Guido Carelli Lynch
10/23/2020 8:48 PM
Clarín.com
Politics
Updated 10/23/2020 8:49 PM
Everything remains the same, but everything is about to change.
The Government is preparing to open the borders that remain closed - with exceptions - for foreigners since March 16.
The initiative would initially allow flights and long-distance buses from the 5 bordering countries:
Brazil, Paraguay, Bolivia, Chile and Uruguay
(by boat).
The measure would be implemented between next week and the next, before the new quarantine period that the President announced this Friday expires.
The viral and "federal" circulation of the coronavirus in Argentina -which exceeded one
million infections
, one of the highest records in the world- relativized the risks posed by opening up to neighboring countries.
Also, the need for
fresh
tourism
dollars
to contain the stampede of
the blue dollar
.
The transportation industry lobbied.
In the Cabinet, the possibility of giving the green light to the partial opening of borders at the beginning of the brand new quarantine stage was intensely debated.
The ministers of Health,
Ginés González García
;
Interior,
Eduardo “Wado” de Pedro
;
Tourism,
Matías Lammens
;
Transport,
Mario Meoni
;
and the Chief of Cabinet,
Santiago Cafiero
;
together with the President they participated in the deliberations.
For now the opening of borders has been suspended, but there will be a definition next week.
At the end of Friday, Meoni and Cafiero continued to review the scope of the measure at Casa Rosada.
As in the last extensions, the
DNU
that Alberto Fernández will sign in the next few hours to extend the quarantine allows the Chief of Staff to introduce changes before it expires.
Doubts still persist about how to enable
health corridors:
which airports could be opened, how often would it be allowed and which companies would be enabled.
For a sector of the Government, it is
a more gestural action
-of normalization- and towards companies than of economic impact.
In a world in pandemic, they cannot imagine hordes of tourists taking advantage of the exchange rate difference.
Uruguay confirmed that it will not open its borders to foreigners this season, the absence of Argentines will represent a perjury of
US $ 2 billion
.
Despite the refusal;
Tourism Minister Lammens assures that the plan for Uruguayan tourists to reach the country via Buquebús - which
Clarín announced
- is still in place.
Last year, tourists who visited Argentina left
US $ 6 billion
;
Before March 20, only US $ 1.5 billion entered.
For the President and the Minister of Economy,
Martín Guzmán, it
is one of the reasons for the soaring of the blue.
The opening of borders would affect in the short term in the interjurisdictional transit of Argentine citizens.
"If a Brazilian or Chilean is enabled to enter the country, it would be very strange if there is no legal umbrella for Argentines to move from one location to another, as long as the sanitary conditions of the destination are not close to collapse," he reasoned a member of the Cabinet.
It is a fact that those permits will arrive before the formal opening of the summer tourist season.
"The regulations will tend to homogenize," they warned at Casa Rosada.
To date, mobility between districts is limited for citizens who are not excepted workers or essential personnel.
However, although the flow is tolerated by the authorities, it is not allowed.
For now,
private cars will not enter
into the equation of returns from international travel;
Nor do the rest of the countries in the region such as
Peru, Ecuador and Colombia,
which are beginning to show a steeper decline in the contagion curve than that experienced by Argentina, after having gone through a scenario with more deaths.
“The episode of the coronavirus no longer comes only from Europe, it is beginning to affect neighboring countries and ourselves.
We have also observed that, due to land borders, in a very important work carried out by Migrations in Misiones, tourists come from the areas that we classify as risk zones, ”said the President when explaining the scope of the DNU that closed the borders on March 16.
The decree was extendable for 15 days,
but 221 have already passed
.
In these 7 months there were 700 "special" flights through which
only 100,000 passengers
passed
.