Section of the Berlin Wall erected as a memorial in Mexico Four Roman swords discovered in a cave on the Dead Sea

In the Mexican border city of Tijuana, a section of the former Berlin Wall has been erected as a memorial against division.

According to local media reports, the approximately three-ton segment was installed in a park near the US-built border wall separating Tijuana from San Diego, California. “It reminds us that we have to fight to make sure this wall between Mexico and the United States no longer exists,” former Mexican foreign minister Marcelo Ebrard said at a ceremony in mid-August. “This wall will fall,” he added.

Ebrard left office in June to seek a nomination as a presidential candidate for the 2024 election in the ruling party’s internal competition. May this be a lesson for building a society that breaks down walls and builds bridges of solidarity and understanding. A private association had therefore donated it.

Mexico and therefore Tijuana are on the route of people who try to get to the US mainly from Central and South America. Tijuana has become a haven for many of them, said Mayor Montserrat Caballero Ramírez. The metropolis in northwestern Mexico, which has a population of about 1.8 million, is one of the most dangerous cities in the country. Violent drug cartels have been operating there for decades. The 41-year-old mayor herself announced in June that she had to move to a military barracks after threats from crime syndicates.

The border fortifications with Mexico, which have been expanded since the 1990s, are intended to prevent people from emigrating to the US without permission. The main purpose of the Berlin Wall (1961-1989) was to prevent East Germans from leaving the GDR.

(yam/sda/dpa)