Thanks for adding this info Hive account@yecier. And I'll admit that if it comes to your word against my sisters' who only spent 4 weeks in Cuba, I'll have to go with your word. And yes, as far as I know she spent her time in the touristic zones mainly, although she also visited a tobacco farmer (he's the one who informed her about the 90 percent tax rate). I'm also aware that the situation in Cuba is deteriorating fast, not only because of Trump's tightening of the sanctions (closing off remittances for example), but many other factors as well, like the flood of cheap oil from Venezuela drying up. I'm unpleasantly surprised, I must admit, with the highly repressive state and the abominable human rights situation in your country. Maybe the leftist media, where I get most of my information, is indeed romanticizing the situation there too much; honesty demands I face that possibility, and your little report here has opened that door a little further. And I can't blame you for not supporting socialism or communism when you've had to deal with such repression your whole life. I wish I had the means to come visit myself; I would look outside the touristic zones to get a fair appraisal of the situation. But in the meantime I'm grateful for people like yourself to keep me grounded. Thanks again my friend :-)

Having said that, the very real problems you mention here have little to do with socialism, and much more with authoritarianism; the two aren't mutually exclusive, just like capitalism and authoritarianism aren't mutually exclusive. The democracy I spoke of (and dream of) is absent politically and economically, which makes it indeed worse than most western nations where there's at least the veneer of political democracy.

In closing I have a question: have you written any posts on the political and economic situation in your country? If so, I'd appreciate a link so I can read it :-)