some answers

I’ll try to answer the questions I have personal knowledge of.
Anonymous: To my knowledge no one has received refunds – certainly no one I know has been contacted by Dan or Gina with regards to refunds but then I only know a few people who were involved. The only contact I have had has been the email above. Yesterday I emailed the police officer who dealt with the original complaint and asked him to bring me up to speed on what was happening as Dan had promised them at the police station on the Friday that he would get his mother to send him some money and repay us all on the Monday. I also copied him in on the email and reply reproduced above.
I visited the Hotel Bolivar with Dan a few days before the “congress” and can confirm that it was booked (he made a big deal of showing me the contract) but not paid for. That’s all my first hand knowledge of that but I believe if you call them they may tell you a different story to the one Dan told.
I have been in contact with the people from the hotel España where Dan and Gina stayed for a month where and I stayed for 10 days but rather than pass on hearsay I would advise you to contact them. I do have to say that in all the time I was there I found them to be 100% courteous, pleasant and friendly and they couldn’t do enough to help, so much so that we have stayed in touch. I would recommend that hotel to anyone without reservation. They are nice people and in my opinion they too would benefit from, and merit, any help anyone can give them.
I did email Supadance who are a well respected company – in fact had there been a congress I would have been wearing Supadance shoes. I had a prompt reply from their CEO stating that Dan Sela did not represent his company and that he would try to get the claim removed from the Sela Salsa website.
As far as I am aware Dan is in Perú on a tourist visa and all legal paperwork was in the name of one of his friends here. I can’t name names in regard to this situation or say more because I have no evidence – only hearsay from Dan.

John: Having been involved in implementing Data Protection legislation in Europe in the past I can understand why the forum controllers have to be careful. However, all of his phone numbers were publicly exhibited here http://www.sela-salsa-congresos-lima-peru.com/contact/ and I can confirm that the one listed for Perú is the one Dan was using in Lima. Should that phone number be removed as it has been from the main site I have an archived copy of the website.
To my knowledge Dan has threatened legal action against the hotel, me, two very nice young people from Venezuela, several people in earlier posts on this site and now this site itself. My friend has also been threatened physically by phone by someone acting for Dan – whether with or without his knowledge I don’t know. It seems to be a particular pattern and personally I’m not the least bit worried about it. In my opinion as long as you speak the truth you have nothing to fear.

If anyone needs any more info please feel free to contact me and I will answer honestly if I can.

Janice Walker 17 Mar 2007, 07:50 - Report