U.S. Embargo on Cuba

The cigar became inextricably intertwined with political history on February 7, 1962, when The United States President John F. Kennedy, intending to sanction Fidel Castro's communist government, imposed a trade embargo on Cuba. Americans were thus prohibited from purchasing what were at the time considered the finest cigars on the market, and Cuba was deprived of a large portion of its customers. According to Pierre Salinger, then Kennedy's press secretary, the president ordered him on the evening of February 6 to obtain a thousand Petit H. Upmanns Cuban cigars; upon Salinger's arrival with the cigars the following morning, Kennedy signed the executive order which put the embargo into effect.
Cigars obtained prior to the embargo are not considered contraband, and became known as "pre-embargo Cubans". As of 2006, it remains illegal for Americans to purchase or import Cuban cigars. As is usual with embargoes, there exists a lively smuggling trade, coupled with elevated prices and rampant counterfeiting.
Due to the increased use of home computers and the advent of the Internet, it has become much easier for people in the United States to purchase illegal cigars online from neighboring countries such as Canada where there is no embargo against Cuba. The full impact of computers and the Internet on the embargo is not known. As with all illegal activity, there is a higher risk of being taken in a scam, either by receiving counterfeit goods or nothing at all.

- Little Bro

www.schwartzbroscigars.com