Castro's Cohiba Cigar Feted in Havana

HAVANA, Cuba March 6, 2006 — -- Over a thousand wealthy Cohiba lovers descended on Havana last week for the annual cigar festival.

When it comes to building foreign friendships, Cuban President Fidel Castro has often used the stogie as a secret weapon.

Castro, according to government insiders, has handed out millions of his personal brand of hand-rolled Cohiba cigars since coming to power in 1959.

"Cuban cigars are one of the most delicious hand-crafted products you can find, like good wine, but even more so because good wines are produced in many places," said Spain's ambassador to Cuba, Carlos Alonso Zaldivar. "The Cohiba is a very good ambassador. A lot of very important people enjoy them."

Cigars were always part of Castro's carefully crafted public persona, along with his olive green military garb and beard. The rebel icon gave up smoking in 1986, but still hands out Cohibas and ships them abroad to grateful world leaders and personalities.

"I give people cigars and tell them it is poison," Castro once said. "I say: 'Smoke them if you like, but the best thing you can do with that box of cigars is give it to your enemy.'"

Castro, 79, stayed away from Havana's social event of the year. The Cuban leader doesn't wish to condone conspicuous consumption so he let his sons represent him.

Castro's five sons put in a rare public appearance at a $500-a-plate dinner Friday night. Humidors signed by Castro and filled with Cohibas and other Cuban cigar brands were auctioned off for tens, and even hundreds, of thousands of dollars for the Caribbean island's health care system.

U.S. film stars, businessmen and entertainment executives were far and few between. They used to show up in droves at the annual festival but since the Bush administration's crackdown on travel restrictions, it's become harder to fly to the sunny island south of Florida.

One Hollywood heart throb did light up the place.

Joseph Fiennes, who co-starred with Gwyneth Paltrow in the 1998 film "Shakespeare in Love," helped launch a new Cuban cigar. The "Short Churchill" is named after Winston Churchill, one of the best-known fans of Cuban cigars, along with the likes of John F. Kennedy and Jack Nicholson.