Barbour Opposes Aruba Boycott (Governor of Mississippi)
The father of missing Alabama teenager Natalie Holloway was taken aback Tuesday when he learned that Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour opposes an Aruba tourism boycott that fellow Southern governors have endorsed.
“I don’t know what to say,” said Meridian resident Dave Holloway, whose daughter Natalee Holloway disappeared in May while on a senior trip to the Dutch Caribbean island. “The attorney that is representing us indicates that a boycott would help. So far, it has caused them to take a different view of the case.”
Barbour, in an interview with The Meridian Star’s Editorial Board on Tuesday, said he does not believe a tourist boycott of the island is the right means to an end.“When it comes to boycotting, I am more accustomed to Mississippi being on the receiving end of people boycotting us because they don’t like this or that,” he said. “I am not favorably disposed toward that device.”
Some civil rights organizations called for tourist boycotts of Mississippi when voters refused to change the Confederate-themed state flag in a 2001 referendum.
