I see you refuse to accept statistics that don't portray Cuba as a "workers" paradise. No matter, lets consider your talk of freedom:
Elections: non under Batista, non under Castro, Castro is life disctor with his brother heir apparant (really free eh?)
Human rights: bad under Batista, worse under Castro. AIDS patients in prison, homosexuals persecuted, hundreds of thousands feel the place is such a prison theyd rather escape on rafts through shark infested waters than stay
"Racism was rampant": yes, and it still is. Huey Newton - the Black Panther who took refuge in Cuba - compared communist Cuba's race relations to the Deep South of the US
"Press that didn't portray Cuba as a haven for foreigners was shut down": now its press that doesnt portray Cuba as a workers paradise
"Education was almost non-existent, and half of Cubans were malnourished": education is better today - despite the Marxist claptrap, but malnutrition came right back once the Soviets cut the handouts