Recently, the turmoil in Nicaragua also claimed the long-running Nicaraguan Cigar Festival Puro Sabor Festival, an annual festival that celebrates the cigar culture in the country. The festival organizers recently announced that the 2019 festival, originally set for January 2019, had been postponed. It will be replaced with a one-day event to be held in Miami on Jan. 26, 2019. Drew Estate also announced that its popular Cigar Safari program which offered cigar enthusiasts a chance to experience Nicaragua’s cigar culture first-hand, would also be postponed until the fall of 2019. Here is their full statement:
“Cigar Safari is part of the fabric of Drew Estate, and our family in Nicaragua truly enjoys hosting trips, guiding our retailers and customers from seed to smoke. Regretfully, due to ongoing travel disruption in Nicaragua, we will not be offering Cigar Safari trips until Fall of 2019 and Spring of 2020. Ticket sales will be launched on May 28th, 2019.
“If you have always wanted to go on Cigar Safari and were planning to go this fall or next spring, we hope you can join us at a Barn Smoker instead! The Drew Estate cast of characters, Fabian, Willy, Pedro, Henry, and Fat Chop JD look forward to hosting the upcoming Barn Smokers. In 2018 the season includes smokers in Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Florida, and Louisiana. For more information please subscribe at DrewEstate.com.”
While the Nicaraguan government is pushing the narrative that life is returning to normal in the troubled country, the country’s tobacco businesses are saying otherwise. The U.S. and many in the international have spoken out against Ortega and his administration’s handling of the protestors while Cuba and Venezuela have supported Ortega, calling the protests “coups”. It is unclear when the situation will improve in Nicaragua and what lasting impact or consequences it has on the country’s tobacco industry.
To read more about the crisis in Nicaragua, click here. To read CNN’s latest report on Nicaragua’s protests, click here.
