Costa Rica may be the exception that proves the rule, or at least is notable for what it didn't do -- it didn't let itself become a colony/client state/banana republic, there was a state-led internal industrialization effort integrated with measured open-ness for international trade/investment, it didn't keep a standing military after its revolution.
And Cuba likely still would have done better without the US embargo.
The countless dictatorships, puppet governments, and US/European interventions didn't start when Castro and Che came down out of the mountains in 1956.
And Cuba likely still would have done better without the US embargo.