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Colombia Militarizes Brazil Border Amid Jump in Virus Cases

Colombia Militarizes Border With Brazil Amid Jump in Virus Cases

(Bloomberg) -- Colombia is increasing its military presence along the border with Brazil to head off the spread of new coronavirus cases as infections and deaths rise in Amazonas province, President Ivan Duque announced.

Leticia, the capital of Amazonas, and which lies close to the border with Brazil and Peru has seen the number of confirmed cases increase, including an outbreak in a prison.

“We’ve decided to militarize all border points,” Duque said Tuesday evening. The military will have “greater presence and exercise respective control to prevent imported cases” from arriving. The government also announced more funds for the local health system to help it cope with the spike in infections.

With Brazil fast-emerging as the new global hot spot for the coronavirus pandemic, neighboring nations have grown increasingly concerned that the loose approach by Latin America’s largest country poses a risk to their capacity to contain the virus, even with shuttered borders.

Paraguay President Abdo Benitez warned last week that the situation in Brazil threatens his country’s containment measures as well, leading him to increase military presence along the border. The Uruguayan government also voiced concern, saying the country will increase monitoring of border crossings to reduce the risk of the coronavirus spreading from Brazil.

“Brazil is perhaps the place where there is today the greatest spread of coronavirus in the world, and that is a great threat to our country,” Benitez said, pointing to the 700 kilometers (435 miles) of border between the two nations. “We have to understand that this is a huge threat to the entire effort that the Paraguayan people have been making.”

The number of confirmed Covid-19 infections in Amazonas, which is one of the least populated provinces in Colombia, has risen to 743. Total cases in the Andean nation amount to 12,272 and 493 deaths.

For now borders will remain closed, says Paraguay’s Benitez.

“With what Brazil is living today, it doesn’t even go through my mind to open the border,” he said.

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.