PHOTO: Bangkok demonstrations have provoked a State of Emergency by the government. (courtesy Twitter)

On Sunday, the State Department issued a Travel Alert regarding the escalation of tensions in Bangkok after unidentified individuals hurled pipe bombs into crowds of anti-government demonstrators on Jan. 17 and Jan. 19. Since those incidents, the atmosphere of the demonstrations has grown tenser, leading the government to invoke the Internal Security Act (ISA) throughout Bangkok.

The ISA imposes a 60-day state of emergency in Bangkok. Under the ISA, authorities may close roads, censor the press, ban assemblies, incur curfews, make arrests and increase police presence around government buildings and at other locations. “Police have used tear gas, rubber bullets, and other measures to protect government facilities at several locations,” according to the State Department Alert.

The Travel Alert, which is one step beneath a Travel Warning, alerts U.S. citizens to “the potential risks of travel to Thailand, particularly Bangkok, due to ongoing political and social unrest ahead of Thai parliamentary elections, scheduled to take place nationwide on February 2, 2014.”

In its efforts to prevent the Feb. 2 referendum vote, anti-government supporters have at times tried to instigate situations that had the potential to spark a military coup in order to bring down the current elected government.

@RichardBarrow 22:10pm - Asoke Intersection still going fairly strong 8 days into the #BangkokShutdown pic.twitter.com/rIc1TXgo4x

— Karan G (KG Promos) (@KG_Promotions) January 21, 2014

A shooting by unidentified gunmen, which resulted in one fatality, came after a prominent general said, “That door (coup d’ tat) is neither open nor closed ... it will be determined by the situation.”

The Tourism Authority of Thailand, like the State Department, is urging people to avoid the demonstration sites. They identify the major rally sites as being at six downtown intersections and nearby streets - Pathumwan, Ratchaprasong, Silom (Lumpini Park), Latphrao, Asoke and the Victory Monument roundabout.

Other major rally sites are at the Government Complex on Chaeng Wattana Road, Phan Fa Bridge on Ratchadamnoen Avenue and Chamai Maruchet Bridge on Phitsanulok Road.

The February vote is widely expected to give the current government a ringing endorsement. Thus the protests, which are led by former Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thuegsuban, are determined to prevent the vote. The potential for a democracy ending coup is serious in a country that has a long history of 18 coups d’ tats in the last 80 years. The last Thai coup brought down Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra's brother, Thaksin, in 2006.

Since the beginning of the demonstrations in November, the State Department has urged Americans to avoid the scenes of the protests. The new Alert also warns of some political activities in other parts of Thailand, especially Chiang Mai.

On Jan. 13, the situation intensified when protestors began blocking traffic, though there were several incidents, some fatal, previously. The protests by the People’s Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC) began in November when Yingluck called for an amnesty that would allow her older brother, former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra to return from his exile.

Follow me on Twitter @JRuggia1.