I lived in Brazil. I would say that after visiting Cuba and comparing it to Brazil, Cubans seem much less desperate than poor Brazilians, and the violence is incomparable. Cubans "enjoy" a decent educational system and while there are zero opportunities outside the state run fiascos, there are worse places to be, like I imagine Haiti would be.

Cuba’s overall quality of life is impressive considering it is a small poor country with few natural resources (e.g. most of the forests were cleared by European slaver plantation owners) which was in the 1950s a quasi-feudal society with a one-crop economy, lacking infrastructure, and weak institutions, and has been battered by decades of economic attack by its obvious large trading partner.

Compared to every country in Latin America where US allies had control from the mid-20th century onward, the Cuban people have done very well. They have cheap housing, a cheap and effective healthcare system, cheap transportation, cheap and effective education, etc. Most importantly, they haven’t been subjected to decades of widespread terror by fascist autocrats or bloody civil war, the way many Latin American countries were. In a counterfactual world where Batista was left in charge 60 years ago, it’s hard to imagine the Cuban people would be doing as well as they are.

If US foreign policy in the immediate aftermath of the Cuban Revolution had not been so overtly hostile, and if US policymakers for decades afterward had not been so paranoid and short-sighted, it is quite possible that the Cuban political system would have turned out significantly differently. US attempted invasion, attempted assassinations, crippling embargoes, constant threats, etc. forced the Cuban government into a very defensive posture (both internally and externally), just for self preservation.

I’m not a big fan of the political leadership of Cuba, or the lack of political rights there, but objectively it is a pretty okay place to live (being poor in Cuba is probably better than being poor in the USA). The GP’s characterization as “hell” is likely colored by decades of US (and Cuban-American) propaganda bordering on outright lies.

Haiti is not exactly a functioning democracy.

It was a dictatorship until 1986 and the first elected leader to actually serve a full term without getting overthrown in a coup was Rene Preval (2006-11). Their most recent elections were a mess as well.

At best they're starting to become a democracy.

Is that the standard?