I read the March 1 article on Cuban cigars with much interest. A lot of talk about the much anticipated availability of Cuban cigars in the U.S. What is not mentioned is the fact that after Castro seized the Cuban government in 1959, the government confiscated tobacco plantations and cigar factories, whose rightful owners fled the country taking with them their prized tobacco seeds and their knowledge of cigar making. They toiled for years in countries like Nicaragua and Honduras to re-establish their businesses. As a result, the best cigars in the world are now produced in other countries by people that originally made them in Cuba.

Many aficionados would agree that calling a Cuban cigar a premium is a stretch. The quality is not what it once was. The paragraph in the article describing the infrastructure deficiencies and problems transporting tobacco before it goes bad says it all. Opening the U.S. market to Cuban cigars will not benefit the Cuban people. It will only benefit those running the Communist government and will harm the true owners of the original Cuban cigar industry. Can any reader of this newspaper imagine themselves working in a factory at age 78? As long as Cuban tobacco plantations and factories operate under the ownership of an oppressive government there will be no Cuban cigars in my humidor.

GARY STRICKLIN

St. Maries