All the Caribbean island nations suffer from extreme poverty, in varying degrees. This includes the capitalist nations, as well as Cuba.

Cuba is not nearly as badly off as Haiti, for instance. It is the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere, and the US has been in charge there for quite some time.

Might want to try comparing apples to apples, Old Guy. Puerto Rico is a poor island, but is also a colony of the US. Like Jamaica is a poor country, but a colony of Britain.

It is the US & the UK who have controlled the Caribbean basin since the European invasions of the Western Hemisphere.

Cuba is the only island nation that ever gained any true independence from either the US or the UK (by allying itself with the Soviet Union). That choice alone so angered the US, the US nearly started fucking WW III over it. A bit of an over-reaction for a country exercising it's sovereign rights, yes?