![]() ![]() “For me, for Jamaica to say ‘We have a state of emergency, we are completely out of control,’ that’s going to have an impact,” Katz said. Katz noted that people will do a lot to ignore the travel advisory warning but that Jamaica’s state of emergency will likely have a greater impact and get attention. “In years past, the State Department, depending on the political situation, was sometimes reluctant to even issue a warning,” Katz told Fox News Digital, explaining that an advisory alone can hurt the economy and is “not generally well received by the subject of the advisory.” The one-two punch of a US travel advisory and a national state of emergency could significantly hinder Jamaica’s tourism industry and, therefore, threaten its economy, according to David Katz, a former US federal agent who is the founder and CEO of Global Security Group Inc. APĪnd the US accounted for the most significant spending and best-performing market for tourists to the island, with fewer than 1.3 million stopover arrivals (longer than 24 hours for international travelers) in 2021. A soldier stands guard at a checkpoint in the August Town community of Kingston, Jamaica, on Dec. Jamaica welcomed more than 1.5 million tourists in 2021 who spent more than $2.095 billion, according to the Caribbean Tourism Organization. ![]() Tourism provides Jamaica its main source of income, accounting for as much as 29% of the country’s GDP in 2019 (pre-pandemic), according to Statista, and tied with remittances (money or goods sent back from nationals who emigrated from the country). “We have some really serious criminal threats facing us, and we have to use all the powers at our disposal,” Holness said. The state of emergency has proven controversial as authorities can arrest people and search buildings without a warrant, potentially leading to police abuse, critics argue, but Holness stressed the need to crack down on the problem. 6 due to increased violence and gang-related crimes. 15 in order to better empower authorities to deal with the crime in the capital, Kingston, as well as popular tourist spots like Montego Bay, then it issued a renewed state of emergency on Dec. Jamaica appeared to acknowledge the severity of its problem by declaring a state of emergency on Nov. The homicide rate reported by the Government of Jamaica has for several years been among the highest in the Western Hemisphere.” Jamaica’s Prime Minister Andrew Holness. “Emergency services vary throughout the island, and response times may vary from US standards. “Local police lack the resources to respond effectively to serious criminal incidents,” the advisory stated. The advisory noted that “violent crimes, such as home invasions, armed robberies, sexual assaults and homicides, are common” and that “sexual assaults occur frequently,” even at all-inclusive resorts. 5 issued a level 3 travel advisory, indicating that Americans should “reconsider travel” due to an increased risk of crime in the country. “That is all the government is trying to do,” Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness said, adding that Jamaicans “have to hide under their beds, hide their daughters, can’t go to church, and they see their sons and their boyfriends and husbands killed. Jamaica’s state of emergency may threaten its tourism industry as crime continues to increase in the country and local authorities struggle to clamp down on it. “We strongly advise the migrant populations in the Matamoros area, including many Black asylum-seekers, to be extremely cautious,” said Guerline Jozef, executive director of the Haitian Bridge Alliance, a San Diego, Calif.-based nonprofit that provides migrants with humanitarian, legal and social services.Nashville city council considers $450K payment to firefighter who called them 'White supremacists'Ĭanadian billionaire offers $35 million for information to catch parents murderer five years laterĪmerican tourists stranded near Machu Picchu, might not be home by Christmas as protests grip Peru Cifuentes now works for Lawyers for Good Government, a legal nonprofit whose services include assistance to asylum-seekers at the U.S.-Mexico border. “They are targets of violence just because of the color of their skin,” said Cifuentes, who worked near the large migrant camp at an aid center in Matamoros. Related: Despair thrives in Mexican migrant camp, but some see hope in end of the Title 42 pandemic orderĮstuardo Cifuentes, a Guatemalan asylum-seeker with a pending case in New York, lived in Matamoros for 19 months, from 2019 to 2021, and saw many Black women who had been abused and raped. Among the horrors have been rapes of Haitian women at some of the outdoor migrant camps in Matamoros and Reynosa, Rangel-Samponaro said. ![]()
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