Presenting the work carried out and updating the progress for the future implementation of the Minas – Ñuble Pass, was the objective of the meeting led by the regional governor, Óscar Crisóstomo, which was held in San Fabián de Alico and which included the participation of different public services related to the implementation of the international crossing. In addition, the instance established the lines of work that will be addressed in the next Binational Meeting to be held in Argentina on August 23 and 24.
The governor commented that “after the declaration by both foreign ministries and both governments, Argentina and Chile, where the Minas – Ñuble Pass becomes number 27 and has been made official in the Master Development Plan that has to be finalized by 2030, we have held this first meeting with the various public services where we deepened the implications that this prioritization has been assumed for both nations, therefore, there are State agreements that must be fulfilled. This, in practice, means that the public services and the Police have to begin to create the conditions for, in the near future, to have this step enabled”.
Additionally, the regional authority maintained, “we agreed on the work topics that we are going to generate in the Binational Meeting, which is going to take place in Argentina on August 23 and 24, in order to have a common position, both from the national government and from subnational governments and, along with that, the different public services. Added to this is the fact that the study being carried out by the MOP is already in its final stage, therefore, we have asked the Ministry of Public Works to make it known to this table and to the community within 15 days, so that, with this input in hand, we can also present it at the Binational Meeting.”
The mayor of San Fabián, Claudio Almuna, thanked the Governor for calling, “because this allows us to advance with all the public services involved in the international crossing, by this we mean the Investigative Police, Customs, SAG, Carabineros, the Municipality of San Carlos through its mayor, the Regional Government team and also the Border Crossing Committee, because we are advancing and preparing how we are going to work in the Los Lagos Binational Meeting, which this year it corresponds to be held in Comodoro Rivadavia (…) We have several pending agreements, first the invitations to the services; second, in how this is going to work at the budget level, how it is going to work through the Ministry of Public Works to dispose of the funds, both in the authorization of the route and in how it is going to work in the authorization of the border complex, be it provisional or definitive, because the services today made various requirements ”.
The meeting also had the participation of the mayor of San Carlos, Gastón Suazo, who asserted that “it is extremely important that everyone is permanently coordinated, to be able to decide, among other things, the time, the period that we are going to have the passage open and controlled; regulate in the best possible way, because in reality it is an international step, with all the externalities that this can have, but continuing with this work mechanism, with tables in conjunction with all the groups gathered together, is the best way to reach a firm and concrete port in the medium term”.
