This afternoon the National Emergency Office of the Ministry of the Interior (ONEMI) reported that there are 180 trucks between the border complex of Paso Los Libertadores -the main route between Los Andes, Valparaíso Region, and the province of Mendoza- and the Guardia Vieja sector. because the climatic conditions prevent the passage. Added to this are 80 more trucks between El Paso and the Cristo Redentor tunnel, that is, more than 250 trucks along the way. According to information provided by the same body, some trucks remain without their drivers who were transferred -by patrols from the Army’s Mountain School- to one of the shelters set up both in the border complex, the Guardia Vieja Substation and the Mountain Shelter. from army.
The Minister of the Interior, Izkia Siches, assured that they will initiate an investigation into the opening of the Los Libertadores border crossing on Saturday, which according to information provided to emmol by the presidential delegate of the province of Los Andes, Cristián Aravena Reyes, the pass had been closed for two days, but “a window was generated with the possibility that several vehicles that were trapped in the Argentine sector could pass”, between 8: 00 and 12:00 hours.
During that time, a truck presented problems in the Cristo Redentor Tunnel, a fact that was complicated moments later, when another vehicle accident occurred on the other side of the mountain range.
“We have preliminary information about what weather conditions allowed us to use the border crossing, but it seems to us so serious that it requires an investigation to clarify it. The information that has been transmitted to us is that there were buses that had been waiting for two days to be able to transit and As the weather conditions were, the pass could be used”, assured Minister Izkia Siches.
“What did happen were events that it was not possible to evaluate; as accidents on both the Chilean and Argentine sides that slowed down traffic. As the Ministry of the Interior, we have instructed an investigation to see what data was taken into account and prevent an event like this from occurring in the future, “he added.
According to what was reported by ONEMI, 35 drivers are inside the complex. frontier20 in the Guardia Vieja Subcommissariat, 44 in the Army Mountain Shelter, and others decided to remain in their trucks.
“Roadway is working with machinery to enable the route and tomorrow – Monday – at noon the greatest efforts will be focused, because the frontal system is going to decline,” said Ricardo Toro, director of ONEMI.
Minister García of the MOP also confirmed that they hope that by noon tomorrow “we will be able to have continuous work to enable the route from Los Libertadores to Los Andes,” adding that “we install permanent work in Coquimbo, Atacama, to deal with roadblocks in the north”.
Regarding the possibility of normalizing the situation this Sunday, Lieutenant Héctor Castro, from the Los Libertadores Substation, assured that “being able to enable the transit of vehicles so that they can go down is quite unlikely.” He added that they are trying to guarantee the best conditions in the shelters for Monday to carry out the cleaning efforts by the Viability department.
This morning, the presidential delegate of Los Andes, Cristián Aravena, reported that they are working in coordination with the Argentine authorities “especially to find out the health status of our compatriots, who tell us that they would be fine so far.”
Via we do radioaround 9:00 a.m., the presidential delegate assured that in the morning rounds were made to visit the people who voluntarily stayed inside their vehicles to deliver snacks and described that “they are all in good health ”.
