General
Cuba is viewed with appalled fascination by the rest of the world. It is openly and overtly run by American-based Mafia gangsters who revel in their notoriety. Cuba is also the world's number one tourist destination and is renowned for its luxurious hotel-casinos, beach resorts and theme parks. What happened in Cuba was that the Batista-Castro civil war occurred in the mid-1950s but, without outside support for either side, neither had the power to overthrow the other and take their place. In the end they destroyed each other. At that time the Mob was moving into Cuba heavily and by 1959 had major investments in the country. With the country collapsing, no central government and various political factions looting anything they could get their hands on, it looked pretty bad for Cuba. At that point, Che Guevara and his gang tried to shake down the Mob Casinos and got whacked (it's reputed he was so full of lead his nose left a pencil mark and his body on the bottom of Havana Bay is a toxic waste hazard). The Families then brought in their own gunmen to protect the casino areas and the areas under the protection of the Family wiseguys were the only reasonably safe and secure areas of Cuba. People voted with their feet and went to those areas, Mob control spread out from them and they were received as a welcome return to stability and security. By the end of 1960, the Mob effectively were the Cuban Government. Batista had already had an unfortunate accident when he shot himself 17 times in the back of the head while cleaning a gun. Castro runs a shoeshine concession in one of the Havana Casino-Hotels and coaches a little league team for the children of tourists.
By 1964, Cuba was well on the road to recovery, prosperous with the fabulous income from the Casinos and divided up into fiefs run by the various Mob families. Due to the shortage of Sicilians in Cuba (although an amazing number of Cubans discovered they do have Sicilian grandparents; there must have been an undisclosed wave of emigration into Cuba in the 19th Century). Cubans are being recruited in to the Families as associates and are working their way up the family tree. Eventually that will end with the Mob in Cuba being as much Cuban as Sicilian.
International
Nobody quite knows what to make of Cuba. International politicians hate the place, primarily (it is suspected) because its existence allows them to be compared directly to gangsters and they don't come out well in the comparison. Most politicians would like to see Cuba invaded, the gangsters running the country removed from power and a conventional government put in its place. The reality is that any government that tried to do so would be lynched by its own citizens who wouldn't stand for their playground being shot at. In any case, the United States has made it discretely known that Cuba is under its protection and that precludes any regime change operation. Also, the Cuban-based Mafia has contacts with criminal elements all over the world, the deal being that Cuba's fabulous wealth gets shared out and in exchange those criminal organizations watch Cuba's back and protect its interests.
Domestic
Essentially, Cuba is run like an extended Mafia family. The lowest ranks of the Mob (now mostly Cuban) control small areas of the country and they live in that area, charging for services and kicking some of the proceeds to their superiors. Cuba has no defined legal code other than "Don't ever mess with the tourists" and "Don't rock the boat". Legal disputes and crimes are settled by "sit downs" where the involved parties take their case to their local Mob boss who listens to their case over a meal and gives his verdict. Mob wiseguys claim that this system outperforms conventional legal systems because every case is decided on its own merits rather than on precedents of dubious worth. It seems to work, Cuba is rich, stable, peaceful and hedonistic. As a by-product, there are no lawyers doing business in Cuba.