Cuba: an investor per month for Mariel

Seven companies received approval to settle in the port of Mariel and the surrounding industrial zone, a sign that the greater economic project of Cuba could finally start.

"We are in the month of July and we have approved nearly a company per month," Ana Teresa Igarza, General Director of the Office of the Special Development Zone of Mariel told The Associated Press in an exclusive interview.

In the future US companies, that have already shown particular interest in coming to Mariel after a diplomatic rapprochement between Washington and Havana, could also be established for the first time in half a century.

An AP tour of the harbor and the development zone noted progress in some 4,500 hectares of what was termed sector A, the first to be launched. Along the way there are trucks crushing land for asphalting, excavators working and an esplanade for the installation of the first two factories, one Spanish of beverage and one Mexican of meat.