BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) – An American entrepreneur who introduced foreign men to “young, beautiful, sexy Latin women” via the Internet was killed in the western city of Cali by gunmen on a motorcycle who wounded his Colombian wife.
Robert Marshall Vignola, 50, of Hamden, Conn., was shot and killed Thursday night by two men on a motorcycle while driving to Cali’s airport, police said. His 33-year-old wife, Beatriz Ramos, was hospitalized with bullet wounds in the shoulder.
The Web site www.latinwomenconnection.com that he apparently created claims the Cali-based company, in business since 1999, “has assisted hundreds of clients in the search for the Latin Woman of their dreams.”
Cali’s police chief, Gen. Alberto Moore, told The Associated Press that authorities did not know why Vignola was killed but had ruled out robbery.
In addition to the “matrimonial service,” Vignola had a casino in Cali that went bankrupt, leaving him with considerable debts, said Moore.
“So it’s said that possibly people could have been demanding money, and he didn’t pay and so they took this reprisal,” he added.
Moore said Vignola had financial problems in the United States but said he had no details.
Relatives of Vignola in Connecticut, where according to his personal Web site he practiced law and offered assistance in obtaining mortgages, would not comment.
“We’re in mourning right now so please don’t bother us,” said a man who answered the phone at Vignola’s father’s home.
A friend of Vignola in Cali who spoke on condition he not be further identified said Vignola only visited the city three or four times a year.
Vignola’s personal testimonial on the Latin Women Connection site, which describes him as its “former owner and original founder,” recounts how he met his wife in Colombia after deciding he had “almost no chance of finding the woman of my dreams here in the United States.”
In addition to offering contact with Cali women pictured in bikinis in its photo gallery for 15 euros (US$20) each, the Web site promotes vacation packages to Cali including a “private tour” accompanied by Vignola for US$600 (euro450) per day plus airfare.
The site promotes the sale of a book penned by Vignola entitled “Secrets of Romancing Latin Women.”
It describes Latin females as “the type of women that make a man’s heart race, blood boil and libido accelerate into overdrive.”
Cali, home to Colombia’s dominant cocaine cartel in the 1990s, remains among the country’s most violent major cities.
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