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Nicaragua: The Tobacco-Producing Country That Endures

To cigar smokers, Nicaragua is alreadyfrom 1912 to 1933. Left-wing guerilla Augusto
legendary. Through regime change, socialSandino led an effort to expel them, which
upheaval, and revolution, this Latin Americanwas partially successful; but Anastasio
nation has produced some of the world'sSomoza Garcia, a conservative, later secretly
finest tobacco. And since the post-1959ordered his assassination, putting an end to
"cigar diaspora"-when many of Cuba's greata brief left-and-right coalition government.
cigar makers fled the country to seek moreThe Somozas ruled until 1979, when a party
propitious conditions than those theynamed after that dead guerilla-the FSLN, or
expected to find under Castro-it's producedSandinista party-ousted them from power. The
many  of  the  world's  finest  cigars,  too.wheel turns again. And again: during the
'80s, the country was torn apart by war
Since 1959, Nicaragua has been a cigarbetween the right-wing, US-backed Contras and
powerhouse, producing some of thethe left-wing, ruling Sandinistas (who, on
highest-ranked and best-selling premiumthe good side, reduced the country's
cigars in the world: CAO, Perdomo, Padron,widespread illiteracy by a stunning forty
Don Pepin Garcia and Drew Estate among manypercent within five months, but on the bad
others. It competes even with the wares ofside, committed human rights violations
the Dominican Republic and Cuba, currentlyduring  the  civil  war).
the cigar world's reigning superpowers. But
there's a lot more to this country than justThe Sandinistas, incidentally, almost
great smokes: from the marvelous ancientdestroyed the country's preeminence among
footprints of Acahualinca to the fact that itcigar-tobacco growers. In trying to put the
was the first Latin American nation to electdesperately-poor, and politically encircled,
a woman President, Nicaragua has a historynation on a more secure economic footing, the
worth knowing about-and one that may impactSandinistas ordered tobacco farmers to switch
its  future  as  a  cigar  lover's  capital.to cultivating cigarette tobacco. (This was
before the "cigar boom" of the 1990s; many
Roughly the size of New York, the country isobservers expected the market for cigars to
rich in natural resources-so much so thatcontinue to dwindle.) Wherever a person may
nearly twenty percent of its territory iscome down politically, cigar smokers can
taken up by one or anotheragree  that  this  was  a  mistake!
officially-designated nature preserve.
Predictably, this fertile and beautifulBoth sides in the nation's long culture war
country has been the subject of frequentwere heavily hit in 1998 by Hurricane Mitch,
political power struggles: first between theone of many natural disasters to wreak havoc
various Spanish Conquistadores and theon this beleaguered country. After decades of
indigenous population, which has had acivil war had handicapped its economy and
presence in the area for at least sixwrecked much of its infrastructure, this
thousand years and was nearly wiped out bycataclysmic hurricane did away with nearly
1529. Nicaragua was later annexed by theseventy percent of the infrastructure still
Mexican Empire, finally achievingstanding  at  the  time.
independence in 1838; since then, rival
conservative and liberal factions have foughtUnder the circumstances, it's amazing that
each other for control of the country'sNicaragua continues to enjoy the regional
destiny. There was civil war during the 1840simportance that it does-but sometimes amazing
and '50s, during which an American pretender,things happen. Nicaragua makes three hundred
William Walker, briefly declared himself themillion in exports every year (mostly
country's leader after double-crossing theagricultural), boasts one of the
Liberals who had recruited him to fight inbest-regarded rums in Latin America (Flor de
the war. (Several Latin American countries'Cana), enjoys a flourishing tourism industry
armies united to chase him out of the countryand, of course, makes some truly heavenly
the  following  year,  in  1856.)tobacco. Though it's considered a developing
nation, it did recently earn a ranking from
This pattern-conservative-vs.-liberalthe World Bank as the sixty-second best place
infighting, with occasional interference fromto start a new business-the
the nearest world power-continued through thehighest-performing Central American country
twentieth century. A US-backed Conservativein this particular ranking, except for
regime ruled for decades early in thePanama.
century, with Marines occupying the country



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