Patience of border residents is tested as coronavirus closure keeps getting extended

SANTA EULALIA, Mexico – Fully vaccinated, Rogelio Martinez is eagerly waiting for the border to reopen so he can return to work hundreds of miles away in Midland, Texas, where he works in oil fields.

“Texas is reopening its economy, but I couldn’t come back,” said Martinez, 35, outside his ranch in this mining town outside of Chihuahua City. “I’m ready to go back to work.”

But despite a massive vaccination campaign, Martinez and other Mexican residents will have to wait at least another month, perhaps much longer, before they can resume normal lives to visit the border, visit families, shop or work, senior Mexican officials say .

“At this point, we do not have all of the vaccines necessary to meet the goal of lifting restrictions by July 21,” said Roberto Velasco, director general and acting under-secretary of state for North America at Mexico’s State Department. “I have a feeling that the end of the restrictions is not far away, maybe not the 21st, but we are not that far away.”

Land border crossings have been closed to most Mexicans since March 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in travel restrictions along the 2,000 mile limit. The reopening date will depend on the launch of vaccination in Mexico and the number of confirmed Covid-19 cases. The US authorities have set a target for vaccination rates in border communities of at least 70% before reopening.

“It’s going well, but not as we’d hoped,” added Velasco. “We wanted to vaccinate people within weeks, but it took so much more time.”

A formal decision on the immediate future is expected no later than Wednesday.

Another senior Mexican official said, “We are expecting a few more weeks, maybe months, and reopening can be phased out,” as parts of the population are beginning to be fully vaccinated. The officer asked not to be named because he was not allowed to speak publicly.

Canada announced on Thursday that it would welcome vaccinated Americans in mid-August.

The delay in reopening comes as the delta variant of the coronavirus rises in the United States and Mexico. Only 16 percent of Mexicans are fully vaccinated and 28 percent have received at least one dose. By comparison, 60 percent of Americans are fully vaccinated and 67 percent have received at least one dose.

Efforts to reach vaccination parity with the United States to lift travel restrictions frustrate residents along the border and beyond, and underscore regional economic and cultural ties. Border guides, including El Paso District Judge Ricardo Samaniego, are frustrated at the different ways Mexicans and Americans are allowed to cross. For example, while the residents wait along and near the border, the Americans can fly unhindered by plane to the pristine beaches of Mexico with little effort.

Tourists walk the beaches of Cancun on July 12 as the coronavirus resurgence in Mexico raises new concerns about a setback in their efforts to lift restrictions along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Three of Mexico’s five states with the highest infection rates are popular tourist destinations, including Quintana Roo, home of Cancun and the Riviera Maya; neighboring Yucatán; and Baja California Sur, home of Los Cabos.

Economic pressures in the tourism industry have resulted in lax regulations. For example, there are no test or quarantine regulations for air travel to Mexico. Hotel guests must pass through temperature checkpoints and wear masks, but not all guests, most of them Americans, obey the rules. One day in Cancun, an American was smoking his cigar and drinking whiskey without his mask showing.

“You either die of starvation or you die of the virus,” said Juan Felipe Solís, 32, a waiter at one of Cancun’s high-end beach hotels, as he took drink orders from cigar-pounding Americans and others frolicking on the white sand and lounging around Pool. “It’s not an easy decision.”

Municipalities like Santa Eulalia with 20,042 inhabitants highlight the connections that go beyond the border. The city is a mining gem about 250 miles from the Texas border. Economically, however, it couldn’t be closer. Residents travel north here to work in the El Paso service industry and on the Permian Basin oil rigs.

Vaccination is a glimmer of hope for many with strong ties to the United States. Think of Patricia Hernandez, 41. She works as a maquiladora worker here in Santa Eulalia. She has a sister in El Paso and says she regularly crosses the border on a tourist visa to buy supplies, or works as a babysitter “from time to time” or looks after the elderly to “make a few dollars more.” “.

Near the town square is El Calorón, a small supermarket on the main street. The shop is run by Elizabeth García, 30, and her aunt Clara García, 42. The store also sells freshly baked tortillas, homemade Colorado chilli peppers, and brand new handbags and shoes from the US

El Calorón, a small supermarket on the main street. The shop is run by Elizabeth García and her aunt Clara García. The store also sells freshly baked tortillas, homemade Chile Colorado, and new handbags and shoes from the United States(Maria Ramos Pacheco)

García has not seen her mother in over a year. Her mother moved to Fort Worth in January 2020. She began dating a man she had met through a friend who also lived in Fort Worth. So she decided to take the risk and move to Texas to start a new life.

García’s mother planned to get married and apply for a green card in December 2020 to visit her family. But then the pandemic struck.

“I really miss her that much. It was so hard without her. When she left we said, ‘Okay, we’re going to visit you during Semana Santa (Holy Week), but then everything was closed, ”said García. “We used to buy running shoes, handbags, clothes and other things in the US like Ross and Marshalls to sell here and it was good money, but now we can’t go.”

The absence of Santa Eulalia can also be felt north of the border.

According to research by José Iván Rodríguez Sanchez, an analyst at Rice University’s Baker Institute Center, the economic impact on communities on the U.S. side of the border has been around $ 10 billion in losses since the pandemic began in March 2020. as reported by aldiadallas.com.

To date, nearly 66% of El Paso County’s residents ages 12 and older are fully vaccinated, according to figures from the Texas Department of State Health Services. Almost 42 percent of the Texas population is fully vaccinated.

On the other side of the border, in Ciudad Juárez, almost 48% have received at least one dose, according to Verónica Villegas, spokeswoman for Chihuahua Social Services.

Efforts are being made across the private sector to reopen the border, including through the first Texas-based binational effort to get people fully vaccinated. Last week, Mexican workers from US companies traveled 40 miles to the Guadalupe-Tornillo International Bridge to be vaccinated.

Index Juárez, a maquiladora industry association, pays for transportation and operations on site. The effort is said to cost $ 500,000. That figure doesn’t include the cost of vaccines, which Texas provides free of charge, said Samaniego, the El Paso county judge.

Martinez, who raises cattle in Santa Eulalia, hopes similar efforts will eventually help reopen the border so he can return to Texas to work, citing the labor shortage in the United States, he added : “They (Americans) need us”. and i definitely need them. We just have to get vaccinated. “

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