Headline in el Heraldo: Coronavirus Has Come Within 300 Km of Juárez!

Yes, We're Talking About the NM Cases in Socorro

My Take:  OK, I Get it:  But Don't Gloat Too Long, Juaritos:  How Many Cases Have You Tested?

This morning's Heraldo  (click here) kind of gloatingly warns citizens of Juárez that, horrors!, COVID-19 is only up I-25 about 180 miles north, in Socorro, New Mexico!  This is in reference to yesterday's news that three recent travelers living there have tested positive.

I get it, and a good part of me smiles along with Heraldo at the poetic justice and delicious irony of the first confirmed case of COVID-19 in the region coming from North of the Big Beautiful Wall, North of the dirty hungry masses, yearning to breath free on the Mexican border, North of the rapists and "bad people."  Take that and stick it, Donald Trump!

I'm basically a border person.  Yes, I smile, and enjoy the headline.  It expresses a feeling we all share in this region, 'mano.  Qué bueno que lo dijiste sin decirlo, Heraldo!

But let us remember that we're all in this together, Juaritos.  Don't forget that just a week ago AMLO gave what amounted to Donald Trump talking points when he said in a press conference that "getting coronavirus is not terrible.  It's like catching a cold."  Yes, there are fewer "cases" of coronavirus in Mexico than in the US, but that is because your government has been no more transparent than mine about the availability (or lack thereof) of testing.  Yes, there are no known cases of coronavirus in Juárez--yet.  But have you really tested more cases than New Mexico?  Do you know whether you have it or not?  Where will you be two months from now?  Why not take a regional, cross-border look at coronavirus?  Are there ways our hospitals and public health officials can help each other out?  Where the hell is the much vaunted US-Mexico Border Health Commission?  Maybe our news media might start covering this as a cross-border opportunity to ignore Trump and do like we've always done and do it our way.