This is a very touchy question and I feel that a brief study of Cuban-American relations will answer this question for you. Turn off the TV and pick up a book on US foreign policy! If you really don't have the time, here is a brief synopsis: Fidel Castro overthrows Batista in Cuba in the 1950s and aligns himself with the Soviet Bloc in creating a communist state. America doesn't like this development and initiates a trade embargo that is still in effect today. The embargo includes Cuban cigars. There has been much talk of this trade embargo being lifted in the near future, but any progress remains to be seen. However, the quality of non-Cuban cigars is so excellent now that Cuba's stranglehold on the image of the "perfect cigar" is starting to become irrelevant and outdated as the quality of Dominican, Nicaraguan and Honduran cigars reaches and surpasses the quality of Cubans.