this municipality. Most only contain people from one country (300 or more students), but there are others such as ELAM 10 that have more than 15 nationalities enrolled. These are however in lesser quantities and have a total of up to 500 students.

Transportation

There are not many roads in this municipality. And even out of this little number, most roads do not have names. The locations are identified by the farms they lead towards. There are regular buses that frequent the town of Sandino, and straight to several locations as Guane, Isabel Rubio and

Pinar del Río Pinar del Río is the capital city of Pinar del Río Province, Cuba. With a population of 191,081 (2022), it is the List of cities in Cuba, 10th-largest city in Cuba. Inhabitants of the area are called ''Pinareños''. History Pinar del Río was ...

. It is not uncommon to see oxcarts, donkey-carts and horse-driven carts. Most people have to walk great distances before they can find viable transportation. Hitchhiking is very common in these areas. In the village of La Fé starts the national road Carretera Central, passing also through Sandino.

Notable People

* José Contreras (b. 1971), baseball player * Daysbel Hernández (b. 1996), baseball player

References

External links

Villa Cabo San AntonioVilla Maria La Gorda - International Diving Centre
{{Municipalities in Pinar del Río Cities in Cuba Populated places in Pinar del Río Province