Americans feel drawn to Cuba's cigar festival

[Judi Lynn]

March 3, 2007, 9:31PM
Americans feel drawn to Cuba's cigar festival
Those attending believe they aren't breaking U.S. laws

By RAY SANCHEZ
South Florida Sun-Sentinel

HAVANA — For some Americans, Cuba's annual cigar festival is an enticing, forbidden fruit for which they risk hefty fines for violating the U.S. ban on travel to the island.

"We don't do anything illegal against the government policies," said Prabpeet Singh, 45, a heart surgeon and Stanford University professor from San Jose, Calif. "But I think to visit any country is the basic right of a human being. We are not taking in any contraband. We just enjoy and finish the cigars here and we go back."

Cuba's 9th annual Habanos Festival, which ended Friday night with a lavish $500-a-head banquet, drew more than 1,000 aficionados from more than 40 countries for a sampling of new product lines, tours of factories where the cigars are hand-rolled and visits to tobacco plantations hours outside Havana.

No participants were more tight-lipped than the dozens of Americans who slipped onto the island illegally through Canada or Mexico for the five-day celebration of the world's finest cigars. Under Washington's 43-year-old trade embargo, U.S. citizens and residents are prohibited from traveling to the island in an attempt to stem the flow of dollars to the communist government.

Singh, a cardiothoracic surgeon who traveled here with six other doctors, said he has been smoking Cuban cigars for 27 years, longer than he has been poking into the chests of his patients. He insisted he was not breaking the law by spending money in Cuba though admission to all festival events alone was nearly $1,300.

"I don't see it as a violation," he said, echoing other Americans at the festival. "It's a personal right."
(snip/...)

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/world/4600254.html

[saigon68]

1. Mr Gonzalez may have a different take

On Dr Singh's smoking pastime

[MADem]

2. He's right, that doctor. Though he's an idiot to smoke cigars as a cardiothoracic surgeon

He should know better.

But his point about freedom is well taken. It kind of butts up against the GOP concepts of "Gubmint can't tell ME what to do" doesn't it?

[Kutjara]

3. Dr. Singh has it backwards.

It is not, in fact, illegal for Americans to travel to Cuba. It is, on the other hand, illegal for Americans to spend money there (directly or indirectly). If you can work out a way of getting to and from Cuba that doesn't involve any money passing from you into the Cuban economy (even through a third-party), you're perfectly entitled to go.

Spend any money, though, and the forces of darkness in the US Treasury Dept have got you by the balls.

[Judi Lynn]

4. It's not that simple, unfortunately. This couple didn't spend money, got fined:

Pirates of the Caribbean
The Nation {online}
July 14, 2003

Seven years ago, a Michigan couple, Kip and Patrick Taylor, sailed to Cuba. They knew that spending dollars there -- unlike, say, in Stalinist North Korea -- is forbidden by a tired, politics-driven US embargo. The law is the law, so like dutiful Americans they stocked up on provisions and spent no money. As they sailed home, however, lightning struck their boat and destroyed the mast. The Cuban Coast Guard rescued them.

Enter, again, the US government: It forbade them to repair the boat -- can't spend any money in Cuba! -- and told them to abandon it, and their two dogs, and go home by plane. After weeks of negotiations, the Taylors nevertheless fixed their boat and sailed home. Questioned upon arrival, they admitted freely to what they'd done. According to their lawyers -- the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights -- after they had disclosed they'd given a band-aid to a local cook who had burned his finger, the Taylors were charged with providing "nursing services to a Cuban national". For their many crimes, they were fined $2,000 each by an obscure government agency, the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).

You may remember OFAC from reports in April of its laughably tiny fines against US corporations found guilty of trading with the enemy. But while big business gets the kinder-gentler treatment for its sins, private citizens aren't so lucky, and the Bush Administration is ramping up enforcement of the ridiculous Cuban travel ban.
(snip/...)

http://www.ciponline.org/cubaforum/press.htm

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

April 22, 2003: Today, the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) will file suit in the United States District Court in Washington on behalf of an elderly couple from Michigan who lawyers say were unfairly penalized under Cuba embargo regulations. Lawyers also say the two were not informed of their Fifth Amendment rights, protecting them from self incrimination.

Under the existing economic embargo against Cuba, Americans are allowed to travel to Cuba but are prohibited from spending any money. Travelers are presumed to have spent money in Cuba unless they can prove otherwise and can face large monetary travel fines.

The couple, Kip, 73 and Patrick, 58 Taylor of Traverse City, MI, sailed to Cuba on a boating trip in April 1996. Knowing that U.S. law prohibited spending money in Cuba, they stocked their sailboat with enough provisions to last for the duration of their three-month trip. While sailing back to Florida from Cuba, their boat was caught in a storm and struck by lightning that destroyed the mast.

The Cuban Coast Guard rescued them in international waters, and the boat was towed back to port. However, when they applied to the Treasury Department for permission to repair it, they were told to abandon the boat-and their two dogs-in Cuba and fly back to the U.S. After weeks of attempting to negotiate, unwilling to leave their dogs and dismayed by a decision that would leave in Cuba assets worth more than the costs of repairs, the Taylors had the boat fixed. Many of the repairs were done by the Taylors themselves with the help of visiting sailors who donated parts.

After their return, the Taylors responded openly to every question asked by government officers about their trip. The Taylors were never told about their Fifth Amendment privilege to stay silent, their right to counsel or that any statements or evidence produced by them could be used against them in court.

Remarkably, after disclosing that they gave band-aid to a local cook who had burned his finger in an accident, The Taylors were charged with provision of “nursing services to a Cuban national”-a transaction forbidden by the embargo. For the next four and a half years, the Taylors-who are on a fixed income-requested a reconsideration of the penalty or a hearing, without success. In April, 2001, Patrick Taylors’ tax refund, needed to pay for urgent medical expenses, was frozen and applied to the Taylors’ debt.
(snip/...)

http://www.ccr-ny.org/v2/reports/report.asp?ObjID=QvT9Qjndib&Content=233

[Kutjara]

6. The Treasury Dept considers the provision of services....

...to be an economic transaction, the same as spending or earning money. Naturally, the Treasury Dept would use any excuse to persecute citizens, so even handing someone a band-aid is an economic activity.

[roody]

7. You are not entitled to go.

You may only go with permission from the Dept. of Treasury. Not that I am going to let that stop me.

[Kutjara]

8. The permit is not for travel.

You don't need a permit to travel to Cuba; you need a permit to engage in "travel transactions" related to travel to Cuba. There is no law that forbids you to go, you just can't engage in a "transaction" in respect of going. As another reply to my first post noted, even giving a band-aid to an injured Cuban cook was enough for the DOT to prosecute an elderly couple under the regulations.

If you paid money to a Cuban hotel (say by booking a room on a credit card), but never actually went to Cuba, you'd still have violated the embargo. No additional laws would have been broken by actually traveling there.

More details here:

http://www.treas.gov/offices/enforcement/ofac/programs/cuba/cuba.shtml

[ClintonTyree]

9. That doesn't stop Cuban-Americans....

from sending boatloads of U.S. currency to their relatives in Cuba though. And the GOP turns a blind eye to that because they have the Cuban-American voting bloc sewed up. In the typical GOP fashion, rules are in place for some and not for others.

I wonder if Pig-Boy Limbaugh was in attendance? He's known to love Cuban cigars and I think little Cuban boys as well. It wouldn't surprise me if old "Rusty" was there, sucking on a fat puro while eating Viagra like M&Ms. "With hypocrisy on loan from god".... :puke:

[EstimatedProphet]

12. I'd so love to go myself. I love cuban cigars.

The Cuban embargo is patently stupid, and the only reason it stands without people challenging it is because Americans have this attitude of 'the law is the law'. We assume any law that is in place is just because it is a law, so anyone that breaks it is wrong and deserves to be punished.

[roody]

13. The stupid law is challenged frequently

by US citizens going discreetly without permission. Annually it is challenged by Pastors for Peace and Venceremos Brigade publicly. Pastors for Peace will neither seek or accept such permission. www.ifconews.org

[EstimatedProphet]

17. Good for them!

[roody]

18. Maybe you would like to join us.

I have been twice with Pastors for Peace.

[EstimatedProphet]

19. I would, if I had more money.

Someday...

[Hardrada]

5. Think Bill Clinton will make it down there?

(I'm just anticipating some remark Leno might make). I voted for Bill but felt let down a lot>

[soothsayer]

10. I know. How could he DO that to a cigar? lol

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

14. Was that a Cuban cigar?

And all along I thought Big Dog was innocent of any crimes. But if that cigar was Cuban, well ...

:rofl:

[Judi Lynn]

15. Actually, he may have gotten it from his friend, either Alfie or Pepe Fanjul.

They are two heirs to a vast sugar cane company from Cuba which moved to the Dominican Republic and South Florida (after the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers drained the swamps). Either Alfie or Pepe is the Democrat and the other one is the Republican.

They are also called America's "First Family of Corporate Welfare."

S U G A R ' S
F I R S T F A M I L Y
http://www.opensecrets.org/pubs/cashingin_sugar/sugar08.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

IN THE KINGDOM OF BIG SUGAR
by Marie Brenner

The Fanjuls are formidable adversaries. They control about 40 percent of Florida’s sugar crop, and last year they made contributions to 31 political candidates, giving more than any other sugar power. They deeply resent their nickname: the first family of corporate welfare. Little known to the American public, Pepe and Alfy Fanjul operate within the hidden world of implicit linkage, the grand club of the country’s power brokers, who routinely trade favors like baseball cards. "There is a rule to understanding life in South Florida," author and Miami Herald columnist Carl Hiaasen tells me. "Alligators don’t give to political campaigns, and the Fanjuls do." Last year the Fanjuls and Florida Crystals gave $486,000 to Democratic candidates and $279,000 to Republicans. (Alfy, who co-chaired Clinton’s Florida campaign in 1992, is the family’s Democrat; Pepe, who was on Bob Dole’s finance committee in 1996, is the family’s Republican.) "The most telling thing about Alfy Fanjul is that he can get the president of the United States on the telephone in the middle of a blow job. That tells you all you need to know about their influence," Hiaasen says. At one time, the Fanjuls’ father, Alfonso Fanjul Sr., and their grandfather Jose Gomez-Mena presided over one of the largest sugar holdings in Cuba. "One of the reasons why we get involved in American politics is because of what happened to us in Cuba," Alfy Fanjul tells me. "We did not get involved in the Batista government, and we do not want what happened in Cuba to happen to us again."

There is little chance of that. Every few years the Fanjuls and the Florida growers lobby tirelessly for the reauthorization of the sugar program established under the 1981 Farm Bill. Of all the political handouts that campaign money forces through Congress, the sugar program is one of the most controversial. Each year Florida Crystals receives about $65 million in price supports; the Fanjuls’ chief rival, U.S. Sugar, takes in $55 million. Although the price of sugar on the world market is 10 cents a pound, American sugar growers by law are guaranteed 21 cents a pound. When the farmers overproduce–as they did last year–and the price of their crop dives, the government takes the surplus at the guaranteed price and holds it in warehouses.
(snip/...)

http://www.mariebrenner.com/articles/bigsugar/fan1.html



From one of their parties at their Dominican Republic resort, where _{George H. W. Bush} went for a week to meet with Venezuelan media magnate Gustavo Cisneros (coup plotter against Hugo Chavez) after the coup, with Alfie, the Democrat on the left side, his brother, Pepe and wife on the other.

More photos from the same event: http://www.newyorksocialdiary.com/socialdiary/2005/01_18_05/socialdiary01_18_05.php

[ret5hd]

11. You felt let down because of the cigar incident?

[ReverendDeuce]

16. Cuban cigars are not that great, IMO... It's sort of a cultural meme...

Take it from me, as someone who smokes cigars. I had a Canadian friend who would bring me the real deal now and then.

There are much more exciting cigars coming from places like Honduras and the Dominican Republic, and even Europe.

Honestly, the only place that can't make a good cigar is the good old USA. Everything we produce is short-fill junk.

And it's not because we can't! Swisher, the folks who make the ubiquitous Swisher Sweets, based in Delaware, really honestly tried to get into the high end market. They produced a very decent long-fill cigar that smoked very cleanly. But, because it was manufactured by Swisher, the marketplace was spooked into thinking it was "just another Sweet".

Anyway... all that aside... These days I really am enjoying what Drew Estate is putting out. Their "Natural" line is thoroughly enjoyable. I am one of the few in the area that enjoy the "ACID" series as well.

Don't buy into the Cuban myth. They *are* good cigars, but *not* worth the money. They are comparable in flavor and quality to any number of readily available high-end cigars. Of course, you wont get that "taboo" feeling...

[Hunky Dunky]

20. U.S. makes a lot of long filler cigars

La Luna, for example, is one of my U.S. favorites. Of course, Connecticut Shade and Connecticut Broadleaf are top of line wrappers that are among the world's best. And I do enjoy Cubans, particularly PSD4's and RyJ coronas en cetros. They aren't necessarily better, but they are distinct. Besides, I feel patriotic when smoking a Cuban; I'm burning Castro's crops, one at a time. LOL!