The 666 meters of the modern bridge that spans the Guadiana has been a symbol of union between Spain and Portugal since it was inaugurated in 1991. But this Sunday - for the second time since the pandemic began - its slender presence on the horizon was more distant and border than usual.
The 15-day closure decreed by Portugal due to the high incidence of covid - close to 1,600 per 100,000 inhabitants - has left the Eurocity of Guadiana, made up of localities between the provinces of Faro and Huelva, faced with the harsh reality of knowing incommunicado again.
The streets of Ayamonte have been quieter for days than anyone would like.
Since more than a week ago the infection rate exceeded 500 per 100,000 inhabitants, the more than 21,000 inhabitants of this Huelva town have experienced the worst face of the virus since the pandemic began.
With all the non-essential businesses without being able to open and a municipal and regional perimeter closure in force, little more than stocking up and walking is what can be done.
The second is what, after sunset, Juan Cortés dared to do this Sunday: walk the dog.
“The people are going to suffer a lot from the closure of the border for their trade, since they depend a lot on it.
But I understand it because Portugal is very bad ”, reasoned this Ayamontino.
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In fact, since Andalusia decreed the measures to stop the advance of the third wave just after Christmas, only a few Portuguese dared to skip the perimeter confinement to go to Ayamonte, one of the three towns that make up the Eurocity, together to the Portuguese Vila Real and Castro Marim and that, in total, include around 50,000 residents.
“Until today [for this Sunday] it has closed, we have seen them come to fill up gasoline or buy butane bottles [since the price in Spain is lower],” explained Juan José Santana, a 45-year-old Ayamontino, manager of the Alcaraván cafeteria, closed until the incidence decreases.
But the border closure monitored by Portuguese and Spanish agents this Sunday no longer gave space to these savings visits.
And now José Manuel Carro, an employee of the Ayamonte gas station, wonders how long they will resist the fall in sales that have begun to suffer: “In March [when the previous border closure was decreed, which was extended until summer] we were already in ERTE and I don't know now how long the boss will hold out ”.
Natalia Santos, mayor of Ayamonte and now responsible for the Eurocity, takes charge of the concern, but appealed to responsibility: “The passage will only be allowed in very exceptional situations.
It is essential that we collaborate ”.
The beginning of the closure has been repeated along the 1,234 kilometers of the Hispano-Colombian border, in which there are five more Eurocities that have seen their economic and social relations cut off, especially intense in areas such as Galicia.
For now, the Interior Ministry will maintain the reciprocal measure of re-establishing border restrictions until February 10.
At that time, only border workers, people with just cause or domiciled in Spain, will be able to cross some posts that will also have opening hours.
Only eight - among which is the Guadiana bridge - will be open 24 hours a day.
The reintroduction of border controls decreed by the Ministry of the Interior has been coordinated, in addition to Portugal, with the rest of the EU Member States.
It adds to the reinforcement of border controls that France is already applying in all its land crossings, among which are those of Spain.
Also to the restrictions that Gibraltar - already dependent on an extra-community United Kingdom - has imposed on its Gate with the province of Cádiz.
Spain is once again isolated by land.
Few doubt the effectiveness of the measure, but fatigue is already taking its toll on citizens like Carlos Pereira, a Portuguese from Vila Real who this Sunday afternoon complained bitterly on the other side of the phone: “You just had to close the border, you don't die of covid, but the cure also kills you ”.
Gibraltar, a month with the Gate 'frozen'
Since Gibraltar ordered a new home confinement on January 2, the border with Spain has become a space of limited movement.
El Peñón has prohibited displacement on its side of the border, except for cross-border workers and for justified reasons.
And, from this Monday, Spain will also reinforce its measures by allowing the passage of Spaniards, employees and residents of Gibraltar "as long as there is reciprocity".
The measure seeks to match what the Rock was already doing for a month.
After reaching 1,317 active cases in a population of 33,718 inhabitants on January 8, the colony has experienced a gradual decrease in infections;
this Sunday there were 282 sick people.
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