Travel Advisory : Attacks Aim at Tourism in Turkey

Europe

Turkey: A series of terrorist bombings in Istanbul have struck some of the city’s best-known tourist sites and left two foreigners dead. In the worst attack, a bomb exploded April 2 at the 15th-Century Covered Bazaar, killing a Tunisian woman and a Spanish man and injuring 15 people, the Reuters news service reported. Ten days earlier, a bomb near the bazaar’s entrance injured two Romanian women and two Turks. And on March 27, a bomb in the garden of the 6th-Century structure housing the famed Hagia Sophia museum injured three tourists from Germany, Spain and the Netherlands. A U.S. State Department analyst labeled the attacks a continuation of the Kurdistan Workers Party’s urban terrorist campaign to frighten tourists.

Latin America

Guatemala: Following attacks on Americans and a sharp drop in tourism, Guatemalan officials began trying to quell rumors that Americans have been involved in child-stealing, according to the U.S. Embassy in Guatemala City. The rumors--which have long circulated in Latin America but recently reached a hysterical pitch in Guatemala--led to the near-fatal beating of an Alaska woman by a mob in a remote village and the near-lynching of a New Mexico woman in the southern town of Santa Lucia. The State Department has warned Americans to avoid traveling to the Central American nation.

Mexico: An American business executive was found shot to death Feb. 10 on a road near the tourist city of San Miguel de Allende, northwest of Mexico City, Reuters reported. The victim, Brian McCarthy, had worked for a computer software firm in Detroit and had apparently been kidnaped for ransom. The U.S. Embassy is investigating. In another incident, an American family was robbed of its car and other belongings on the new toll road linking Guadalajara and the Mexican capital.

Brazil: The U.S. Consulate in Sao Paulo reports an increase in thefts at Guarulhos International Airport. Four incidents involving Americans occurred in a week’s time in late March, all in the international departure areas serving Varig and American airlines.

Briefly . . .

Jamaica: Diplomats in Kingston, a city with a high level of street crime, report that armed robbers are now using cars to force other vehicles off the road. In one recent incident, a car with three gunmen intercepted a cab near a downtown luxury hotel, roughing up and robbing the two tourists.

Hot spots: Citing instability in the region, the State Department has added the southern African nation of Burundi to its list of places where Americans might be at risk. Travel warnings are in effect for: Afghanistan, Algeria, Angola, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Burundi, Colombia, Guatemala, Haiti, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Liberia, Libya, North Korea, Peru, Rwanda, Serbia and Montenegro, Somalia, Sudan and Tajikistan, and also for East Jerusalem and the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.

The U.S. State Department offers recorded travel warnings and advisories at (202) 647-5225; the fax line is (202) 647-3000.