Alabama governor calls for Aruba travel boycott

updated 4:07 a.m. ET Nov. 9, 2005

MONTGOMERY, Ala. - Gov. Bob Riley called for a nationwide travel boycott of Aruba on Tuesday on behalf of a missing Alabama teenager’s family, who accuse the island’s government of not fully cooperating with the investigation into her disappearance.

Riley asked his fellow governors to join him in urging the boycott of Aruba, where 18-year-old Natalee Holloway was last seen on May 30.

“There are no other alternatives to get Aruban authorities to take this as seriously as they should,” Riley said.

Holloway’s mother, Beth Holloway-Twitty, joined Riley at the Alabama Capitol for the boycott announcement. She contends Aruban authorities have failed to adequately investigate the possible murder of her daughter, who was with a Dutch teenager and two Surinamese brothers on the night she disappeared.

The young men were held for a time but have been released.

Aruba Police Chief Gerald Dompig said later Tuesday the investigation into Holloway’s disappearance is not complete, and that authorities want to interview other American teenagers who were on the high school graduation trip with Holloway.

“We want to talk once more with various students because their first statements, taken by the FBI, were very short,” Dompig said. “There are a few crucial questions that they still have to answer.”

He would not say what those questions are.

Riley was asked if parents should allow their children to go to Aruba on similar trips as long as Holloway’s disappearance is unsolved.

“I would not allow my daughter to go to Aruba,” he said.

Officials in Aruba referred questions about the boycott to the Dutch embassy in Washington, D.C., which did not immediately return a phone call.

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