To use your words, Cuba actively denies its citizens rights. There is no freedom of speech, press, or assembly. Internet access is closely monitored and heavily restricted. For a long time it was illegal to even leave Cuba. My family had to tell a web of lies to escape decades ago. Cuban doctors are forced to work overseas for pittances and have minders to keep them from defecting. The same goes for Cuban athletes, who routinely defect despite the regime's efforts to stop them. The Castros funded communist horrors across South America and even in Africa. Today they prop up their autocratic allies in Venezuela. The idea that Cuba has "one of the world's best healthcare systems" has been thoroughly debunked too.
Further, what you call "economic restructuring" most others would see as illegal confiscation of property. It's little reported today, but one of the original reasons for the US embargo against Cuba is the nationalization of American-owned property without compensation. Communism produced only poverty and hardship everywhere it has been implemented, what makes you think that Cuba would have been any different save for the embargo?
Finally, as someone who's family witnessed the horrors of Castro's Cuba firsthand, and decided to flee to America with little more than the clothes on their backs, I'm saddened to see someone who's clearly intelligent and articulate repeat such brazen lies.
The difference between Cuba and North Korea is just a matter of degree.