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• national
• Business and Economy
• Personalities
• 04 / 07 / 2010

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Havana has detained two Cuban functionaries working for companies linked to a Chilean millionaire, the Chilean newspaper La Tercera reported Wednesday.

One is an accountant for the ING holding company, which handles the business in Havana of businessman Max Marambio.

The (mxm) other is a manager for Rio Zaza, a food exporting company jointly owned by Marambio and the Cuban government.

No charges have been pressed but the detainees' whereabouts are unknown, the paper said. This is how La Tercera reports the situation.

Raúl Castro ordered an investigation of Marambio's holdings in mid-December 2009 after the businessman complained about being denied access to his Rio Zaza funds.

The government had frozen those funds – about $23 million, according to a Marambio associate, about $30 million, according to Radio Bío-Bío – adducing widespread liquidity problems.

The investigation also spread to the Cuban tourist agency Sol y Son, partly owned by Marambio's brother, Marcel.

Marambio's inability to access his Rio Zaza funds forced him in February to shut down two of its plants, leaving 500 workers jobless. The company reportedly exported about $100 million in Cuban products per year.

Chilean Foreign Minister Alfredo Moreno told the daily La Nación on Monday that his government is "following the situation closely" and will support any claims by Chilean entrepreneurs in Cuba.

"We shall be ready to cooperate in whatever we can," he said, but he ruled out any immediate disruption in diplomatic relations with Cuba.

By Renato Pérez Pizarro.

Source: The Miami Herald