Brazil will make available as much as US$300 million in credit to Cuba to begin the reconstruction of the Port of Mariel, the Reuters news agency reported, citing Brazil's Minister of Industry and Commerce, Miguel Jorge. Speaking in Havana, Jorge said the project will be led by a Brazilian company and will include the construction of roadways and a railroad. Brazilian officials told Reuters that Cuba expects to pay for the rest of the construction, which could have a total cost of $2 billion.
The port, about 30 miles west of Havana, will become a logistics center for Cuba's fledgling offshore oil industry. In 1980, it served as stage for a massive exodus of Cubans to the United States.
The Brazilian oil company Petrobras will open an office in Havana next week and will conduct exploration in Cuban waters. For more details, click here.
---Renato Pérez Pizarro.
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US construction companies could participate in this work, but US law doesn't permit US companies to invest US funds nor to employ US workers in this kind of obviously lucrative opportunity. Talk about shooting itself in the foot! US law harms US interests in Cuba today.
Here's how Granma is reporting the story today:
GRANMA
July 10, 2009
BRAZIL
Raúl Receives Brazilian Minister of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade
In the afternoon of Thursday, July 9th, President Raúl Castro Ruz had a friendly meeting with Mr. Miguel Jorge, Brazilian minister of development, industry and foreign trade who, at the head of a large trade delegation from that sister nation, had undertaken an intense program of activities with diverse Cuban organizations and institutions with the aim of promoting the development of bilateral cooperation.
Also participating were Vice Presidents of the Council of Ministers Ricardo Cabrisas Ruiz and Jorge Luis Sierra Cruz, and Mr. Bernardo Pericás, the Brazilian ambassador in Cuba, and Mr. Reginaldo Arcuri, president of the Brazilian Industrial Development Agency.
Posted by: Walter Lippman | July 10, 2009 at 01:32 PM