The opening of the border between Mexico and the United States remains suspended

Juan Manuel Ramirez c.

Mexico City, August 9 (EFE). – The President of Mexico, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, had a “friendly talk” on Monday with the Vice President of the United States, Kamala Harris, in which they touched on the issue of immigration, the full opening of the borders between the two countries and the donation of vaccines against COVID-19.

“We spoke again with Kamala Harris, Vice President of the United States,” the Mexican president said in a message on Twitter.

“With good relations, we have dealt with the issue of immigration and the complete opening of the northern borders to revitalize our economies and continue mutual cooperation to confront the COVID-19 pandemic,” he added.

The president did not reveal more details about the phone conversation, and announced that he would announce tomorrow, Tuesday, in his daily conference, “with more accuracy, but we expect the dialogue to be for the better.”

Shortly before, Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard confirmed that he was present at the conversation. “I accompanied President Lopez Obrador during his cordial call with the Vice President of the United States, Kamala Harris.”

Follow up on bilateral issues

In a statement from the White House Vice President’s Office, it was noted that the conversation between Harris and Lopez Obrador was “to follow up on issues discussed during his June 8 visit to Mexico City.”

They noted that on the call, they discussed bilateral cooperation to care for migrants arriving at the US-Mexico border.

Harris noted that irregular migration at the border between the two countries “is a key priority of the Biden-Harris administration” and López Obrador updated US efforts, including the July 29 publication of the US Strategy, to address the root causes of migration in Central America.

Both sides agreed on the need to strengthen the economies of Central American countries, particularly through “investment in agriculture and climate resilience.”

Meanwhile, the Mexican president thanked the United States for its assistance in the fight against the COVID-19 epidemic, including more than 4 million vaccines that had been sent to the country while Vice President Harris “expressed his pleasure to share the United States government’s commitment to send additional doses of the vaccine to the country.” Mexico”.

Border reopening

Lopez Obrador has submitted that he will ask Harris to immediately reopen the common border, which has been partially closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic since the end of March 2020.

Mexico accelerated vaccination in June in municipalities bordering the United States to persuade the White House to reopen the border, closing off non-essential travel, but no agreement has been reached on the issue yet as a result of the expansion of the alternative. Delta coronavirus.

The Mexican president said a full reopening would depend on the conversation with Harris, though he also stressed that there was a “rebound in infections” in both Mexico and neighboring countries, such as Texas, which would make opening the door difficult.

Vaccine donation

In addition, Lopez Obrador said that the United States had made an offer to Mexico of 3.5 million Moderna vaccines “a minimum,” but that this process was “delayed” due to a lack of documentation.

Lopez Obrador added that the donation was “originally the Moderna vaccine” and all documents had been delivered so that Mexico’s Federal Health Risk Protection Commission “can authorize the use of this vaccine applied in the United States.”

It will be the third shipment agreed between the two countries to combat the epidemic.

At the end of March and the early days of April, 2.7 million AstraZeneca vaccines arrived in Mexico. Then 1.5 million Janssen arrived in mid-June, 3.5 million Moderna were added to it.

In total, 7.7 million vaccines will reach Mexico from the United States.

This Monday, Mexico has reported 2.97 million confirmed infections and 244,690 deaths, the country is going through a third wave of infections despite the authorities’ confidence that vaccination will stop the lethality of this wave.

Also on Monday, the Mexican government reported that it had vaccinated, at least in one dose, 85.7% of elderly people in 45 municipalities on the US border. EFE

jmrg / esc / gcf