Mexico Announces Reopening of Its Border With the US

On Wednesday, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) announced that Mexico's northern border will be reopened in November, as a result of successful negotiations concluded with the U.S. government.

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"The closeness we have at this moment with the United States has not been experienced for many years," said Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard during AMLO's morning press conference at the National Palace.

On Tuesday, the White House announced that it wanted to reopen its land borders with Mexico and Canada on a yet-to-be-confirmed November date and that it would require travelers evidence of a full schedule of COVID-19 vaccination.

Until now, the border has been closed to non-essential travel. Its opening has been a repeated demand of the Mexican government, which accelerated vaccination in the 45 border municipalities in the summer to facilitate an agreement with the U.S.  To date, in the northern states of Baja California, Sonora, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas, 3.7 million Pfizer and Janssen vaccines were administered. Today Ebrard confirmed that only people fully vaccinated will be allowed to travel.

During the recent visit of U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris to Mexico, a working group was established to address the issue of COVID-19 vaccination jointly. This made it possible to discuss the reopening of the border.

“Vaccination rates in Mexico are very high and comparable to those in the United States, especially in the northern region, but also in the rest of the country," said Ebrard and revealed that other meetings are scheduled to analyze the type of vaccination certificate required for the border crossing.

He welcomed that the U.S. will accept "all vaccines approved by the World Health Organization (WHO)", not only those manufactured in that country. AMLO said that "WHO has to act with rectitude, without ideological tendencies," and asked it to authorize "the vaccines that showed their efficacy", in a reference to the Sputnik V and Sinovac vaccines.