I was able to travel the whole country freely. I didn't stay in some touristy hotel, I lived among Cubans. There is literally no way my experience could have been controlled by the state.
People were not afraid to talk critically about their government with me and did so often.
People are starving, leaving the country in millions, but you are still adamant they are delusional and live in a bubble. Maybe, just maybe you haven't saw and understood everything while visiting?
> On September 8, 2006, the Miami Herald's president Jesús Díaz Jr. fired three journalists because they had allegedly been paid by the United States government to work for anti-Cuba propaganda TV and radio channels.
> Less than a month later, responding to pressure from the Cuban community in Miami, Díaz resigned after reinstating the fired journalists, saying that "policies prohibiting such behavior were ambiguously communicated, inconsistently applied and widely misunderstood over many years".
People were not afraid to talk critically about their government with me and did so often.