Link to article- https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/panama-says-will-temporarily-close-border-with-colombia-over-covid-19-risk-2021-05-20/
Panama plans to temporarily close their border to Colombia in order to prevent the spread of Covid-19. Colombia’s decision to reopen their borders has now put Panama at risk after they were recently able to gain control over the pandemic in their country. They are also planning on closing their border in order to tighten up their own border security. Colombia just recently opened their borders to Brazil, Ecuador, Panama, and Peru after having been closed since March 17, 2020. This is a major development since the start of the pandemic; however, as many of these countries haven’t distributed very many vaccines yet, it may not be the safest choice to reopen their borders.
It was a risky choice for Colombia to reopen their borders at this point, with so many countries in their region still facing a second wave of Covid-19. I’m sure their economy has been struggling a lot with the border being closed, but vaccines are being distributed and if they would have just waited another month or two they would have been able to reopen more safely. It will be interesting now to see what effect this will have on the spread of Covid-19 throughout the region. This is something that I’m sure will be hard to gauge as more and more people are being vaccinated and the borders reopen.
In relation to class, Panama is putting its alliance and border relationship on hold in order to be more cautious and preserve its population from the threat of Covid-19. This is a threat to their economy and potentially their geopolitical relations with their region. However, for the time being, this is the best choice because their government and economy can now internally rebuild with a more minimal threat of the spread of Covid-19 throughout their country.