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Cuba was the world's best experiment in total communism. Unfortunately the US ruined the experiment by imposing an embargo for decades out of spite. Still, when

by guelo 12y ago

Cuba was the world's best experiment in total communism. Unfortunately the US ruined the experiment by imposing an embargo for decades out of spite. Still, when you compare Cuba to neighboring Dominican Republic they're doing better under many measures, including health, education and a GNP per capita of $5890 vs DR's $5620.

jacobolus 12y ago
Cuba did much better than all the Latin American countries that allowed the US to dominate them; it’s quite amazing, considering the economic strain put on by the embargo. Though the Cuban regime was hardly friendly to dissidents, journalists, or activists, and hardly democratic (to say the least), their actions are nothing compared to the fascist police states backed by the US up through the 1980s throughout Latin America. It’s really not until the 1990s when the US stopped worrying quite so much about Communism and focused our attention elsewhere in the world that most of Latin America was able to start acting more autonomously and solving their own problems. US relative non-involvement for the past 25 years has seen the growth of democracy, checks on the power of militaries, de-escalation of border conflicts and increasing economic cooperation. One can only wonder what would have happened if the US government hadn’t spent the several decades before that installing and propping up puppet dictators, and overthrowing democratic governments.
- randomafrican 12y ago
  Costa Rica has done as well or even better
  - wwweston 12y ago
    Costa Rica may be the exception that proves the rule, or at least is notable for what it didn't do -- it didn't let itself become a colony/client state/banana republic, there was a state-led internal industrialization effort integrated with measured open-ness for international trade/investment, it didn't keep a standing military after its revolution. And Cuba likely still would have done better without the US embargo.
    - randomafrican 12y ago
      If Communist Cuba didn't exist, may be most of those dictatorships wouldnt have happened. And Costa Rica may be an exception because their lefties (or liberals) were smart enough to keep their eyes on the price.
      - ahi 12y ago
        You have causation wrong. Cuba is now communist because it was one of those dictatorships. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fulgencio_Batista http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fulgencio_Batista The countless dictatorships, puppet governments, and US/European interventions didn't start when Castro and Che came down out of the mountains in 1956.
- mercurial 12y ago
  To be fair, the Soviet-backed police states (eg, Idi Amin's Uganda) were not particularly appealing either. Unfortunately, both parties were too involved in their little games to care about the welfare of their pawns.
- argumentum 12y ago
  Would you rather live, today, in Cuba or (the poster boy for malicious US intervention) Chile?
  - ahi 12y ago
    If I was born tomorrow, I would definitely pick Cuba (infant mortality 5/1000) instead of Chile (8/1000). United States is 6/1000 by the way.
    - argumentum 12y ago
      Wow, this is the definition of myopia.
      - jessaustin 12y ago
        If you don't like that measure, suggest another. It's not as though infant mortality is some minor thing that no one cares about.
        argumentum 12y ago
        Respect for human rights? Political liberty? Quality of life? Social Mobility? Economic opportunity? Myopia means excessive focus on one aspect at the neglect of the whole picture. I would consider many things in deciding where to live. Each person has different priorities, but for me the most important measure is liberty (political, economic and social). Chile is one of the freest countries in the world (usually in the top 10 of such rankings) and Cuba is usually amongst the bottom 10.
        bildung 12y ago
        Chile is one of the freest countries in the world (usually in the top 10 of such rankings) and Cuba is usually amongst the bottom 10. I'd really be interested to see a link to a ranking placing Cuba at the bottom 10 countries in the world.
- sien 12y ago
  Cuba got a subsidy of about 25% of GDP from the USSR. [1] It's also worth noting that Cuba's per capita GDP in the late 1950s was about the same as Italy of Spain. [1] http://www.lexingtoninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/Cuba/survival-story.pdf http://www.lexingtoninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/Cuba/su... [
  - euccastro 12y ago
    That is, post-WW2 Italy, post-civil war Spain. People were migrating in droves from Italy and Spain to e.g. Argentina in those years.
drzaiusapelord 12y ago
> Still, when you compare Cuba to neighboring Dominican Republic What kind of comparison is that? The DR is practically a failed state. By any rational metric Cuba is an economic and human rights disaster and continues to be. Its other, capitalistic, neighbor Mexico has 2x that GDP per capita. Heck, its only because of Western pressure that Cuba is only now, after decades of spite against its own people, started releasing political prisoners. http://www.hrw.org/world-report/2014/country-chapters/cuba http://www.hrw.org/world-report/2014/country-chapters/cuba >Unfortunately the US ruined the experiment by imposing an embargo for decades out of spite. Pardon me if I think my nation should tolerate nuclear missiles 90 miles off our coast from a country aligned with our enemies who have a stated doctrine of first strike and tactic nuclear usage with zero warning in advance, held by a dictator who wanted nuclear war. http://townhall.com/tipsheet/meredithjessup/2009/09/24/nytimes_castro_wanted_soviets_to_nuke_usa http://townhall.com/tipsheet/meredithjessup/2009/09/24/nytim... I'm all for lifting of sanctions, but Cuba needs to up its game first. Rewarding the autocratic and oppressive Castro regime makes no sense. Democratic reforms, regime change, freedom of ownership, open elections, multi-parties, the right to sue, the right to travel, a free press, the right to petition, etc must all be respected. You're not automatically entitled to my money.
- mercurial 12y ago
  > I'm all for lifting of sanctions, but Cuba needs to up its game first. Rewarding the autocratic and oppressive Castro regime makes no sense. Democratic reforms, regime change, freedom of ownership, open elections, multi-parties, the right to sue, the right to travel, a free press, the right to petition, etc must all be respected. Sure. You must be demonstrating every day for the same sanctions to apply in about all the Middle East countries the US has bases in, right? Moral arguments don't really mesh with real politics. Sanctions against Cuba are a relic of the Cold War, but the US does business every day with countries with a worse humanitarian track record.
  - drzaiusapelord 12y ago
    I'm pretty sure Saudi Arabia never had nukes pointed at us or tried to. Ignoring the reality of the cold war and the brutality of Catro's regime and pretending everything is fine now is pretty ignorant. Modern Cuba still is the same disaster its always been. Why must the US reward the Castros? Why can't they make themselves a more viable trading partner? You're not entitled to my business, plain and simple. Whataboutism isn't addressing my issues. Sadly, knee-jerk anti-americanism passes for "intellectualism" around here. Funny how an oppressive anti-capitalist state is applauded on a forum dedicated to VC funded startups. Oh, the irony.
exelius 12y ago
Ironically (and yes, this is the proper usage of irony) the US embargo on Cuba likely made communism in Cuba more successful than it otherwise would have been. It united the Cuban people in their lack of access to goods on the International market, and helped create an egalitarianism that otherwise doesn't exist if people have access to international trade markets. Cuba has managed to do a lot with very little, especially with regards to education and health care. Their systems are on-par with those in developed, capitalist countries while their per capita income places them among the most impoverished countries on earth.
crimsonalucard 12y ago
Good things came out of this. The embargo prevented cuba from becoming the world's best experiment in total communism but it instead made Cuba the best and ONLY experiment in creating a sustainable "green" civilization. There is no other place on earth where this has been reproduced for an entire society in a way that works. The Living Planet Report from the World Wildlife Fund in 2007 identified Cuba as the only sustainable country in the world. The study involved two key parameters for measuring sustainable development, a commitment to "improving the quality of human life while living within the carrying capacity of supporting ecosystems". Cuba was the ONLY country on earth to achieve satisfactory benchmarks in both criteria for sustainable development. You have to see it to believe it. Every inch of rooftop in Cuba is basically an urban/organic farm. Essentially Cuba represents the best possible outcome when modern society finally runs out of gasoline.
- waterlesscloud 12y ago
  Does this then mean that the standard of living in Cuba is about what we could expect from a sustainable society? Not being snarky (I know it could sound that way). I'm curious if that's the outcome of sustainable living.
  - crimsonalucard 12y ago
    Unfortunately, yes. Not even driving a Tesla will make a difference. I wouldn't think of cuban culture/society as a primitive way of life. It's just different.
- Mz 12y ago
  Do you have any links (in English) about this? I am having a bit of trouble finding anything really substantive. I have an unfinished environmental studies degree, so I find this interesting.
  - euccastro 12y ago
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vj_DV5ltdes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vj_DV5ltdes
srcmap 12y ago
I was born and grew up in China in the 60. Cuba now is like China under Mao before embracing market economy. Personally US embargo has little to do Cuba's economy development difficulty. Without US, it can still trade with Canada and rest of Latin America. Like China in 60,70, It is the central planning aspect of economy that is killing any incentive for normal people/organizations to be productive.
- hikarudo 12y ago
  Thank your for writing this. Many people have commented in this thread that the US embargo on Cuba is responsible for Cuba being a poor country. However, Cuba can still trade with other countries. They could even buy American products through other countries. They don't do so (in a significant scale) because they have nothing to offer. Cuba offers little of value to the rest of the world.
srcmap 12y ago
I was born and grew up in China in the 60. Cuba now is like China under Mao before embracing market economy. Personally US embargo has little to do Cuba's economy development difficulty. Without US, it can still trade with Canada and rest of Latin America. Like China in 60,70, It is the central planning aspect of economy that is killing any incentive for normal people/organizations to be productive.
cletus 12y ago
I couldn't disagree with this more for two reasons: 1. Cuba was historically supported financially by the USSR up until it collapsed; and 2. This belief that the US placed a trade embargo out of "spite" is misguided. Cuba under Castro nationalized assets belonging to US citizens (eg casinos in Havana). Agree or disagree, the US government acted to protect the interests of its citizens. As to whether that embargo still makes sense, I make no comment on that. I haven't visited Cuba but it does seem like if I had to be stuck in a communist dictatorship, I'd probably choose Cuba over the alternatives. I'm not sure that's the ringing endorsement one is looking for.
- joeclark77 12y ago
  Well the climate sure beats North Korea's.
briandear 12y ago
What a great experiment! Any form of government that tortures people because of their political disagreements is worth an embargo. Most people that write wistfully about Cuba have never lived there. As much as a police state as the U.S. has become, you can still write blog posts against the government without ending up in prison. Try that in Cuba. Remember Che? Brutally murdered opponents in the name of the 'people.' The love-fest some people have with Cuba is astounding. The Cuban Intelligence agency does a great job of propaganda. Blaming the US embargo for the actions of Castro's government brutality is stupid. Are we next going to suggest that North Korea would be a friendly place if it weren't for those pesky South Koreans? The blame America for everything meme is starting to get old. People don't risk their lives trying to escape the Dominican Republic on a raft made from old car tires. Why is that? If the DR is poorer than Cuba, why aren't rafts washing up in the Florida Strait filled with Dominicans? How would Cuba have been doing without the decades of subsidies from the USSR? That experiment in total communism would have fallen flat on its face. The Soviets had a near 100% literacy rate and 'universal' health care, yet you ask anyone over the age of 50 if they would want to live under the Soviets again and it would be an overwhelming 'No.' Let's ask the Polish what they think of Soviet communism.. Any place where the answer to dissenting thought is arrest and imprisonment is a terrible place -- no matter how many doctors there might be. US prisons have universal health care too, but that doesn't mean we would want to live there. When Cuba has free and open elections, then maybe I'll change my tune. But when the people have no voice, then we should not be rationalizing a government just because the kids score well on a math test and it's cheap to get diabetes medicine. I would invite anyone here who thinks Cuba is so great to go live there. Defect to Cuba and let us know (assuming you can) how you're doing in 5 years.
- _delirium 12y ago
  > ask anyone over the age of 50 if they would want to live under the Soviets again and it would be an overwhelming 'No.' Do you know any such people? I do know a few of them. Not a statistically valid sample, since I don't research such things professionally. But I happen to have a few in my social group, through family and friend connections. And what's most surprising about them is how strongly pro-Soviet they are. The young people are not; they are mostly pro-West. But the older people are much different, much more nostalgic for Soviet times, and anti-West. Especially those who served in the scientific-industrial-military complex, which is many. Congregations of elderly scientists and engineers tend towards a pro-Soviet tone, especially in the form of complaining about how these useless new countries don't do science the way the old USSR did.
vidarh 12y ago
Cuba was no such thing. Castro turned to the Soviet Union after his advances to the US were rebuffed. The "sovietization" of Castro's party took years. It took two years before Castro proclaimed his government socialist, it wasn't until 1965 that his party became the Communist Party of Cuba. Eventually they became dogmatic Leninist, but substantial parts of the party, including Castro came to Soviet style socialism out of necessity. That's not to say that there weren't many of them that clearly had socialist leanings of various types before that, but the Castro regime was the making of the unholy marriage of rejection by the US and a toxic embrace by the Soviets. There may have been less of a gap between theory and practice in Cuba than elsewhere, in that the elite appears to have been less greedy and reinvested more in actually making peoples lives better, but it's still an oligarchy with drastic class differences reinforced by the party, rather than fought by it.

by guelo 12y ago

jacobolus 12y ago

Cuba did much better than all the Latin American countries that allowed the US to dominate them; it’s quite amazing, considering the economic strain put on by the embargo. Though the Cuban regime was hardly friendly to dissidents, journalists, or activists, and hardly democratic (to say the least), their actions are nothing compared to the fascist police states backed by the US up through the 1980s throughout Latin America. It’s really not until the 1990s when the US stopped worrying quite so much about Communism and focused our attention elsewhere in the world that most of Latin America was able to start acting more autonomously and solving their own problems. US relative non-involvement for the past 25 years has seen the growth of democracy, checks on the power of militaries, de-escalation of border conflicts and increasing economic cooperation. One can only wonder what would have happened if the US government hadn’t spent the several decades before that installing and propping up puppet dictators, and overthrowing democratic governments.

randomafrican 12y ago
Costa Rica has done as well or even better
- wwweston 12y ago
  Costa Rica may be the exception that proves the rule, or at least is notable for what it didn't do -- it didn't let itself become a colony/client state/banana republic, there was a state-led internal industrialization effort integrated with measured open-ness for international trade/investment, it didn't keep a standing military after its revolution. And Cuba likely still would have done better without the US embargo.
  - randomafrican 12y ago
    If Communist Cuba didn't exist, may be most of those dictatorships wouldnt have happened. And Costa Rica may be an exception because their lefties (or liberals) were smart enough to keep their eyes on the price.
    - ahi 12y ago
      You have causation wrong. Cuba is now communist because it was one of those dictatorships. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fulgencio_Batista http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fulgencio_Batista The countless dictatorships, puppet governments, and US/European interventions didn't start when Castro and Che came down out of the mountains in 1956.
mercurial 12y ago
To be fair, the Soviet-backed police states (eg, Idi Amin's Uganda) were not particularly appealing either. Unfortunately, both parties were too involved in their little games to care about the welfare of their pawns.
argumentum 12y ago
Would you rather live, today, in Cuba or (the poster boy for malicious US intervention) Chile?
- ahi 12y ago
  If I was born tomorrow, I would definitely pick Cuba (infant mortality 5/1000) instead of Chile (8/1000). United States is 6/1000 by the way.
  - argumentum 12y ago
    Wow, this is the definition of myopia.
    - jessaustin 12y ago
      If you don't like that measure, suggest another. It's not as though infant mortality is some minor thing that no one cares about.
      - argumentum 12y ago
        Respect for human rights? Political liberty? Quality of life? Social Mobility? Economic opportunity? Myopia means excessive focus on one aspect at the neglect of the whole picture. I would consider many things in deciding where to live. Each person has different priorities, but for me the most important measure is liberty (political, economic and social). Chile is one of the freest countries in the world (usually in the top 10 of such rankings) and Cuba is usually amongst the bottom 10.
        bildung 12y ago
        Chile is one of the freest countries in the world (usually in the top 10 of such rankings) and Cuba is usually amongst the bottom 10. I'd really be interested to see a link to a ranking placing Cuba at the bottom 10 countries in the world.
sien 12y ago
Cuba got a subsidy of about 25% of GDP from the USSR. [1] It's also worth noting that Cuba's per capita GDP in the late 1950s was about the same as Italy of Spain. [1] http://www.lexingtoninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/Cuba/survival-story.pdf http://www.lexingtoninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/Cuba/su... [
- euccastro 12y ago
  That is, post-WW2 Italy, post-civil war Spain. People were migrating in droves from Italy and Spain to e.g. Argentina in those years.

drzaiusapelord 12y ago

> Still, when you compare Cuba to neighboring Dominican Republic What kind of comparison is that? The DR is practically a failed state. By any rational metric Cuba is an economic and human rights disaster and continues to be. Its other, capitalistic, neighbor Mexico has 2x that GDP per capita. Heck, its only because of Western pressure that Cuba is only now, after decades of spite against its own people, started releasing political prisoners. http://www.hrw.org/world-report/2014/country-chapters/cuba http://www.hrw.org/world-report/2014/country-chapters/cuba >Unfortunately the US ruined the experiment by imposing an embargo for decades out of spite. Pardon me if I think my nation should tolerate nuclear missiles 90 miles off our coast from a country aligned with our enemies who have a stated doctrine of first strike and tactic nuclear usage with zero warning in advance, held by a dictator who wanted nuclear war. http://townhall.com/tipsheet/meredithjessup/2009/09/24/nytimes_castro_wanted_soviets_to_nuke_usa http://townhall.com/tipsheet/meredithjessup/2009/09/24/nytim... I'm all for lifting of sanctions, but Cuba needs to up its game first. Rewarding the autocratic and oppressive Castro regime makes no sense. Democratic reforms, regime change, freedom of ownership, open elections, multi-parties, the right to sue, the right to travel, a free press, the right to petition, etc must all be respected. You're not automatically entitled to my money.

mercurial 12y ago
> I'm all for lifting of sanctions, but Cuba needs to up its game first. Rewarding the autocratic and oppressive Castro regime makes no sense. Democratic reforms, regime change, freedom of ownership, open elections, multi-parties, the right to sue, the right to travel, a free press, the right to petition, etc must all be respected. Sure. You must be demonstrating every day for the same sanctions to apply in about all the Middle East countries the US has bases in, right? Moral arguments don't really mesh with real politics. Sanctions against Cuba are a relic of the Cold War, but the US does business every day with countries with a worse humanitarian track record.
- drzaiusapelord 12y ago
  I'm pretty sure Saudi Arabia never had nukes pointed at us or tried to. Ignoring the reality of the cold war and the brutality of Catro's regime and pretending everything is fine now is pretty ignorant. Modern Cuba still is the same disaster its always been. Why must the US reward the Castros? Why can't they make themselves a more viable trading partner? You're not entitled to my business, plain and simple. Whataboutism isn't addressing my issues. Sadly, knee-jerk anti-americanism passes for "intellectualism" around here. Funny how an oppressive anti-capitalist state is applauded on a forum dedicated to VC funded startups. Oh, the irony.

exelius 12y ago

Ironically (and yes, this is the proper usage of irony) the US embargo on Cuba likely made communism in Cuba more successful than it otherwise would have been. It united the Cuban people in their lack of access to goods on the International market, and helped create an egalitarianism that otherwise doesn't exist if people have access to international trade markets. Cuba has managed to do a lot with very little, especially with regards to education and health care. Their systems are on-par with those in developed, capitalist countries while their per capita income places them among the most impoverished countries on earth.

crimsonalucard 12y ago

Good things came out of this. The embargo prevented cuba from becoming the world's best experiment in total communism but it instead made Cuba the best and ONLY experiment in creating a sustainable "green" civilization. There is no other place on earth where this has been reproduced for an entire society in a way that works. The Living Planet Report from the World Wildlife Fund in 2007 identified Cuba as the only sustainable country in the world. The study involved two key parameters for measuring sustainable development, a commitment to "improving the quality of human life while living within the carrying capacity of supporting ecosystems". Cuba was the ONLY country on earth to achieve satisfactory benchmarks in both criteria for sustainable development. You have to see it to believe it. Every inch of rooftop in Cuba is basically an urban/organic farm. Essentially Cuba represents the best possible outcome when modern society finally runs out of gasoline.

waterlesscloud 12y ago
Does this then mean that the standard of living in Cuba is about what we could expect from a sustainable society? Not being snarky (I know it could sound that way). I'm curious if that's the outcome of sustainable living.
- crimsonalucard 12y ago
  Unfortunately, yes. Not even driving a Tesla will make a difference. I wouldn't think of cuban culture/society as a primitive way of life. It's just different.
Mz 12y ago
Do you have any links (in English) about this? I am having a bit of trouble finding anything really substantive. I have an unfinished environmental studies degree, so I find this interesting.
- euccastro 12y ago
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vj_DV5ltdes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vj_DV5ltdes

srcmap 12y ago

I was born and grew up in China in the 60. Cuba now is like China under Mao before embracing market economy. Personally US embargo has little to do Cuba's economy development difficulty. Without US, it can still trade with Canada and rest of Latin America. Like China in 60,70, It is the central planning aspect of economy that is killing any incentive for normal people/organizations to be productive.

hikarudo 12y ago
Thank your for writing this. Many people have commented in this thread that the US embargo on Cuba is responsible for Cuba being a poor country. However, Cuba can still trade with other countries. They could even buy American products through other countries. They don't do so (in a significant scale) because they have nothing to offer. Cuba offers little of value to the rest of the world.

srcmap 12y ago

cletus 12y ago

I couldn't disagree with this more for two reasons: 1. Cuba was historically supported financially by the USSR up until it collapsed; and 2. This belief that the US placed a trade embargo out of "spite" is misguided. Cuba under Castro nationalized assets belonging to US citizens (eg casinos in Havana). Agree or disagree, the US government acted to protect the interests of its citizens. As to whether that embargo still makes sense, I make no comment on that. I haven't visited Cuba but it does seem like if I had to be stuck in a communist dictatorship, I'd probably choose Cuba over the alternatives. I'm not sure that's the ringing endorsement one is looking for.

joeclark77 12y ago
Well the climate sure beats North Korea's.

briandear 12y ago

What a great experiment! Any form of government that tortures people because of their political disagreements is worth an embargo. Most people that write wistfully about Cuba have never lived there. As much as a police state as the U.S. has become, you can still write blog posts against the government without ending up in prison. Try that in Cuba. Remember Che? Brutally murdered opponents in the name of the 'people.' The love-fest some people have with Cuba is astounding. The Cuban Intelligence agency does a great job of propaganda. Blaming the US embargo for the actions of Castro's government brutality is stupid. Are we next going to suggest that North Korea would be a friendly place if it weren't for those pesky South Koreans? The blame America for everything meme is starting to get old. People don't risk their lives trying to escape the Dominican Republic on a raft made from old car tires. Why is that? If the DR is poorer than Cuba, why aren't rafts washing up in the Florida Strait filled with Dominicans? How would Cuba have been doing without the decades of subsidies from the USSR? That experiment in total communism would have fallen flat on its face. The Soviets had a near 100% literacy rate and 'universal' health care, yet you ask anyone over the age of 50 if they would want to live under the Soviets again and it would be an overwhelming 'No.' Let's ask the Polish what they think of Soviet communism.. Any place where the answer to dissenting thought is arrest and imprisonment is a terrible place -- no matter how many doctors there might be. US prisons have universal health care too, but that doesn't mean we would want to live there. When Cuba has free and open elections, then maybe I'll change my tune. But when the people have no voice, then we should not be rationalizing a government just because the kids score well on a math test and it's cheap to get diabetes medicine. I would invite anyone here who thinks Cuba is so great to go live there. Defect to Cuba and let us know (assuming you can) how you're doing in 5 years.

_delirium 12y ago
> ask anyone over the age of 50 if they would want to live under the Soviets again and it would be an overwhelming 'No.' Do you know any such people? I do know a few of them. Not a statistically valid sample, since I don't research such things professionally. But I happen to have a few in my social group, through family and friend connections. And what's most surprising about them is how strongly pro-Soviet they are. The young people are not; they are mostly pro-West. But the older people are much different, much more nostalgic for Soviet times, and anti-West. Especially those who served in the scientific-industrial-military complex, which is many. Congregations of elderly scientists and engineers tend towards a pro-Soviet tone, especially in the form of complaining about how these useless new countries don't do science the way the old USSR did.

vidarh 12y ago

Cuba was no such thing. Castro turned to the Soviet Union after his advances to the US were rebuffed. The "sovietization" of Castro's party took years. It took two years before Castro proclaimed his government socialist, it wasn't until 1965 that his party became the Communist Party of Cuba. Eventually they became dogmatic Leninist, but substantial parts of the party, including Castro came to Soviet style socialism out of necessity. That's not to say that there weren't many of them that clearly had socialist leanings of various types before that, but the Castro regime was the making of the unholy marriage of rejection by the US and a toxic embrace by the Soviets. There may have been less of a gap between theory and practice in Cuba than elsewhere, in that the elite appears to have been less greedy and reinvested more in actually making peoples lives better, but it's still an oligarchy with drastic class differences reinforced by the party, rather than fought by it.