A Crack in the Wall
Is today the day cigar smokers have been waiting for? That day when Cuba is no longer isolated, no longer taboo for Americans who love to smoke cigars? It is really too early to answer those questions.
What is clear is that officials of both nations have been in direct contact with each other, (apparently repeatedly over the last 18 months) culminating in the first direct conversation since the early 1960s between the two nation's presidents—an hour-long phone chat between President Barack Obama and President Raúl Castro. They agreed to swap prisoners—Alan Gross for three Cuban spies held in U.S. jails—and to begin discussions to re-establish formal diplomatic relations between the two countries, with a U.S. embassy to open in Havana. It is a historic moment, and has to be seen as the first step in a thaw in the 53-year freeze between the two neighbors.
We at Cigar Aficionado have been arguing for this moment since the magazine was launched in 1992. It was not very complicated for us. We saw that the Cuban people suffered the most under America's policy. And, we have always believed that the best way to get the Cuban government to open up was to lift all restrictions on both economic and personal interactions with the island, just 90 miles to our south. The rigid U.S. stance served as the boogeyman for the Cuban government, giving it a convenient scapegoat for any shortages, lack of economic development or almost anything that didn't work right inside Cuba. And, by restricting trade and all economic contact, the United States denied itself its greatest weapon—the strength of its capitalist system.
We have never glossed over the deficiencies and shortcomings of Cuba's current regime. Nor have we ever dismissed the deep emotions of Cuban-Americans who fled the Cuban Revolution in 1959. Those are realities that will only be resolved over many years. But over the years, we have pointed out repeatedly that after more than 50 years of a policy that failed to produce any obvious positive results for America, it was time to try the only thing that had not been tried—dealing directly with the Cuban leadership and opening up links between the two countries.
There has been a lot of criticism today of President Obama's move to change U.S. policy. Critics have cited Cuba's human rights records and its alleged role in global terrorism. While none of those things should be overlooked, it's hard not to ask, if you apply those same standards to China, Vietnam, even Russia, shouldn't the United States impose trade embargoes on them, too?
We also want to alert Cigar Aficionado readers that the rules haven't really changed that much for cigar lovers, they have just reverted back to the regulations that were in effect during the Clinton Administration and before; the only travellers allowed to bring Cuban cigars and rum into the U.S. are those with legal access to Cuba. You still cannot buy Cuban cigars anywhere else in the world and return with them to the United States. That's direct information from the Treasury Department.
But it is a historic day. After 53 years, there is finally a crack in the wall in the stalemate between Cuba and the U.S. That's good news.
