This is true. It was *required* there. They were surprised when I pulled out the refresher sticker, I'm sure they thought they had me for $200!
Glad to hear that it's not required at Utila. Either way, I was glad I did the refresher so I was re-familiar with the basics before going out on a dive boat with a bunch of strangers and local dive-masters that pretty much expected everyone to have some experience. (I know that's not the case in Utila). In my case, those dives were the real first non-training dives I did, so I was a little nervous and didn't know anyone. They also didn't really enforce "the buddy system" until the last day when we had a different dive master... and even then, most guys on the boat didn't do it anyway. That was a little disconcerting being the "new guy"... one time I almost jumped in without my weight belt. Not really a bad thing.. but what if I didn't have my BCD on correctly, or the backup regulator was fouled?