Pretty much every Marxist Revolution was immediately undermined and attacked from the outside and within, from the bourgeoisie. The choice was crack down, or be defeated. For choosing not to be defeated, these states were derided as authoritarian by the west.
For example, check out the anti Castro terror campaigns backed by the CIA: https://www.amazon.com/Voices-Other-Side-History-Terrorism/dp/0745330401/ref=nodl_
Cuba's HDI is on par with much of Europe despite being a former colony.
Cuba's Unemployment rate is one of the lowest in the world, on par with Switzerland and better than the US and Germany.
Cuba's literacy rate is miles ahead of the US's abysmal 85%
Cuba's homelessness rate is almost nonexistent, and drug trafficking is also almost nonexistent, unlike most of Latin America, and the entire planet.
Cuba provides universal healthcare to all of its citizens, and has a higher life expectancy and lower infant mortality rate than the US.
Cuba's economy has steadily grown since the crash in the late 90's due to their main trading partner no longer existing, and is rapidly catching up to countries like Puerto Rico and Ecuador, soon to surpass them. Its economy is larger than most of central america and the Caribbean, Second only to the wealthier parts of Latin america and the US.
Despite its GDP per capita ranking being almost 100th, Cuba's HDI ranking is about 60th, showing how even though they are a very poor nation, they can still provide for their citizens much better than other Latin american countries can.
America has been trying to sabotage the government and economy of Cuba for almost 60 years. They famously tried to assassinate Fidel Castro over 600 times, (imagine if Cuba had tried to do that to US presidents)
Tapes leaked from the Cuban missile crisis showed how the US casually talked about killing tens of thousands of Cubans in an invasion/nuclear bombing, displaying their callous disregard for the citizens of a country they claim to support. There's a great book detailing the US's terror campaign against Cuba which resulted in over 3000 Cubans dying, including the time the US bombed a civilian plane so they could blame it on Castro.
America sabotaged the economies of people trading with Cuba as well, blocking over 2 million tons of grain from reaching Bangladesh, causing a famine and the deaths of over 1.5 MILLION BANGLADESHIS, more people than Castro has ever been accused of killing, just to make the people of Cuba suffer.
Yet despite all this, Cuba still manages to compete with the first world despite being a third world nation, more comparable to nations like Haiti or Ecuador than Germany or the US (yet it still compares with them as well.)
You would not blame the failures of places like Honduras or Haiti on capitalism, yet you blame the fact that Cuba isn't better than the entire western world combined on Socialism. If your nation was under constant sabotage, both economic and political, you wouldn't be a beacon of freedom either. But Cuba provides material benefits to its citizens that very few nations in history can boast, instead of withholding those benefits in exchange for the illusion of democracy like in the US.
But i'm sure you will ignore the data and call them a commie hellhole anyway