Magazine slams US for enforcing Cuban cigar ban

HAVANA, May 28 (Reuters) Cigar Aficionado, the glossy magazine for lovers of expensive cigars, criticised the US Treasury Department for continuing to spend federal funds chasing people for buying Cuban cigars.

''Stop wasting our time and money chasing cigar smokers,'' the magazine said in an editorial in its June issue, which is dedicated to Cuba as it approaches the post-Castro era.

The premium cigars hand-rolled in Cuba are considered the world's finest, but they are banned in the United States under a trade embargo adopted in 1962 to undermine Cuban leader Fidel Castro's communist government.

New York-based Cigar Aficionado said American agribusiness companies sell millions of dollars a year in food to Cuba, while momentum is growing to allow US oil companies to get involved in oil exploration in Cuba's Gulf of Mexico waters.

''Yet if you buy a Cuban cigar, you may end up in jail,'' it said. ''Something is wrong with our government priorities here.'' Cigar Aficionado, which put Castro on the cover of a 1999 issue that advocated lifting sanctions against Cuba, said US policy has failed to produce change in Cuba in 45 years. ''Isn't it time we tried something new?'' the magazine asked.

Its June issue, headlined ''Cuba Tomorrow,'' focuses on changes on the island nation since the 80-year-old Castro ceded power to his brother Raul after emergency intestinal surgery 10 months ago and dropped out of sight.

When its previous issue on Cuba appeared in 1999, officials in Miami, a bastion of anti-Castro sentiment among Cuban exiles, pulled the magazine from news racks at the airport because it was considered too flattering to the Cuban leader.

REUTERS CS SBA BST0355