I'd add by saying that it's hard to begrudge Lula or MAS in Bolivia for being pro-regime because the Cuban government has greatly assisted the Brazilian and Bolivian people, even if it's through means that are pretty unsavory. Cuban healthcare humanitarianism raises all kinds of challenging moral questions. It is hard to imagine a poorer country having a program like this without exploiting its doctors and nurses but the program has been so beneficial and unparalleled that it's extremely hard to criticize it. I also suspect many Cuban doctors and nurses participating in it feel very proud of their achievements.
They're not pro-regime because the cuban government "assists the people", they're pro-regime because the cuban government assists
them. Cuba doesn't intervene in other countries out of the kindness of their heart, they have a vested interest in helping like minded political movements succeed, that's why they've supported (to varying degrees) Morales, and Lula, and the Kirchners, these are all defenders of the cuban regime. And mine isn't a manichaean mentality, i'm more than willing to recognize the good work of those nurses and medics and celebrate the positive effect they had in poor communities, but it was still a policy originated from cuba's own (pretty imperialist) foreign interests, and based on the heavy exploitation of cuban workers.
Here's an article from BBC detailing some of the working conditions of cuban medics, seems easy to critizize to me.
And while again, i'm not denying the positive effects of the "humanitarian assistance", Cuba is also participant in the venezuelan crisis, perhaps the worst humanitarian disaster in latin american history, as to this day, they sent thousands of cuban agents to provide military and intelligence assistance to the chavist regime. Not very different from what the US did in the middle east, but somehow the US is the "evil empire", while cuba is some poor, besieged victim.
Honestly, first world leftists might complain about american interventionism and fearmonger about some imaginary future invasion headed by Marco Rubio or the return of Batista as a zombie all they want, but as a latin american, i can't wait for the day the cuban dictatorship falls down and not just Cuba, but latin america as a whole is free from the shadow of Castro and his totalitarian offspring.
