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Immigrant Laborers From Haiti Are Paid With Abuse in the Dominican Republic 

The tobacco fields are being planted a little late this year because the Haitian immigrants who work them were driven away by threats of a lynching.

The troubles in this farm town in the country's northwest started in late September, with allegations that a Dominican worker had been killed by two black men. Too angry to wait for a trial, local Dominicans armed themselves with machetes and went out for vengeance.

"Where there are two Haitians, kill one; where there are three Haitians, kill two," said leaders of the mobs that descended on the immigrants' camps, the Haitians here recalled. "But always let one go so that he can run back to his country and tell them what happened."

Several Haitian workers were beaten by the Dominican mobs, said Jacobo Martínez Jiménez, an immigrant organizer. . . .

"The problem is that there is no real justice," said Francisco Cabrera, who rents a few dozen acres of tobacco land here and uses Haitian laborers. He said the police rarely tried to stop attacks on them. "So people take justice into their own hands."

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Their work doesn't go up in smoke 

For cigar aficionados passing through a Union Township smoke shop, it may be about getting a good stogie. For the owners, it's about something greater.

Richard Penk and Dennis Panchyshyn, of the Smoker's Delight Cigar Shop on Stuyvesant Avenue, have raised more than $10,000 in the last three years through online auctions and charity events for those in need in the Dominican Republic.

Working with Fuente & Newman Premium Cigars Limited Inc., Smoker's Delight has helped raise money to build a grammar school and water purification systems in impoverished areas of the Dominican Republic -- a country known for its fine cigars.

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ASIL Insights: WTO Panel Rules on Geographical Indications 

In early April 2005, the WTO Appellate Body (AB) issued a ruling in an appeal of a case brought by Honduras against measures taken by the Dominican Republic in connection with the importation and internal sale of cigarettes.[1] One of the measures was a requirement that a tax stamp be affixed to all cigarettes.

The importance of this case stems from its analysis of Article XX(d) of the GATT 1994. Article XX , entitled "General Exceptions," allows WTO members to take 10 types of measures (listed in subparagraphs a-j) that would otherwise conflict with their WTO obligations, provided that specified conditions are met. Subparagraph (d) covers measures "necessary" to secure compliance with laws or regulations that are themselves consistent with the WTO. The Dominican Republic claimed its tax stamp requirement was covered by Article XX (d) because it was "necessary" to ensure compliance with tax and anti-cigarette smuggling laws.

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New Year's Revolution 

I resolve to quit smoking.

Light up a Carlos Torano Torpedo and puff away. The Dominican Republic grows and hand-rolls some of the best cigars this side of the Caribbean. There are cigar plantations and factories throughout the country, though most congregate around Santiago and the Cibao Valley region, near Puerto Plata. In Santiago, you can visit the E. Leon Jimenez and La Aurora cigarette/cigar operation and shop at the factory store. Or sample stogies -- and rum cocktails -- at Cafe Cito ( 1/4 mile west of Playa Dorada's main gate), where the house cigar is Cuevas Hermanos. And at the resortopolis of Punta Cana, watch the cigar transform from tobacco leaves into giant ash at the Domenico Cigar Manufactory

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Fernandez Returns to Dominican Presidency 

Leonel Fernandez was sworn in as the Dominican Republic's president Monday, returning to power after four years out of office to lead a nation struggling through its worst economic crisis in decades.

Fernandez, a 50-year-old lawyer and author who spent much of his youth in New York City, took the oath of office in Congress before hundreds of people. . . .

Fernandez urged Congress, controlled by Mejia's party, to increase taxes on tobacco, telecommunications and international travel by 10 percent to 20 percent.

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General Cigar Makes Sizeable Contribution to Flood Relief in D.R. 

On Friday, May 28, 2004, General Cigar Dominicana donated 4.2 million pesos worth of food and supplies to aid flood victims along the border separating the Dominican Republic and Haiti. Last week, torrential rain washed away villages and claimed more than 1,700 lives in the area, and left as many as 11,200 families homeless, and without food, clothing and shelter.

General Cigar Dominicana's donation, which included medicine, food and bottled water, was one of the largest Dominican donations made to bolster the relief effort.

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Cigars For Charity 

It's time to light up a Fuente for a very good cause. On November 22nd, the Fuente and Newman cigar families hope to have 5,000 cigar aficionados simultaneously light up, creating the world's largest cigar toast. The event aims to raise more than $250,000 for the children of El Caribe, where Fuente grows wrapper tobacco in the Dominican Republic.

"We wanted to see if we could help the children in the surrounding communities," said Eric M. Newman, president of the J.C. Newman Cigar Co. as he described the project at a recent lunch at New York City's Grand Havana Room. He held up photographs of children. "These are our kids. We're happy that cigars can be the catalyst to help make dreams come true." . . .

On November 22, more than 100 smoke shops will host the event

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Lighting Up A Community 

Cigar smokers in the United States are planning to puff away tonight to help out cigarmakers and their families in the Dominican Republic.

The families behind J.C. Newman Cigar Co. and Tabacalera A. Fuente y Cia hope to raise $250,000 tonight with its Toast Across America, an event that should have 5,000 cigar smokers, in all 50 states, lighting up simultaneously at 7 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.

The smokers will pay $50 a pop and will receive two commemorative cigars . . .

Newman is based in Tampa, and Fuente's headquarters are in Santiago, Dominican Republic. The companies are raising money for the Cigar Family Charitable Foundation, which is planning to build a 23-acre community center with education facilities for children and adults, a clean water supply, a modern health care center and a youth sports center for the people who live in villages outside the Dominican town of Caribe. The charity is trying to raise $1 million, and has received $400,000 so far.

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Dominican smoking targeted 

As part of an effort to cut tobacco use worldwide, University of Rochester Medical Center doctors and researchers will work with community leaders in the Dominican Republic to reduce smoking there.

The National Institutes of Health has awarded UR $1.9 million for the project. It is one of 14 grants worth $20 million made by the NIH to combat tobacco-caused illnesses and death in developing countries.

UR’s smoking-cessation project will utilize a unique system called “Little Intelligent Communities” or LINCOS that was developed, in part, by UR’s Center for Future Health to bring modern technology to rural and urban areas of developing countries.

More than a dozen people from UR and its James P. Wilmot Cancer Center, along with those in the Dominican Republic, will assess attitudes about tobacco use, train health care workers and provide smoking-cessation programs that are appropriate for the culture.

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Dominican Plane Crash Kills Four, Including Three Tobacco Men  

A small plane carrying three tobacco men crashed Wednesday in the mountains of the Dominican Republic, killing everyone on board. On the plane were Alvaro Quesada, president of the Dominican Tobacco Exporters Association, his son Alvaro Jr., Julio Fajardo, a top man at Manufactura de Tabacos S.A. (Matasa) and the pilot. Alvaro Quesada's brother, Manuel, is the owner of Matasa, which makes Fonseca, Cubita and many other cigars.

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Looking for Columbus 

The Spanish built a fortified outpost there in 1540, but Puerto Plata's day in the sun wouldn't come until the late 19th century, when it was the commercial outlet for the island's rich tobacco trade. Rows of bright pastel gingerbread mansions, the former homes of German tobacco traders, still line the narrow streets of the Old City, offering shelter and sustenance to down-at-the-heels travelers. . .

The next morning it was back through bustling Santiago, the D.R.'s second city and tobacco capital [This graph only]

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Tobacco Farmers in Cuba and Dominican Republic Look for Rain 

``It's been a very dry summer in the central Caribbean and right now we could use some rain. Things are looking very dry,'' Menendez said. ``I don't mean rain like the torrents from a hurricane, but a good steady rain couldn't hurt things.''

Menendez, who was the director of Central American and Caribbean tobacco operations for Spain's Tabacalera SA (now Altadis SA), said the last significant rain was in August when what was left of Hurricane Debby briefly brushed by the island of Hispaniola.

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Guarding a Lead in the Cigar Market...From a Rival Waiting in the Wings (int'l edition) 

Quality is of the essence in the Dominican Republic, the world's largest producer of premium, or hand-rolled, cigars. Based in the Cibao Valley around the city of Santiago de los Caballeros, 130 km northwest of capital Santo Domingo, the cigar industry last year brought in $323 million to this Caribbean country. But with Americans' premium-cigar smoking fad of the mid-1990s now fading and overall consumption in steady decline, Dominican producers must ensure more than ever that they don't lose their market leadership to fierce rivals from Honduras, Nicaragua, and Mexico.

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Dominicans Fight Trademark Piracy 

For many businesses, legal recourse until recently was hardly more promising.

The House of Tobacco, the licensed local producer of Monte Cristo cigars, went to court 11 times in the past six years to fight counterfeiters, but attorney Marcos Troncoso said cases languished because judges were either corrupt or untrained.

``Many of the judges are much better prepared now,'' he said. ``And they've taken out a lot of the corrupt ones.''

Last month authorities finally acted, confiscating more than $5 million worth of fake cigars bound for the United States and Europe

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Mejia Wins Dominican Election 

Left-leaning populist Hipolito Mejia was declared the winner of the Dominican presidential race Thursday after his opponents withdrew from a run-off election. . . A former director of the Dominican Tobacco Institute, Mejia runs an agrochemical business and was agriculture secretary from 1978-82 under President Antonio Guzman. [This graph only]

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