Say anything to a liberal about Cuba, and their knee-jerk response is "but they have free medical care!".
We should annex Cuba and move the Montreal Expos to Havana.
I lived on 30th St in Miramar, four miles from the U.S. Diplomatic Mission in Vedado, Havana. Two blocks down the street from me, on 5th Avenue, was the Iranian Embassy. There weren't many Iranians stationed there, but those that were were scandalized. The "jinateras," the streetwalking girls, clustered out in front of their mission every evening, trying to flag down tourists or anyone with dollars.
At the Jamaican-run Superclubs at Varadero (two hours east of Havana), the foreigners lived like royalty. We as diplomatic personnel paid $65 a day per person, all you can eat, drink and scuba dive. No Cubans who didn't work there were allowed on the property, and it's like that in every tourist area. Those Cubans who DO work on the properties live pretty well; at least they get to eat what the paying guests to eat.
At the Melia Cohiba Hotel on the Malecon, there are security people all over the lobby. It's a beautiful hotel, but once inside, one could be in Denver or Bangkok; apart from the Cuban cigars being sold there, there was none of Havana's soul. I walked in there on morning accompanied by a colleague of Puerto Rican heritage. We were dressed similiarly in T-shirts, shorts, ball caps and Tevas. The goons let me pass, but they were on Felix like Holy on the Pope. He had to produce his diplomatic passport to gain entry. And he was a signed-in guest there.
And the left-wing politicians from the U.S. along with the prettier-than-usual script memorizers go there and get led around by the nose by their communist handlers.