This is a preliminary observation of the Cuban economy based on information provided by the local guide and the lectures by the Havana University professors. In addition, my commentary is at the end of the essay.
Under Fidel Castro the Cuban economy enjoyed a boom after he became an ally of the Soviet Union. The Cuban economy was riding high because the Soviet Union and its eastern European satellites bought virtually all of its sugar output—millions of tons annually–at above market prices. With a massive subsidized cash flow from his communist patrons for more than two decades, Castro was able to lift incomes of all workers by holding down prices of basic goods and services, thus fulfilling one goal of The Revolution—social justice, provide free medical care and education through college, pour money into the arts to enhance the nation’s cultural traditions, and create what he thought was a socialist paradise in spite of the U.S. embargo.