Cigar magazine calls for Cuba-US talks
By Abby Tegnelia
MIAMI, April 26 (Reuters) - Cigar Aficionado magazine, the glossy bible to capitalism's most pungent symbol, is calling for an easing of the U.S. embargo against Cuba in its latest edition.
In a special June issue dedicated to the communist-ruled island, it also offers a Cuba travel guide even though a three-decade-old embargo bars U.S. citizens from visiting Cuba as tourists.
"There was a time when the embargo that closed off the island ... was justified by global politics and the Cold War. That's simply not true today," wrote publisher Marvin Shanken and managing editor Gordon Mott in an editorial.
"The time has come for politicians in Washington and Havana to listen to the people. The grievances of the past will never be resolved with threats or violence or silence," it said.
"We hope this issue can lay the groundwork for normalized relations between Cuba and the United States."
In recent years a growing number of Americans have called for an end or a relaxation of the embargo but the Cigar Aficionado issue, which hit newsstands over the weekend, is one of the more visible.
The magazine had photographs of Presidents Bill Clinton and Fidel Castro, both of whom have been know to enjoy a cigar, on the cover and features articles on Cuba's night life, restaurants, people, culture and, of course, cigars.
It largely skirts the issue of Cuba's internal politics but includes comments supporting the embargo by U.S. Senator Jesse Helms, a Republican from North Carolina, alongside the Cuban view from National Assembly President Ricardo Alarcon.
In Miami, the main Cuban exile group, the influential Cuban American National Foundation, dismissed the issue as a business ploy.
"The cigar industry doesn't care about the suffering of the Cuban people because it is a business enterprise," said CANF spokesman Daniel Gonzalez.
"Now it is going to take longer to get freedom in Cuba."
Ironically, the magazine also contains advertisements from Bacardi, the family-owned rum dynasty forced into exile after Cuba's 1959 revolution and a strong supporter of the embargo.
Mott said that the magazine expected no protests from Bacardi, adding, "In general, we are a very apolitical magazine."
"When any publication poses a question about a long-standing policy, it's controversial, but this is a very appropriate time to raise questions about the embargo," Mott told Reuters.
14:30 04-26-99
Copyright 1999 Reuters Limited |