Cuban cigar fiesta marred by embargo smokescreen

"A woman is only a woman, but a good cigar is a smoke," was but one of many delightfully meaningless, yet wickedly politically incorrect asides to come from cigar chomping Groucho Marx. If alive today he would surely top the guest list at a state sponsored bash to be held in Marxist Havana next week for a decidedly unproletarian soiree to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Cuba's famed Cohiba cigars.

One of Cuba's finest cigar brands, Cohibas, once a symbol of the revolution, has now become a symbol of capitalist luxury. A box of 25 Cohibas, Castro's preferred brand until he stopped smoking a few years ago, reportedly costs more than £500 on the US black market where Cuban cigars are banned. The US Treasury Department has warned American party goers that they may face a maximum of $250,000 in fines or a jail term of up to 10 years if they spend money on the island. A US trade embargo has denied revenues to the Castro regime for more than 35 years. Cuba's gross income from cigar exports last year reportedly totalled around £100 million.