I stayed at xpu ha in the early 1990s. Apparently it was left to 7 brothers, 1 by 1 they were selling up to American hotel companies. The site we were camping at was owned by 1 brother, the 1 next to him wanted to sell up, but the hotel wanted both sites, I heard a year later that the owner who didn't want to sell,and his only daughter, were killed in a car accident. The first brother who sold up , for , if I remember correctly, $10,000,000, gambled and drank it all away. Two others had sold their land at that point.
There were soldiers or marines patrolling the beach every morning looking for signs of smuggling.