US issues severe ‘Do not travel’ warning for this Caribbean country
Don’t even go there.
The United States has renewed its “Do not travel” warning for Venezuela, urging American travelers to understand that their government “has no ability to provide emergency services to U.S. citizens” who run into trouble.
Officials blamed the notice — the most severe the Department of State can issue — on civil unrest, a “slide towards dictatorship,” ongoing threats of terrorism, and anti-American bias.
“Violent crimes, such as homicide, armed robbery, kidnapping, and carjacking, are common in Venezuela,” the agency added.
The threat is so dire that the US government advises travelers who insist on going to first “establish a ‘proof of life’ protocol with your loved ones.
“If you are taken hostage, your loved ones know specific questions (and answers) to ask the hostage-takers to be sure that you are alive (and to rule out a hoax),” officials explained.
“The Department has determined there is a high risk of wrongful detention of U.S. nationals in Venezuela. Security forces have detained U.S. citizens for up to five years,” the agency added, warning that the American government is hardly notified or allowed access to incarcerated nationals.
Hundreds of thousands of Americans typically traveled to Venezuela annually.
The country is known for its miles of largely undeveloped Caribbean coastline and pristine adjacent islands.
Those numbers began to drop off, eventually going into sharp decline, when Nicolás Maduro rose to power following the death of the iron-fisted Hugo Chávez in 2013.
Of the most recent election, the State Department said Maduro “illegally claimed the presidency of Venezuela, despite global condemnation of a rigged election” and is moving the country towards dictatorship.
Reminiscent of Chávez, Maduro is strengthening “alliances with outside nations including Cuba, Russia, Iran, and China, that repress the Venezuelan people further.”
The new warning, which was originally issued in 2019 when the US began pulling personnel from Venezuela, was reissued on May 13.
It comes ahead of a July election that the fate of the South American nation depends on.
“Political rallies and demonstrations occur, often with little notice. Anti-Maduro demonstrations have elicited a strong police and security force response,” the department added, “including the use of tear gas, pepper spray, and rubber bullets against participants.
These events “occasionally devolve into looting and vandalism,” they said.
Additionally, Venezuela is enduring a crisis of shortages that include, water, gasoline, electricity, and medicine.
Worse, terror groups from neighboring Colombia are highly active in the border regions.
