Paraguay Approves Protocol for Controlled Border Opening with Brazil

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – On Monday, the Paraguayan government approved the health protocol for a future controlled reopening of its land border with Brazil, with the aim of reactivating trade between the two countries after six months of total isolation to contain the coronavirus.

The measure was announced during the week in which traders from Ciudad del Este, capital of the department of Alto Paraná, plan to protest calling for the total opening of the border with the neighboring country, around which the area’s commercial activity revolves.

The Minister of Health, Julio Mazzoleni, announced to the media that the President of the country, Mario Abdo Benítez, approved the health protocol that will regulate “the opening of shopping tourism and also the economic reactivation of the area of Upper Paraná”.

In that regard, and in the same appearance, Foreign Minister Antonio Rivas explained that the partial reopening is contingent upon a telephone contact between Abdo Benítez and his Brazilian counterpart, Jair Bolsonaro, which would take place shortly.

Mazzoleni stressed that the commercial reopening is based “largely on a similar epidemiological situation at this time between the border cities,” particularly between Ciudad del Este, Paraguay’s second-largest city, and Brazil’s Foz do Iguaçu.

The Minister said that COVID-19 cases have started to decline on both sides of the border after the outbreak recorded up to a couple of weeks ago, with Brazil being the global focus of the pandemic early on in South America.

Ciudad del Este, 330 kilometers from Asunción, was until last August “the red zone” for the spread of the virus in the country, linked to the massive return of Paraguayans due to the loss of jobs in the neighboring country.

Until Sunday, health authorities reported a cumulative 33,520 confirmed COVID-19 infections and 659 deaths, of which 23 were in the previous 24 hours.

The announcement of the partial reopening of commerce follows a bilateral document signed by the two countries last week to set up logistical trade centers and also to reactivate commercial activity on their borders.

In this regard, the director of Migration, Angeles Arriola, said that a government delegation would travel on Tuesday to Ciudad del Este, separated from the Brazilian city of Foz do Iguaçu by the Friendship Bridge, to promote health measures and rules for the operation of these logistics or shopping centers.

Source: infobae