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A massive vaccination day is scheduled for this Friday 29 at the borders of the two countries.
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Ipiales, COLOMBIA
In a meeting between the foreign ministries of Ecuador and Colombia, the possibility of opening the Rumichaca international bridge in November was analyzed. For this, conditions of compliance with the standards in the vaccination schedules will be determined between the border populations of both countries.
Lina María Montenegro, president of the Ipiales Border Merchants Association (Acceprof), reported that Ecuador would have established as a condition for opening the international pipeline that the Colombian border towns are 10 percentage points below Carchi and Tulcán in the total of people inoculated against the coronavirus.
Montenegro explained that 91% of Carchenses are currently immunized with the two doses of the vaccine against COVID-19. While Ipiales and municipalities of the ex-province of Obando register 78% of the inoculated population.
Faced with this perspective, in Ipiales and neighboring municipalities inoculation processes were intensified these days to achieve the percentage demanded and that the two governments initiate a staggered opening, said the leader, who led the protest on October 5, which she blocked during five days the passage of international cargo through Rumichaca.
If this attempt is unsuccessful, the unblocking of the passage on the Ecuadorian side could be postponed until December, since Colombia’s borders are open, said Omar Benavides, an Acceprof leader, who called on the owners of more than eight thousand businesses in Ipiales to vaccinate all staff.
A massive vaccination day is scheduled for this Friday 29 at the borders of the two countries. A vaccination post will also be set up at the Tulcán and Ipiales National Border Center in Rumichaca.
Genary Pozo, leader of the Tulcán Economic Reactivation 04 collective, explained that the opening of the border viaduct must be progressive. He said that in these weeks the creation of a commercial corridor on one of the bridge platforms would be favorable and not the total opening.
The proposal of the local trade unions includes the reactivation of the cross-border commercial basket, which was suspended with the pandemic and would be accompanied by customs procedures to nationalize foreign and Colombian merchandise.
Demand from merchants
Lina Montenegro reported that Acceprof filed before the Andean Community of Nations and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) a lawsuit against Ecuador for non-compliance on issues related to migration and inequality of opportunities in economic activities.
Benavides described as “unfair” the fact that exports and imports have not stopped in the pandemic, and trade unions and regional transport between the two countries continue to be paralyzed with the obstruction of the binational viaduct that has been closed to the transit of people for 605 days and vehicles. (I)
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