The presidential primaries are not only a time for candidates to be publicly vetted, but also a time for dramatic and disingenuous smears to be lobbed from every direction. The latest effort to discredit the seemingly unstoppable presidential campaign of Bernie Sanders consisted of prominent media pundits clutching their pearls and accusing the senator of “praising Fidel Castro.”

At a recent CNN town hall event, a moderator asked Sanders about his 60 Minutes comments regarding Castro’s literacy program during the early years of the Cuban Revolution. In short, Bernie Sanders thinks literacy is a good thing (Gasp!). The caveat, though, is that Sanders quickly clarified that he has “been extremely consistent and critical of all authoritarian regimes all over the world — including Cuba, including Nicaragua, including Saudi Arabia, including China, including Russia.”

Although he is merely advocating European-style social democracy, Sanders was placed in the awkward position of walking a fine line between honesty and orthodox American political dogma regarding global socialist movements. In conventional American discourse, it is a grave sin to make empirical observations regarding the accomplishments of the Cuban Revolution. As we have seen, Sanders is guilty as charged. But another aspect of this topic that is highly taboo is a discussion of what came before the revolution.

It’s unclear what the moderator meant when he used the word “freedom” in the CNN town hall exchange. Was he implying that Cubans were “free” before the revolution? In the years prior to 1959, Cuba was ruled by the right-wing, U.S.-backed Batista dictatorship, which slaughtered tens of thousands and sent dissidents to literal torture dungeons. There was widespread hunger, homelessness, illiteracy, and little access to healthcare. The popular revolution then toppled the regime, brought its sadistic criminals to justice, and reversed the aforementioned conditions, vastly increasing the standard of living for average Cubans.

In addition to its domestic successes, Cuba sends thousands of doctors across the globe on healthcare missions in a practice known as medical internationalism. Perhaps most notable are Cuba’s delegations throughout Africa, where it leads the fight against Ebola. Also on the international scene, Cuba provided crucial support to Nelson Mandela’s African National Congress in its historic struggle against apartheid. Mandela, who called the Cuban Revolution “a source of inspiration to all freedom-loving people,” later expressed great gratitude to his friend Fidel Castro.

More recently, Cuba’s advances in healthcare and hurricane preparedness have been particularly impressive. During my trip to Havana last summer, I noticed that there were pharmacies and hospitals practically everywhere I looked. The island implemented a universal healthcare program in the early years of the revolution and its medical advancements are now world-renowned. Cuba has even developed a lung cancer vaccine, ended mother-to-child HIV transmissions, and recently began distributing free HIV prevention medication. Its number of doctors per capita is one of the highest in the world (nine for every 1,000 citizens) and it has surpassed the U.S. in life expectancy.

Speaking of life expectancy, Cubans have a remarkable capacity to survive the vicious hurricanes that regularly ravage the Caribbean. In fact, during the last 17 hurricanes, Cuba only experienced 35 deaths. For the sake of comparison, 44 Americans died during Hurricane Matthew alone. This is no coincidence. As journalist Branko Marcetic explained, “After several particularly deadly twentieth-century hurricanes, the country simply put in place a comprehensive, all-hands-on-deck national program of disaster preparation, evacuation, relief, and recovery that involves virtually every citizen, from the national to the local levels.”

All of these achievments have been in spite of one of the most brutal blockades in human history. As Bernie put it, “Truth is truth.”