Jeff Dunsavage's Blog – December 2013 Archive (15)

Thank you, La Gringa's Blogocito, for flagging this change. The State Department doesn't exactly go out of its way to publicize new threats to U.S. citizens' safety and security when traveling abroad. Thanks also for providing the link to the previous warning --…

The body of Nedenia Post Dye, great granddaughter of Majorie Merriweather Post, was found in her room on Dec. 22 at her luxury spa resort on the Caribbean island of Roatan, Honduras, police said Friday. A local musician whom Dye was helping quit drugs has been arrested.



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Nedenia Dye, a U.S. businesswoman and owner of a luxury spa on the Honduran island of Roatan, was murdered and her husband is in custody as a suspect, police said Monday. The 46-year-old great granddaughter of business executive, philanthropist and socialite Marjorie Merriweather Post was found Sunday in her room with “several stab wounds in her body” by…

 Thirteen human-trafficking victims in Costa Rica this year were taken for their organs, according to a report on crime in the country that gives new life to an ongoing organ trafficking scandal unfolding in the country.

The report, co-authored by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and Costa Rica’s Judicial Investigation Organization (OIJ), found 28 people had…

Our thoughts and prayers go out to all the families of the missing -- and, in particular, to those who are experiencing their first holiday season without a loved one who should home and without answers about their disappearance. I'm thinking, in particular, of the families of August Reiger (missing in Ecuador) and Bob Ehlert (missing in Panama). Please keep them in your thoughts. Here's hoping for a better year.

KINGSTON, Jamaica (AP) — U.S. health authorities have issued a travel advisory for the French Caribbean dependency of St. Martin because of a mosquito-borne viral disease that is apparently being spread locally at the start of the winter tourist season.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Wednesday it is closely following reports of the chikungunya virus among residents of the French side of a tiny island in the northeast Caribbean marketed as the "The Friendly…

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This follows last week's armed robbery of 30-40 tourists traveling by boat. No arrests yet in either case.

International Cruise Victims is an organization created by families that have been victims of crime or negligence on board cruise ships. Like MAP, they advocate for families and strive to build awareness and drive regulatory change to help people travel intelligently and safely. Please take a moment to check out their website (…

Apologies for any messages MAP members may have received from a spammer named "Nancy". Every once in a while, one of these "people" manage to sneak through my approval process. MAP respects members' privacy, and we try hard to keep out spammers and spam-bots. Please don't hesitate to flag any odd messages you might receive to my attention at missingamerican@optonline.net.

Best,

Jeff

Sex and organ trafficking are the most common form of trafficking in the country. Violence related with crack consumption and organized crime was reported, as well. The high number of cases found related to organ trafficking comes after an investigation that started in the Calderon Guardia Hospital and some private clinics in the capital. Victims were paid $20,000 for kidneys, which is illegal in Costa Rica…

Oklahoma teen August Reiger disappeared from the Ecuadorean resort town of Banos on Father’s Day in June. On Tuesday, Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa met with a representative of the Reiger family. The family said the South American leader made it his mission to find the teen and dozens of others missing in his country.

“Right now we're more optimistic than we have been in a long time because we had some wonderful news today,” the teen's aunt Cristi Reiger told KOCO’s Erielle…

A group of between 30 and 40 foreign tourists were assaulted at gunpoint yesterday morning as they made their way to an area hotel by boat in Tortuguero, Limon, police officials confirmed. According to Edwin Miranda of the Fuerza Publica, the group was traveling by river in a boat to a hotel in Tortuguero when a speedboat intercepted them.  Four armed men then boarded the boat in which they were traveling, stripping the tourists of their belongings, passports, and cash.…

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All I can say is, the crime problem must be pretty bad, because State doesn't issue such advisories lightly.Travelers should be warned about many locales that State doesn't seem to feel require warning labels.

No government keeps credible or reliable track of how many of its citizens disappear while traveling abroad annually or how many foreign nationals disappear while traveling in its country. This information deficit has major implications for the global traveling public. In the absence of timely, credible news, data, and analysis, how can travelers make informed decisions? How can media contextualize “missing abroad” stories as to whether they are anomalies or symptoms of a larger…