| American cigar aficionados have long felt aggrieved | | | | worldwide demand for Cuban cigars completely |
| that they can’t legally buy Cuban cigars, due | | | | outstrips the somewhat modest production. (And the |
| to the long-standing US trade embargo on Cuban | | | | Cuban government is likely savvy enough to keep it |
| products. In the light of recent news reports on illegal | | | | that way.) Knock-off cigars that can claim the label |
| “Cuban” cigar factories--chinchals--cigar | | | | “Cuban” will always find buyers, and |
| lovers in Cuba may be feeling the same way. | | | | thus sales are healthy--especially since they sell, in |
| The worldwide economic crisis has affected the | | | | some cases, for rates as low as one-fifth that of a |
| long-struggling Communist island republic, with many | | | | box of “official” Cuban cigars. With |
| Cubans looking for work. Since there’s always | | | | booming sales, these companies (as long as they |
| a market for fine Cuban cigars--or any cigar that can | | | | remain off Castro’s radar) are able to offer |
| make itself look like same--some enterprising, if | | | | excellent pay to those hardly souls who take the risk |
| unscrupulous, residents of the world’s cigar | | | | of working for them. Recent news reports have |
| capital have decided to trade on that national | | | | them earning as much as, or more than, the |
| prestige by starting illegal, unauthorized cigar factories. | | | | government-owned cigar company (Habanos S.A.) |
| Why “illegal”? Well, since | | | | can afford to pay. No wonder, then, that the Cuban |
| Cuba’s political/economic system is | | | | government finds itself seizing over a thousand |
| Communist, the government directly oversees--and | | | | boxes a month of wanna-be Habanos cigars. |
| owns--every sector of the economy. We in the | | | | But life may be about to get a little more complicated |
| United States may sometimes worry that our | | | | for those who work at the chinchals (which literally |
| government is too close to this or that business, or | | | | means just “little factory”--you find |
| to business in general; in Cuba the government is | | | | the word used frequently in books about the history |
| business. (Some conservatives have complained in | | | | of the cigar industry, to describe the mom-and-pop |
| recent months that this or that government | | | | cigar makers of the early part of the twentieth |
| program--a return to the top marginal tax rate of | | | | century). Habanos S.A., like so many companies, is |
| 2001, for example--represents the return of | | | | facing declining sales, with last year’s figures |
| “socialism.” Compared to Cuba, | | | | down by three percent. Cuba’s centralized |
| though--well, there is no comparison.) | | | | government does not need economic competition at |
| When the Cuban government makes the Cuban | | | | a time like this. Unless whispers of a possible |
| cigars, sets the price for the Cuban cigars, and | | | | relaxation of anti-Cuban U.S. laws prove true--and |
| (potentially) even tells consumers that it’s | | | | some political commentators are strongly convinced |
| their patriotic duty to buy Cuban cigars, that same | | | | that it will--Habanos S.A. can’t look for any |
| government gets a little testy in the face of | | | | easy or immediate resolutions to its sales problems. |
| competition--as all monopolies tend to do. Only this | | | | The idea of punishing the competition may seem |
| monopoly can send people directly to jail. And given | | | | more and more appealing as time goes on. Already, |
| the lack of due process or prison-condition oversight | | | | the Cubans have introduced a special seal designed |
| in Cuba--Amnesty International, along with other | | | | to distinguish real Cuban cigars from the would-bes. |
| human rights groups, continues to protest the | | | | In the meantime, U.S. cigar smokers who try these |
| island’s treatment of detainees and | | | | fake Cuban cigars often find the experience |
| dissidents--that’s a rawer deal than even the | | | | somewhat … lacking, according to many online |
| worst corporate criminals in the United States get. | | | | reviews and discussion-board posts. All the more |
| Given that the penalties for challenging the | | | | reason to buy cigars from a trusted, well-known |
| government monopoly on cigar-making are so high, | | | | source. |
| why would any Cuban take the risk? Well, the | | | | |