EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – The president of Mexico says she expects U.S. cattle imports ban on her country to last 15 days or less as both nations coordinate containment of a screwworm infestation south of the border.
“We are not in agreement with this measure. The government of Mexico has been working across the board since we received the alert about the screwworm,” President Claudia Sheinbaum said at her Monday news conference on social media.
She said, “There’s no reason to close the border,” but acknowledged both governments will step up coordination during the next 15 days to stop the infestation’s northward advance. “We hope this ban, which we consider unjust, is lifted. We will wait these 15 days, and we will continue to keep you informed.”
U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins on May 11 announced the suspension of cattle, horse and bison imports along the Southern border due to the northward spread of New World Screwworm in Mexico.
The infestation has been confirmed in Oaxaca and Veracruz, some 700 miles south of the U.S. border.
Rollins said the ban would be reviewed on a month-to-month basis until containment is achieved.
Sheinbaum implied the ban was political in nature and said Mexico is “nobody’s piñata.”
“There was a first ban, we reached an agreement. So, why are they closing the border now?” Sheinbaum said. “Obviously, any country tries to prevent plague. But there is no reason to close the border. There are permanent sanitary controls from the government of Mexico.”
Cattle ranchers want a resolution
Meantime, Chihuahua cattle ranchers want their federal government to closely collaborate with U.S. authorities.
“Unfortunately, I feel let down because there has been no effective and decisive coordination – or an interest on the part of Mexican authorities,” said Alvaro Bustillos, president of the Chihuahua Cattle Ranchers Association. “Since March, we have been working to prevent this […] We urged authorities to collaborate, to show the same interest as the Americans on this issue.”
Bustillos said that will cost northern Mexico cattle ranchers a fortune.
He said 100,000 head of cattle were scheduled to be exported from Chihuahua to the U.S. this month, while Durango just to the south has between 50,000 and 60,000 bovines waiting in the wings. Tamaulipas and Coahuila also will be affected with about 50,000 head each, he said.
The ranchers have been urging their federal authorities to enact a containment zone in southern Mexico and in states where the infestation is growing.
Bustillos called for a border-within-a-border, so that Mexico sets up a containment zone at the Isthmus of Tehuantepec a couple of hundred miles south of Mexico City. Most Chihuahua cattle exports to the U.S. take place at a designated border crossing in Santa Teresa, New Mexico.