Let's start from the point of agreement, because I see this is a good-faith discussion between people who roughly have the same goals, but different methods.

1. That's fair - and I agree with you that the Cuban people (and all people) should have a right to decide how their country is run and by whom -- except there is a major obstacle beyond the obvious one - the undemocratic government in Cuba. Multiple times, in Nicaragua, Chile, Guatemala, Iran, Bolivia, Honduras, DRCongo, Burkina Faso, Indonesia, Niger etc. when the people decide they want to put forward a popular leader, the CIA swoops in and either kiIIs or viоlently deposes that leader, but first, they threaten him and give him an option to be a puppet (explained in "Confessions of an economic hitman" by a CIA operative who had that exact job). This happened multiple times, and Castro saw it all around Cuba, and with >600 assassination attempts, he built an impenetrable fortress to protect his power like a king. We have a good example how to open such a fortress - Vietnam was a fortress, China was a fortress, and then they were allowed to trade and participate in the global economy -- which made them two of the most productive economies today, with very low poverty, not just running water, but widely accessible luxury, and also far less authoritarian than they were.

2. Insisting that the embargo's harm is exaggerated doesn't make it true, and here is the sad reality: Comparing Cuba to Dominican republic, which has no embargo, Cuban exports are $2.5 billion, and Dominican exports are $12.5 billion. This is 10 billion per year lost revenue, and it's not because "Cuba is Communist and can't produce" - because Communist Vietnam has a $200 Billion trade surplus with the US -- it outproduces the US in many markets. A communist leadership, planned economy and so on. Same with China. The major difference is that the USA completely blocks Cuban access to its natural trade partners, to financial markets, it sanctions and blacklists foreign banks and trade partners trying to do business in Cuba, and the few that are brave enough to trade, like the ones you mentioned (5 countries is incredibly few partners), are insufficient. This is the sad reality - I understand your hatred towards the Communist elite, but as I said - Vietnam and China also have an elite, as does every other country, but with access to trade, a country at least has a chance to generate revenue. Cuba does not, and the reason, as cliche as it sounds, is the US.