After Castro: the possibility of change?

Fidel Castro, a key player in the Caribbean, a significant part of some US and some broader politics, has died. When reading comments by Castro’s opponents, I noted that former US President Bill Clinton accused Castro of murder for shooting down a plane with US citizens on it which had deliberately and repeatedly flown into Cuban airspace – and yet that is something other nations do as an act of self-defence. I consider both the adulation and the criticism to be excessive: yes, Cuba under the regime of the Castro brothers (the current leader is Raúl) has committed and still is committing human rights abuses – significantly so, more so than democratic nations (see here and here), had committed a violent uprising - against a violent regime, had taken part in events that brought the world to the brink of nuclear world war, and is based on a now well-discredited Marxist-Leninist model of communism (it is not, as Wikipedia claims, socialist: that was a brief initial state after the Cuban Revolution), but:

(a) the Batista regime that was overthrown was violently repressive and undemocratic – and supported by the USA militarily;
(b) there was some good done by the Castro regime – e.g., according to this, free health care and education;
(c) this is one of those situations – such as China in the 1970s – when bringing a nation at least partly “out of the cold” can help bring about change – or at least open the door for change;
(d) the USA’s attempts to overthrow Castro have probably contributed to the mentality that exacerbated and prolonged the human rights abuses; and
(e) the USA’s attitude has always struck me – and others – as being irrational – a bit like someone taking offence at another person for daring to have a different opinion – which, sadly, the USA has done elsewhere as well, despite its notional claims to uphold free speech (and has done internally, for that matter, on many socially progressive matters).

The key here is that this event, combined with the recent thaw in US-Cuban relations, gives Cuba an excuse to start changing for the better (which does NOT necessarily mean “adopt the US way of living”), and the world a way to start gently nudging Cuba to do so.It is up to the USA and the world to take the opportunity which is now presented.