Sure. But why only DR? We also have Jamaica and Haiti near Cuba.

The Human Development Index:

Dominican Republic: 0,776 Cuba: 0,762 Jamaica: 0,720 Haiti: 0,554

Only Cuba is socialist. The other three are capitalist. Considering that Cuba suffers from sanctions, like Haiti, it is impressive how they managed to achieve an HDI almost as high as the DR, a value considerably higher than the average in the Caribbean.