I'm really glad he didn't cave to that reductive, dishonest dogshit. Castro was a dictator. With that comes dictatorial things. But the guy improved the lives of his people, increased literacy and life expectancy, and most importantly won independence for his country for the first time in history. Can we say that about the actually-ruthless dictators that centrists like Buttigieg have supported? Al-Saud? Hussein? Pinochet? Hitler?
When Fidel Castro saw injustice, he stormed a military barracks and risked his life with his rifle firing. He sat in jail and then became an exile and waged a jungle guerrilla war. When Pete saw injustice, he used the opportunity to jump on the side of the foreign oppressor, snap some snazzy being-a-patriot pictures, and parlay that into a political career.
Yeah, I've come to see him as the anti-AOC with regard to what I've come to respect most about AOC: her willingness to concede lack of information and to learn from her position of inexperience. It's a tough thing, and it's not sexy, but it's important. Biden has shown weakness in that area too, but he obviously has a lot of experience and I give him more of a pass along the lines of old dogs and new tricks.