The New Opening With the USA (statement from Raul Castro)

[Major Nikon]

18. Please

This was your first (unsolicited) reply to me where you get all snarky and inform me I don't know shit from beans about the subject:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1014&pid=968490

So if you don't want someone "getting all snarky" perhaps you should take your own advice.

I'll give you the same challenge. Perhaps you should better educate yourself on the subject rather than just reading one book from an obscure author and pretending you have superior knowledge.

You can start with the Reporters Without Borders report on freedom of the press:
http://www.rsf.org/IMG/pdf/cl_en_2008.pdf

Cuba ranks 169, out of 173. But sure, comparing them with PRNK is a "false equivalency" because they ranked 3 spots higher along with Burma and Turkmenistan.

Then you might check out what Raul Castro's chief of staff had to say after defecting 10 years ago:
"Cuba is, pure and simple, a dictatorship each day more devoid of the attributes that once made it attractive."
“It is simply impossible to undertake any political or economic initiative in Cuba. The only option one has is to surrender to the dictates of the regime and to the thinking of the one and only maximum leader, who is above all the citizens. … Fidel is accountable to no one and is able to live his own reality.”
-- Alcibiades Hidalgo

So yeah, Cuba hold elections for a "parliamentary system" by which all decisions can and are vetoed and altered by a family dynasty which is utterly unalterable by the people. Raul Castro is the unalterable chief of the "parliamentary system", president of the cabinet, party chief of the one and only political party, and commander in chief of the military all rolled up into one and guaranteed for life by an unalterable constitution.

You might check Forbes' richest list and see where Castro rates. He and his family literally own just about everything in Cuba and he controls virtually all the financial resources of the country.

Or you can just ignore all this and keep pretending you're an expert on the subject due to your exhaustive reading list.