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Mexican authorities celebrated Wednesday the decision of the United States to reopen from November its land borders, closed by the covid-19 pandemic since March 2020, and highlighted the “closeness” between the two governments.
“The closeness that we have at this moment with the United States in matters that have to do with millions of people had not been seen for many years,” said Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard, during the morning press conference of the president, Andrés Manuel López Orador, at the National Palace.
The White House announced Tuesday night that it will open its land borders with Mexico and Canada on a November date yet to be confirmed and will require travelers seeking entry to have proof of a full vaccination scheme.
The reopening of the border, until now closed to non-essential travel, has been a repeated demand of Mexico, which in the summer accelerated vaccination in the 45 border municipalities to facilitate an agreement on the matter.
Ebrard recalled that both governments agreed to create a working group on the border during Vice President Kamala Harris’ visit to Mexico in June.
Since then they have been “working closely” and sharing information with Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
“Vaccination averages in Mexico, especially in the northern region, but also in the rest of the country, are very high, compared to those in the United States, there are even cities in Mexico that have more people vaccinated than their counterparts in the United States,” said Ebrard.
The Mexican Secretary of Foreign Affairs revealed that there are other meetings scheduled to study the vaccination certificates that will be required for the border crossing.
And he celebrated that the United States will accept “all vaccines approved by the World Health Organization (WHO)”, and not only those manufactured in that country.
So far, 48.9 million of the 126 million Mexicans have completed the vaccination scheme throughout the country with a wide range of vaccines.
In the 45 border municipalities of the northern states of Baja California, Sonora, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas, 3.7 million Pfizer and Janssen vaccines were applied, some donated by the United States to speed up the opening of the border.
López Obrador considered the reopening of the border as “good news” and attributed it to the “management of the Mexican Government with the United States.”
