MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentina's land borders with Brazil, Uruguay set for full reopening

Brazilians are allowed to enter Argentina by land, but not viceversa

The Government of Brazil will reopen its land border crossings to/from Argentina as of this coming Saturday, according to Buenos Aires' Ambassador to Brasilia Daniel Scioli.

The former Argentine Vice President posted in his Twitter account that Brazilian immigration authorities will request a card attesting to the intake of two doses of COVID-19 vaccine, the last one at least 14 days prior to the trip, in addition to a negative antigen or PCR test.

“For the first time in history, today there are no sanitary or phytosanitary obstacles with Brazil,” Scioli said Thursday in an interview.

The announcement came at a time many Brazilian tourist venues have already canceled their New Year's Eve street celebrations and imposed additional restrictive measures due to the arrival of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus.

Until now, Brazilians were allowed to enter Argentina by land, but it was not reciprocal for Argentines willing to visit Brazil.

Scioli also highlighted trade between Argentina and Brazil was on a recovery path: “The stage of face-to-face business missions began, helping to continue growing. Brazil once again became Argentina's main commercial partner after a long time,” he explained.

Argentina's Migrations Director Florencia Carignano explained the land crossings are Iguazú-Foz do Iguaçú (Misiones), Bernardo de Irigoyen-Dionisio Cerqueira (Misiones), and Paso de los Libres-Uruguaiana (Corrientes).

Regarding Uruguay, Foreign Ministers Santiago Cafiero and Francisco Bustillo Wednesday agreed that all border crossings will be open both ways for the summer season.

Uruguay's Director of National Tourism Roque Baudean explained that for Argentines to enter Uruguay “a PCR is requested with less than 72 hours, the complete vaccination schedule can be one or 2 doses, depending on the vaccine and an affidavit.”

Baudean also said in a radio interview that since foreigners are not charged the VAT tax, prices in Uruguay were not very different from those at other tourist destinations within Argentina.