Skip navigation
sponsored by 

Alabama governor calls for Aruba travel boycott

Riley says he’s taking stand on behalf of family of missing Natalee Holloway

FREE VIDEO
Aruba boycott
Nov. 8: Alabama Gov. Bob Riley calls for a boycott of Aruba because of its handling of the Holloway case. Dan Abrams has the story.

MSNBC

Video: Crime & courts  
Lockup Extended Stay Corcoran: Lockdown
  In the four months we spent inside Corcoran, our producers saw violence erupt many times, though never between inmates and officers. But as we neared the end of our stay, no one foresaw that the greatest threat to Corcoran staff might come from an event in a California prison more than 100 miles away. It was significant enough to provoke a lockdown of the prison system statewide.

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.

Story continues below ↓
advertisement

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.

© 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Sponsored links

Resource guide

Get Your 2008 Credit Score

Save Money On Car Insurance

Find a business to start

Movies delivered - Try free

Search Jobs

Find Your Dream Home

$7 trades, no fee IRAs

Find your next car