Cuba is an island of 11 million people south of Florida. Cuba gained greatly from its social revolution (1959) by catching up with the bourgeois world in matters such as education and health care. Most countries at a similar level of economic development have not done so well since 1959.
As a Third World country and like any Third World country, Cuba deserves support against U.$. imperialist interference. We only criticize those who only lend their solidarity to "socialist" countries like Cuba while leaving out the rest of the Third World.
From the Maoist perspective, Cuba is state-capitalist, not socialist. Fidel Castro took the wrong side in the Sino-Soviet split and bears much persynal responsibility for the failures of the international communist movement since then. Likewise, Che's and Fidel Castro's "foco theory" of military strategy has resulted in failure after failure in Latin America. Castro has proved to be mixed up about Khruschev, Brezhnev and even Gorbachev and Jiang Zemin. He even called Mao a "fascist."
To this day, Castro does not acknowledge that Mao was right in his argument with Castro about the existence of a bourgeoisie in the party and how that bourgeoisie can restore capitalism as it did in the Soviet Union. For this alone, it is simply not possible to forgive Castro as an alleged "communist." We cannot in good faith ask the masses to make blood sacrifices without being straight about subjects ranging from Gorbachev to free market enterprise.
MIM analysis
See our book review of Che Guevara's adventure in the Congo
The conviction of five Cubans "Cuban Five" for espionage was unjust