My own experiences with Cuba date back to my time in Central America during the 1980s, mainly dealing with the DGI (Cuban intelligence services) boys and their operations in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. They had pretty well infested those countries and were doing a land office business in shipping in ComBloc weapons throughout the region.
I don’t find Fidel’s brand of communism to be very different from the Soviet’s, at least when it comes to “Wars of National Liberation”, such as their intervention in Angola (a little off the beaten path for a Caribbean country).
I recall pictures of Marti being everywhere in Central America as well (the FMLN in Salvador were his namesake), along with Sandino and Che.
On a personal note, I find it revolting that the US maintains a prison (Gitmo) equally as repressive as those found in Cuba. I can’t wait to see that place shut down.
