Mariel, Cuba
Mariel on the map of Cuba
Mariel is a city and a municipality in the Cuban province of Artemisa. By 2010, the municipality belonged to the defunct province of La Habana.
Mariel is located approximately 40 km west of Havana on the southeast side of the Mariel bay. On the eastern side of the bay is a haven, a cement plant and a power plant. On the western side there was a submarine base, now a special economic zone. In the municipality of 44 597 people live on an area of 270.6 km ², representing a population density of 164.8 inhabitants per km ².
Mariel has the Cuban port which is nearest to the United States. In 1980, fled from this port approximately 125,000 Cubans to the United States. Many of them reached their destination, but some lost their lives in the sea. This known as the Mariel boat crisis event can be found in the opening scene from the movie Scarface Brian De Palma again.
Ernest Hemingway's granddaughter Mariel said to have been named after this place.
Expansion of the port of Mariel
By 2013 the port of Mariel to be developed into the largest container port in the Caribbean. The construction is carried out by a joint venture with Brazilian company Odebrecht and the Cuban company Almacenes Universal SA The total investment is $ 600 million U.S. .. The harbor entrance to a width of 700 meters obtained which makes it possible to accommodate two large container ships simultaneously. In addition, the port for vessels up to 15 meters draft accessible ( In comparison, allows the Havana harbor just 11 meters draft ). At the end of the expansion work, the terminal should be able to manage one million containers a capacity of 850,000 (Port of Havana: 350,000 containers). This extension is intended to allow Mariel to receive large container ships traveling through the Panama Canal from Asia to Cuba. Also Mariel to provide optimal conditions for U.S. container. Mariel is thus replacing the Havana harbor for freight tasks in the future this will be only used for tourism.
On 31 January 2012, the Cuban President Raúl Castro and Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff visited during their state visit to Cuba the site to be convinced of the progress of the work.