Venezuela & Uruguay Issue U.S. Travel Warnings After Mass Shootings
(CBS Local) -- Venezuela and Uruguay issued warnings Monday to citizens traveling to the United States following two mass shootings that left 31 people dead.
Uruguay's Office of Foreign Ministry urged its citizens to "take precautions" when visiting the U.S. because of "growing indiscriminate violence, mostly for hate crimes, including racism and discrimination, which cost the lives of more than 250 people in the first seven months of this year."
The Uruguayan notice specifically cited "indiscriminate possession of firearms by the population" and the "impossibility of authorities to prevent these situations" among some of the reasons travelers should "avoid places that have a large concentration of people."
Uruguay's warning suggested avoiding some cities "which are among the 20 most dangerous in the world, such as Detroit, Baltimore and Albuquerque, "according to the Ceoworld Magazine 2019 index."
The Venezuelan government advised its citizens to "avoid visiting some cities that are among the 20 most dangerous in the world," including Cleveland, Detroit, Baltimore, St. Louis, Oakland, Memphis, Birmingham, Atlanta, Stockton and Buffalo, "according to Forbes (2019)."
The Japanese Consul in Detroit also published an alert on Sunday that said Japanese nationals "should be aware of potential for gunfire" everywhere in the U.S., which they described as a "gun society," according to the Los Angeles Times.
The advisories come after two deadly shooting attacks in the U.S. in the span of less than 24 hours over the weekend. A gunman opened fire at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, on Saturday, killing 22 people and wounding dozens of others. Just hours later, nine people were killed when a gunman sprayed bullets into a crowd of people in Dayton, Ohio.
The U.S. State Department gives Venezuela its highest travel advisory, Level 4: Do Not Travel, citing "crime, civil unrest, poor health infrastructure, kidnapping, and arbitrary arrest and detention of U.S. citizens, CNN reported.
Uruguay is listed as a Level 2: Exercise Increased Caution on the State Department's travel advisory list, "due to crime."
