U.S. State Department Reissues Travel Advisory for Peru
by Daniel McCarthy
Peru has 3,000 kilometres of coastline.
The U.S. State Department updated its travel advisory for Peru this week, reissuing its Level 2: Excercise Increased Caution advisory with updates to crime information.
In its advisory, the State Department is warning travelers to avoid the Colombian-Peruvian border area in the Loreto due to crime and the Puno Region, including the Peruvian side of Lake Titicaca, and the Apurimac Region due to civil unrest.
It is also advising travelers to avoid the Valley of the Apurímac, Ene, and Mantaro Rivers (VRAEM), including areas within the Departments of Ayacucho, Cusco, Huancavelica, and Junin, due to crime and terrorism.
“Crime, including petty theft, carjackings, muggings, assaults, and other violent crime, is common in Peru and can occur during daylight hours despite the presence of many witnesses. Kidnapping is rare, but does occur. The risk of crime increases at night,” the updated travel advisory reads.
The State Department is not advising travelers against travel to Peru, instead, it is simply alerting them to exercise increased caution. It did, however, issue a Level 3: Reconsider Travel to Jamaica advisory earlier in May due to crime.
“Violent crimes, such as home invasions, armed robberies, sexual assaults, and homicides, are common. Sexual assaults occur frequently, including at all-inclusive resorts,” the updated Level 3: Reconsider Travel advisory now reads.
The advisory cites some reasons why the State Department updated the warning, including that local police “often do not respond effectively to serious criminal incidents” and that “emergency services and hospital care vary throughout the island, and response times and quality of care may vary from U.S. standards.”
Still, most of the popular international destinations for U.S. travelers fall into the State Department’s Level 2: Exercise Increased Caution or Level 1: Exercise Normal Precautions categories. That includes Japan (Level 1), France (Level 2), Italy (level 2), Germany (Level 2), Spain (Level 2), United Kingdom (Level 2), The Bahamas (Level 2), and Turks and Caicos (Level 2).
Aside from Jamaica and Colombia, the Level 3 countries also include Egypt, Hong Kong, China
