Staff and agencies
04 March, 2007
By ANITA SNOW, Associated Press Writer Sat Mar 3, 8:19 PM ET
HAVANA - Wealthy cigar aficionados toasted the health of ailing leader
Fidel Castro and shelled out $728,000 at an annual auction of elaborate
humidors that for the first time did not bear the signature of the
80-year-old revolutionary.
The amount raised was similar to past years. But this year's auction,
during a dinner at the close of the annual Habanos cigar festival, was
the first in the festival's nine years that Castro had not signed the
humidors. It was the fourth year he did not attend the closing gala
dinner in person.
The bearded guerrilla who ruled Cuba for 47 years ceded his power to his
brother Raul in late July after undergoing intestinal surgery and has
not appeared in public since.
About 800 people from more than 40 nations attended this year's elegant
dinner wrapping up five days of seminars on the qualities of Cuba's
finest smokes, as well as trips to tobacco fields, curing houses and
cigar factories.
Through Habanos S.A., a partnership of the Cuban government and the
Spanish-French tobacco firm Altadis, the island produces more than a
third of the world's cigars for export, with sales of $370 million last
year. Although a trade embargo on the island prevents Cuba from
marketing its cigars in the United States, its hand-rolled smokes are
highly popular among Americans and numerous Americans attend the Habanos
festival each year.
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