Since I seem to be the official spokesperson for Captain Morgan's Retreat, I apologize for not posting something regarding the Cosmo article earlier, but I have just returned from Belize where I was treated with the usual hospitality.

The incident in the article happened in May of 2000. When it happened the managing director, our attorney and another memeber of US management were at the resort by the pool which is not 500 feet from the girls' cabana with an unobstructed view of the back of their room. Other guests were also in the area and no one saw anyone go into or come out of their room. Inside the room there was no indication of a struggle nor did it appear as if the cabana had been broken into. The resort security did an immediate search of the property and surrounding areas and found no one suspicious. After the incident we were never contacted by the girls or a representative and we were rather surprised to read the article in Cosmopolitan. Ernie, the managing director, was represented as being rather callous, but no one believed the woman's injuries to be as severe as they were portrayed in the article.

I have traveled to Belize several times by myself and I have never had anything like this happen. We frequently have single women or women friends stay at the resort and we never have any problems. Certainly anything can happen in any place, but I am willing to say that none of our staff would do anything like this. Most of our staff members are long time employees with 3-6 years of service. It is hard for me to believe that we could employ a violent person for that long.

I am not trying to discount the incident or undermine the fear the girls faced, but nothing like this has ever happened before or since. Belizeans know that tourism is their main industry and they do not bite the hand that feeds. They are known for being warm, welcoming people.

As for posts being removed, to my knowledge no one from this office had any posts removed. The article is in a nationally known magazine, it isn't as if we can hide the story so why would we bother removing a few posts on this board?