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(CNN Spanish) - The fierce passage of Hurricane Dorian, which made landfall in the Bahamas as category 5, severely affected some of the more than 700 islands that make up this State, in addition to deaths and widespread destruction in the places where the earth touched powerful cyclone
Beyond the devastating news about the destruction left by Dorian, Bahamas is one of the largest islands in the region, with a tourism-based economy. These are some data from Bahamas.
1. It is one of the largest island countries in the Caribbean
The Bahamas is composed of a group of 700 small islands and 2,400 cays in an area of 13,878 square kilometers, but only about thirty of these are enabled.
It is the fifth largest country in the Caribbean in area after Cuba (110,860 km2), Dominican Republic (48,670 km2), Haiti (27,750) and Belicé (22,966)
By territory, it occupies the position 161 in the list of countries of greater extension and is five times bigger than Luxembourg, whose surface is of little more than 2,500 square kilometers.
Nassau, Bahamas. (JEWEL SAMAD / AFP / Getty Images)
2. Government and inhabitants
The population of Bahamas is 332,634 inhabitants, according to the 2018 census. Among the main islands of the Bahamas are New Providence, where 69.9% of the inhabitants live: its capital Nassau is located there. 15.5% of the population lives in Grand Bahama and Abaco, and the remaining 10% are dispersed in other islands and cays, according to the central government.
His official language is English, although Creole is spoken among Haitian immigrants, and his life expectancy is 73 years for men and 79 for women, according to WHO.
90.6% of the inhabitants are black, 4.7% are white. And as for religion, almost 70% are Protestants (34.9%, Baptists 13.7% Anglicans, 8.9% Pentecostals, among others), 13% other Christians (such as Jehovah's Witnesses, 1.1%) and 12% are Roman Catholics, according to the CIA FactBook.
The official currency is the Bahamian dollar (1 = 1 with the US dollar) and the prime minister is Hubert Minnis, since 2017. Minnis broke a 25-year political alternation between Perry Christie and Hubert Ingraham, since between 1992 and 2017 they both took turns the power.
Prime Minister of Bahamas, Hubert Minnis. (Mark Kolbe / Getty Images)
3. It was an English colony until the 1970s
The Bahamas is a relatively young state, as it reached independence in 1973 after centuries of English rule. In the 17th century, the first settlement was established by a group of English settlers who organized a community in one of the Bahamas islands seeking religious freedom.
After its independence in the 1970s, the island is a self-governing State, a member of the United Nations, the Caribbean Community and the Organization of American States.
4. They live largely from tourism
Bahamas has the second highest per capital income among the English-speaking islands of the Caribbean.
This island is the most dependent on tourism in the Caribbean, as the industry accounts for 60% of the $ 9 billion economy.
(JEWEL SAMAD / AFP / Getty Images)
There are 2,250 hotel rooms on the Abaco and Grand Bahama Islands, representing less than 15% of the country's hotel inventory, according to Rick Newton, founding partner of Resort Capital Partners. That is less than the approximately 11,000 rooms on Nassau Island, where megaresorts such as Baha Mar and Atlantis are located.
Tourism accounts directly or indirectly for more than half of the Bahamas workforce.
That is why the passage of Hurricane Dorian represents a great concern for the economy. A recent UBS report estimates that Dorian will cost between 15,000 and 25,000 million dollars in damages (this includes the United States), once finished.
On the other hand, there are financial services, which constitute the second most important economic sector in the Bahamas economy, representing 15% of GDP.
And the combined manufacturing and agriculture sectors account for 7% of GDP.
5. It was the pirate route
Between the end of the 17th century and the beginning of the 18th century, piracy flourished on the islands of the Bahamas because of its proximity to important sea routes. But by 1718 the first royal governor, Woodes Rogers, imposed order.
Years later, in 1776, an American naval squad captured the capital Nassau today, but the soldiers withdrew only one day later. After the war of independence of the United States, thousands of Americans and their slaves settled in Bahamas.
US troops jump from rowing boats to the shallows when they land in the Bahamas during the War of Independence. (MPI photo / Getty Images)
Both the United States Civil War and the era of prohibition brought prosperity to the Bahamas, according to the government.
In the first event, which occurred in the 19th century, Bahamas benefited as it served as a "transfer point for ammunition and medical supplies through the northern blockade of the Confederate ports", and southern cotton was the main product of exchange.
And at the time of the ban, between 1917 and 1933, when in the United States it was illegal to produce, import, transport or sell liquor for consumption, the Bahamas thrived again due to its proximity to the United States (its closest island is only 80 kilometers from Florida).
This time, the islands supplied liquor to US liquor dealers.
6. It was the place of the failed Fyre Festival
On the island of Exhumas, in the Bahamas, thousands of people arrived in 2017 who paid up to $ 12,780 for a luxury weekend that promised the failed Fyre Festival.
William 'Billy' McFarland, co-founder and executive director of Fyre Media, promoted a luxurious festival in Exuma with models, celebrities, top-notch events, five-star chefs and yachts, private jets and artists like Blink-182, Migos, Lil Yachty and Major Lazer. But in the end everything turned out to be a fraud.
The festival turned out to be a massive disaster, with little or no organization, half-disaster disaster relief stores, a menu that opposed what was promised with cheese sandwiches, and no beer.
In March 2018 'Billy' McFarland pleaded guilty to two charges of electronic fraud for defrauding investors and ticket sellers of the Fyre Festival for around $ 26 million.
He also pleaded guilty to another charge of bank fraud for a “fake ticket scheme” in which he sold fake tickets for fashion, music and sports events, and another charge of bank fraud for writing a check using the name and number of Account one of your employees without authorization.
In October 2018 McFarland was sentenced to six years in prison.
Bahamas
