Residents of some Mexican border towns have blocked roads and transitions to the United States with their cars in recent days.
They fear that American visitors will spread the coronavirus in Mexico. Today, the presidents of the two countries, Donald Trump and Lopez Obrador, meet in Washington.
“We are asking that US tourists not visit Mexico now. We are doing that to protect the health of our community as the coronavirus spreads rapidly in the neighbouring US states,” said José Ramos Arzate, the mayor of the Mexican border town of Sonoyta. The British newspaper “The Guardian”.
The mayor is thus in favour of residents of his city who blocked the border crossing with the US state of Arizona last weekend.
This was also the case in other Mexican border cities, including Texas. In Arizona and Texas, the number of infections has increased again sharply in the past week.
The Mexican state of Sonora also set up roadside checks along the border last weekend – when it was National Day in the US. Americans who wanted to enter without an urgent reason were sent back.
US ambassador to Mexico, Christopher Landau, has also called on his countrymen to stay in their country. Otherwise, it remains challenging to control the virus, he says.