Summer traffic heats up: Complaints about delays and closure of crossings between Argentina and Uruguay

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Sofía R. and her family traveled two weeks ago to Punta del Este as an early vacation. They took the car and crossed through Gualeguaychú (Argentina).

On the way back they had to return through Salto (Uruguay) since the other bridges were closed ffor the return trip. And on the way there they had also had delays because for some time -she did not know it- the immigration controls of one country and the other have been carried out in two different ways.

Thus, when she arrived at the bridge that joins Gualeguaychú (Argentina) with Fray Bentos (Uruguay), although there were only six cars, the process took her more than an hour.

“Before, the procedure was unified. Now, everything has to be done twice. It is a total lack of coordination between the countries and a waste of time. I don’t even want to imagine what it will be like in the season when thousands of cars want to cross. Not to mention the ridiculousness of having to drive so many extra kilometers because that same crossing was closed to return to the country,” says Sofia, indignant.

It is just a preview of what the crossing could be like in the approaching summer. Therefore, complaints about the closure of the crossing with the neighboring country are growing, and the issue even generates some tension between Uruguay and Argentina.

Also, the governor of Entre Ríos (Argentina), Gustavo Bordet, issued a claim to the national government in favor of rehabilitating two of the three bridges linking the province with Uruguayan land, which remain closed for entry.

During his speech, the Uruguayan Minister of Tourism, Tabaré Viera, who participated on Sunday in the opening of the 25th International Tourism Fair in Buenos Aires, called for the reopening of the borders. “Closed borders, low circulation, is a deadly combo for the sector,” he shot.

He continued: “Coordination is fundamental. Land, air, and sea borders must be open for tourism, with security, with vaccines, with tests, but let’s make it easy in the coordination of the region’s governments on sanitary statuses, protocols, and border actions. This is the moment to coordinate to make life easier for tourists when they have to cross a border that should no longer exist,” he said.

Yesterday afternoon, Viera participated in a meeting at the Uruguayan embassy in Buenos Aires, in which Ambassador Carlos Enciso and the Argentine Minister of Tourism, Matías Lammens, were present. At the meeting, the tone was similar: the urgency for reopening borders before the imminent start of the summer season.

However, the Argentine government denies that this was a claim of the Uruguayan authorities towards Argentina; they speak of working within a joint plan to reopen the borders.

Specifically, they talked about the rehabilitation of the closed bridges: Gualeguaychú-Fray Bentos and Colón-Paysandú, both to go and to return.

The only crossing currently authorized to go from Uruguay to Argentina is the one connecting Salto with Concordia, which forces those returning from, for example, Punta del Este or Montevideo, to make detours of hundreds of kilometers.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, the National Directorate of Migration, in Coordination with the National Ministry of Health, ordered the closure of more than 200 border crossings. Today, only about 40 international crossings have been reestablished.

There is discontent and demands from local communities, travelers, and tour operators to reestablish them with the corresponding sanitary controls.

When asked by La Nacion newspaper whether the border closure situation is being reevaluated before the arrival of summer, Migrations referred to the health authority. The Ministry of Health, meanwhile, informed that border relations must be agreed upon between both countries, and Argentina cannot unilaterally decide to reopen them.

They also pointed out that, with the appearance of the Omicron variant in the country, the protocols are “in constant reformulation”.

INCOMPREHENSIBLE

Governor Bordet joined the controversy when he complained today from Uruguay about the delay of Argentine health authorities in reestablishing the crossings. “It is incomprehensible that officials of the Ministry of Health do not take the dimension of the problem they are causing in Entre Ríos”, he said, during the act of transfer of command of the authorities of the Uruguay River Basin Committee, which was attended by President Luis Lacalle Pou.

In a dialogue with the Uruguayan press, the president pointed out the “damage” that the delay brings to “tourism, commerce and many families in the region”.

“From Entre Ríos we have been negotiating for several months the opening of the Colón-Paysandú and Gualeguaychú-Fray Bentos bridges, as we have already done in Concordia-Salto. We are making available all the infrastructure and personnel to guarantee that they are safe crossings,” he emphasized.

However, “there is a provision of the Argentine Ministry of Health that still does not authorize us, incomprehensibly,” he pointed out. “It is essential to carry out these integration processes for tourism, but also for the families that are assembled on both banks of the Uruguay River and who need to be able to meet again.”

The testimony of travelers confirms the need to move forward in this direction. A little over a week ago, José F. arrived with his family by car in Gualeguaychú on their way to Uruguay.

“It was complicated to cross because we had to go through Migration twice, once on the Argentine side and once on the Uruguayan side. We have been crossing this bridge for more than 25 years, and we had never encountered such a lack of coordination and bureaucracy. But the worst thing is that, on the way back, we had to detour some 200 kilometers to the Salto-Concordia crossing when we could have crossed through Fray Bentos, as usual. However, the crossing was closed to enter the country, a ridiculous thing to do,” protests José.

The Argentine government insists that there is no claim by Uruguay but that the two countries are working to see how to make it possible; it is even speculated that Argentina is more interested than Uruguay in the reopening of the borders because the exchange rate is favorable and, as soon as the crossings are enabled, thousands of Uruguayans will take advantage to come to spend the day, make purchases and refuel on the Argentine side. But, for the time being, the crossings are still closed.

With information from La Nacion