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I dislike Fox news and their sensationalizing of the story, but that doesn't change the facts of the story. I never followed the story before, figuring it was oversensationalized and not worth my time. Today was the first day I googled to get some sense of what had happened. When just now researching this on the web, I read various comments that Aruba hasn't published its crime statistics since 1995. That would support the charge that Aruba lies by ommission to promote its tourism industry. Anyone got access to those stats? If so, a link would be good. Even then, I wouldn't give them much weight, because I know how tourists are discouraged from making reports or filing claims, or simply don't have time to do so.
There were news reports & much discussion that the Aruba police took into custody the three men who had last been seen w/Holloway, and the car she was in with them. Without doing any forensic tests on the young men, their clothing or the car, they were released. One of the young men was the son of a judge. Some 10 days later, the men and car were brought back in and tested - way too late, of course, for any evidence to be found - especially with a knowledgeable judge for a father, who would have known what would be looked for. This judge's son has a history of violence and sexual sadism - including video on the web of him tightening a noose around the throat of a naked young boy. There were letters from people discussing the increasing drug problems on the island. There were descriptions of men chatting up/ "dating" young women tourists and on the night before a woman was scheduled to leave the island, raping her with or without the use of drugs, counting on the fact that she couldn't stick around to press charges -if she figured out what had happened. I can understand why this incident received a lot of coverage.
In addition, as a scuba diver I have spent a lot of time on Carribbean islands - approx. 20 of them.
Some are definitely safer than others. One fact remains - nearly all of them are dependent on tourism for their economy, and therefore they aggressively suppress any unpleasant stories that might scare tourists off. Included in the kinds of stories suppressed are burglaries, robberies, assaults, rapes, murders and, of particular interest to me, scuba divers dying when left behind in the ocean by dive boats. It happens every year but the only place I ever found out about it was one scuba themed web site which didn't have any commercial dependence on tourism or scuba equipment manufacturers.
I sometimes travel solo - even to places like Istanbul - but I am always aware of the danger of being a woman alone in a foreign country - especially when I don't speak the language and would have difficulty in communicating with police or other officials, and especially when local customs view women alone, or women who are drunk (not me, I don't drink when on a trip) as fair game.
There are some beautiful and fairly safe islands in the Caribbean. Saba & Nevis are quite beautiful and very safe. St. Bart's, Bonaire and Grand Cayman are lovely islands where you should be a little more careful and the crimes are mainly theft. I'm looking forward to a trip to Montserrat this summer - where the only danger would be if the volcano erupted again. But I will never go back to St. Maarten's - I actually shoved a chest of drawers in front of my ocean front hotel's room door because of all the drunks still shouting at 1 in the morning. There's a lot of poverty in the area, and tourists make easy targets.
I felt safer in Istanbul than in St. Maarten's. I've never been to Aruba, but divers I know who went there have no desire to go back - saying they were disappointed w/ the quality of diving, having relied on the island's PR descriptions. As long as an island can get by with covering up crime, the crime will continue and worsen. I think it's good to put the pressure on them to protect their tourist trade by protecting the tourists, and not by covering up the crime.
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