July 2009

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As ITN went to press, the State Department had travel warnings on 29 destinations: Nepal, Lebanon, Yemen, Georgia, Sudan, Central African Republic, Colombia, Madagascar, Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Pakistan, Eritrea, Syria, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Haiti, Philippines, Israel/West Bank/Gaza, Burundi, Sri Lanka, Côte d’Ivoire, Nigeria, Nepal, Somalia, Chad, Kenya, Iran, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Iraq. 

For details, call the State Department at 202/647-5225 or visit http://
travel.state.gov/travel/warnings.html.

As of mid-April, a dengue fever epidemic had struck thousands of people in the states of Rio Grande do Sol, Bolivia; Chaco, Argentina, and Bahia, Brazil.

In southern Brazil, the states of Rio Grande do Sul and São Paulo have recently designated expanded areas of risk for yellow fever. Many states recommend yellow fever vaccination for travelers.

While Lebanon enjoys periods of relative calm, the Department of State warns that the potential for a spontaneous upsurge in violence there is real and the threat of anti-Western terrorist activity exists. Access to borders and ports can be interrupted with little or no warning. Land mines and unexploded ordnance pose dangers throughout southern Lebanon.

The CDC on May 15 lifted its recommendation that Americans avoid all nonessential travel to Mexico. The State Department’s Travel Alert relating to the 2009-H1N1 influenza outbreak is no longer in effect. The risk of severe disease from the H1N1 virus infection now appears to be less than originally thought.

In Peru’s Amazon Basin, clashes between Amazonian indigenous groups and police have escalated, and on May 8 the Peruvian government declared a 60-day state of emergency in the regions of Cuzco, Ucayali, Loreto and Amazonas.

After protesters had blocked roads and waterways for weeks, the military was authorized to support the police and keep roads, airports and essential services operating.

Although Thailand’s prime minister, Abhisit Vejjajiva, lifted the state of emergency on April 24 and in May there was no further violence, some political tensions remain.

The “red shirt” protesters, loyal to the previous prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, have continued demonstrations against the current government. Thaksin is in exile to avoid imprisonment on corruption charges. 

On May 4, Nepal’s Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal resigned his post in protest of the reinstatement of the army chief whom he had fired May 3.

Dahal was a leader of the Maoist rebels and held his post as prime minister as part of a power-sharing agreement after the Maoists won the most seats in the 2008 elections. The Maoists have been seeking the absorption of 20,000 of their forces into the Nepalese military. Nepal’s President Ram Baran Yadav belongs to the opposite political party and countermanded the firing of the general, reinstating him.

The Taliban have claimed responsibility for a deadly bombing campaign in Pakistan stepped up in May. On May 27 a suicide car-bomb attack in Lahore killed more than 23 people and wounded about 100. On May 28 two bombs in a Peshawar market killed at least 11 and wounded dozens. A third bomb went off in Dera Ismail Khan, killing at least three.