astrombargo
My only reservation about dropping the embargo is that it could be the final nail in coffin for Connecticut grown shade. Before the embargo, most cigars were made in Tampa and New York using Cuban filler, broadleaf, CT Havana seed or Zimmer Spanish binder and CT-USA shade wrappers.
Nowadays though, no cigars are made on a large scale in the US and many countries produce a cheaper (and inferior) version of "Connecticut" shade. Many fine new wrappers have also been developed, independent of Cuba. Letting Cuban leaf cigars into the US can only hurt cigar tobacco growers in Conn, Mass, Pennsylvania, Ohio--where cigar tobacco is still grown, and hurt he Cuban exiles who have done great work in other latin countries. The embargo has been like a protective tariff for USA cigar tobacco growers, and growers in the Caribbean and Central America as well, and I oppose lifting the embargo for the damage it will do to especially to USA growers.
Cuban seed has been perfected in a dozen countries by now, through pure capitalistic intentions. Communist workers are lazy because it's hardly possible for them to lose their jobs, regardless of the inconsistency of their work. Cuban cigars and tobacco since Communism have deteriorated in consistent quality. Why the big mystique about Cuban cigars? They aren't any better than Dominicans or Nicaraguans or Hondurans. We don't need Cuba anymore--Castro saw to that.
