I would compare Cuba to Myanmar or Laos.

I have difficulties accepting the meaningfulness of the statement "Cuba and North Korea are among the third world nations with the least widespread public Internet connectivity over the last 20 years". The list at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_number_of... puts Cuba at 73rd least, when ranked by percentage, out of 207 listed names. (Note: that list includes Non-country and disputed areas, like the U.S. Virgin Islands, which cannot properly be included in a first/third world comparison, and it excludes South Sudan and North Korea.) While I agree that Cuba is in the bottom half of third world nations, there are some 70+ other countries in the same category. Including Myanmar and Laos. (As a minor point, Cuba is technically a second world country under the original three world theory that introduce first- and third-world.)

I was unable to confirm the statement 'extraordinarily low median incomes, among the lowest on earth in fact'. The lists at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_%28PP... and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_%28no... put Cuba about in the middle of the world's countries. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GNI_%28no... puts Cuba in the "Upper-middle-income group" of countries. Compare this to North Korea, which is in the "Low-income group".

Triple-checking, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_Human_Dev... puts Cuba in the 'Very high human development' category, while North Korea is in the 'Low human development' category along with Somalia and Tuvalu.

How do you quantify 'same tier of economic development'? Cuba's biotech and tourism industries are obviously more developed than North Korea's. Everything I've found suggests that those two countries are not in the same economic tier.

As an observation, North Korea no longer calls itself communist, and hasn't since 1992. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_socialist_states#cite_... . Its juche ideology does not appear to be based on socialist or Marxist-Leninist lines. Comparing Cuba's government to North Korea's is somewhat like comparing the US's multi-party representative democracy to Russia's.

You asked "Where else do people earn $20 per month, have extremely limited access to the Internet, no freedom of speech or press, and live under a Communist dictatorship?"

Laos. It is a "communist (Marxist-Leninist), socialist, single-party state" (quoting Wikipedia) just like Cuba. The per-capita GDP is $4,986/year while Cuba's is $18,796. (I can't find the median income for Laos, but it has "one of the lowest annual incomes in the world" (quoting Wikipedia) and below Cuba on the HDI.) 12.5% of the population of Laos are Internet users, compared to Cuba's 25%. Quoting https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-press/2013/laos :

> Press freedom in Laos remains highly restricted. Despite advances in telecommunications infrastructure, government control of nearly all print and broadcast news prevents the development of a vibrant, independent press. ... Under the criminal code, individuals may be jailed for up to one year for reporting news that “weakens the state” or importing a publication that is “contrary to national culture.”

Freedom House gave Laos a "Press Freedom Score" of 84, while Cuba's is 92. 100 is the worst.