A dictator but not a totalitarian one. Nobody can't deny Fidel Castro was a lot better than Batista's corrupted regime nor his success in reviving the Cuban economy in spite of hundreds of assassination attempts and being isolated for over 50 years (thanks to the United States, yet some people blame him like it's his fault he didn't let himself be killed or something).
He did mostly good things (like raising the literacy rate from 60% to 99% or having a great healthcare and people live as long as they do in the United States and Switzerland) and some bad shit (deaths he caused are between 2,000 and 5,000, many of the dead themselves murderers and torturers under Batista).