BUENOS AIRES, Jan 29 (NNN-MERCOPRESS) — Authorities in the Argentine province of Salta called for tenders to build a “perimeter fence” 200 meters long and 2.5 meters high on the border with Bolivia along the Bermejo River between the Aguas Blancas bus terminal and the immigration checkpoint, in a move to keep irregular aliens and drugs from entering the country.
The measure has been framed within the so-called “Armored Borders” and “Güemes Plan” initiatives undertaken by Security Minister Patricia Bullrich. The move would also entail the deployment of 310 federal troops in “critical” areas such as the Bermejo River and National Route 34, known as the “drug route.”
Bolivia’s Foreign Ministry claimed that border issues should be handled between governments through “bilateral dialogue” and insisted that “any unilateral measure may affect good neighborliness and peaceful coexistence between brotherly peoples.”
“On the Bolivian side, strict controls were built, but on the Argentinean side, there was no clear delimitation,” Director of Border Surveillance and Control at the Security Ministry Virginia Cornejo told Salta’s El Tribuno. The idea is to prevent people from passing through uncontrolled places during downspouts, Aguas Blancas authorities also explained. The place is notorious for its permeability to drug trafficking.
Last month, one peddler was killed in a clash with Argentina’s Border Guard (Gendarmería Nacional) in a fuzzy incident in which some 51 kilos of cocaine were seized.
“In Oran-Aguas Blancas, violent drug traffickers attacked the Gendarmerie because they can’t stand the fact that their business is over. They wanted to cross illegal shipments through clandestine passages and, when they were intercepted, they responded. But it was clear: not a single gram of drugs will pass through our borders,” Bullrich wrote on social media back then.
Earlier in December 2024, Bullrich and Salta Governor Gustavo Sáenz launched Plan Güemes to tackle drug trafficking in Aguas Blancas. The initiative included National Coast Guard (Prefectura Naval – PNA) units patrolling the Bermejo River, so as not to leave the neighboring country as the only one with an armed presence in the area, Bullrich underlined.
“For the first time we are going to have authority for the river and not only our Bolivian neighbors will be the ones to determine the course of the river, but it will also be the PNA, our police authority in our rivers, in our lakes, and our seas,” she also said.
Aguas Blancas in the Salta department of Oran, opposite the Bolivian city of Bermejo, in the department of Tarija is “one of the most important places where the Argentine State, at the provincial and national levels, must have a presence,” she added. The two cities are separated by the upper Bermejo River which poses as a natural border between the two countries.
The people of Salta “will recover their streets and their borders because drug trafficking, terror, and the streets [which have been] taken over by criminal gangs will no longer have a place in this region,” Bullrich also pointed out.
Plan Güemes consists of a 310-strong federal force deployed in critical areas, with an intensive presence in strategic points such as the Bermejo River and National Route 34, also known as the “Drug Route.” The plan involves joint efforts between federal and provincial forces in addition to the Judiciary and the Public Prosecutor’s Offices for Drug Crimes and Money Laundering.
Argentina’s border with Bolivia has become a porous zone with residents shopping in Bolivia where products are significantly less expensive. But the recent flooding of the Bermejo River after heavy rainfall in its upper basin led to the suspension of crossing in barges and rubber dinghies as queues reached up to 5 kilometers to cross through the legal paths. — NNN-MERCOPRESS
