Days after two mass shootings in the U.S. claimed the lives of more than 30 people, foreign nations are putting their citizens on notice that traveling to America could put them at risk.
Uruguay’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement Monday warning travelers about “growing indiscriminate violence” in the U.S. and advised citizens to avoid places like theme parks, shopping centers, sporting events and other places where large crowds tend to gather.
A mass shooting in Dayton, Ohio, on Sunday that claimed the lives of nine people, and a similar attack in El Paso, Texas, that occurred hours earlier formed part of a pair of incidents that have led some foreign nations to issue travel advisories to their citizens who may be visiting the United States. (Photo: Jahi Chikwendiu/The Washington Post via Getty Images).
“The Foreign Ministry warns compatriots traveling to the United States to take precautions against 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 statement read, adding that the “indiscriminate possession” of guns makes it impossible for U.S. authorities to prevent mass shootings.
Venezuela’s foreign minister followed suit and issued a similar statement urging citizens to postpone their travel to the states “given the proliferation of acts of violence and crimes of indiscriminate hatred” against people of color — acts that have been “pronounced and executed from the supremacist elite who hold political power in Washington.”
The Los Angeles Times reports that the Japanese Consul in Detroit on Sunday sent an alert saying Japanese nationals “should be aware of the potential for gunfire incidents everywhere in the United States,” which it characterized as a “gun society.”
The travel advisories come on the heels of two deadly massacres that occurred less than 24 hours apart. On Saturday, gunman Patrick Crusius, opened fire at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, leaving 22 people dead. Officials said Crusius, 21, traveled 10 hours from Allen, Texas, to commit the bloody massacre, and told investigators he wanted to “kill as many Mexicans as possible” in the quiet city situated on the U.S.-Mexico border.
Around 1 a.m. Sunday, a similar attack unfolded at a nightclub in Dayton, Ohio. Connor Betts, armed with a 223-caliber high-capacity rifle, fired 41 shots in just 30 seconds, killing 9 and injuring several others, including his own sister. Betts was shot and killed by police in less than a minute after his attack began outside the club.
“It is fundamentally problematic,” Dayton Police Chief Richard Biehl told CNN amid pubic calls for stricter gun laws. “To have that level of weaponry in a civilian environment, unregulated, is problematic.”
This isn’t the first time foreign countries have warned about the propensity for deadly shootings in the U.S.
In 2016, the Bahamas issued a travel advisory warning citizens about volatile situations in the U.S. after the police shootings of two African-American men, as well as the ambush on police in Dallas some weeks later. The U.S. responded with an advisory of its own, alerting Americans to a significant uptick in armed robberies in New Providence, the most populous island in the Bahamas.
Several other nations have issues advisories about the U.S. the past, including France, New Zealand, and Germany, just to name a few.
