Because of our embargo... Other people have made the point that saying a Socialist system would work if only it were allowed to trade with a rich Capitalist country nearby is a really bad argument in favor of Socialism.

But what people like AOC always fail to mention is that throughout the embargo, fellow Communist travellers like Russia (nee USSR), Venezuela, and China have been highly invested in proving that not only that a Socialist system can work, but that it can do so in the United States' backyard. And so they have poured hard currency, food, tourists and other forms of aid into the island nation in order to help prop it up.

And none of it has mattered.

That's how dysfunctional the Cuban system is. AOC ought to be honest about that, but she won't.