Cuba barely trades to survive, not to thrive or grow. At one point is beneficalto the US that Cuba is able to get the bare minimum to subsist. Otherwise the people would just fucking die and the US would be too explicit in their genocidical intentions against cubans. You cant be too explicit when commiting a genocide, right? And the cuban embargo is that, a genocide.

And regarding the CPUSA, in every complex phenomenon there are multiple causes. Communism parties represent the interests of the proletariat, and were historically responsible for the few concessions thst the capitalist class gave to workers (8 hour work day, vacations, child labor, etc.). So naturally they should have the support of all proletariats. But there are two facts:

1. Communists were suppressed (either by assasination, imprisonment, blackmail, deportation, violence, etc.) from public life. Currently the violence is subtler, but when it truly mattered (50s, 60s and 70s) they were savagely repressed. If you care about history you should know that.

2. American workers have suffered from decades of Cold War "red-scare". Massive anti communist propaganda that pits the workers against their interests.

And regarding the freedom, you can do those things in Cuba! You can engage in constructive discussion, just don't try to overthrow the government. The government is not totalitarian. It listens to its own people.