CORRUPTION SCANDAL AT HONDURAN IMMIGRATION: US ASSISTS

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 TEGUCIGALPA 000900

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE

STATE FOR DS/IP/WHA, DS/CR/CIL, AND DS/CR/VF
STATE FOR CA, PRM, G/TIP, DRL/PHD and WHA

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: SMIG ASEC PGOV KJUS PTER SNAR PREL HO
SUBJECT: CORRUPTION SCANDAL AT HONDURAN IMMIGRATION: US ASSISTS
INVESTIGATION



1. (SBU) SUMMARY: State sections, with DS agents in the lead,
and other U.S. agencies have assisted the Government of
Honduras's (GOH) investigation of the GOH Immigration Service.
Post received information from various sources indicating that
the GOH Immigration Service is rife with corruption. These
allegations outlined how numerous Immigration officials were
accepting bribes to sell Honduran passports to the highest
bidder and allowing Chinese and other third country nationals,
possibly including Special Interest Aliens (SIA),to enter
Honduras without inspection or proper documentation. END
SUMMARY.

BACKGROUND ON IMMIGRATION SERVICE PROCEDURES
--------------


2. (U) In Honduras, laws regulate how a person can apply for and
receive Honduran passports and residence permits. The Honduran
immigration Service is responsible for maintaining and operating
this system. To receive a Honduran passport, individuals need
to present Honduran identification documents, and pay a fee at a
local bank to initiate the passport process of issuance. The GOH
instituted bank fees to eliminate the flow of cash entering the
migration office. In effect, the bank serves as a screening
agent to validate the identity documents and processing official
fees for passport services. The applicant receives a receipt
from the bank to present to immigration officials (just as U.S.
Consulates now use banks to collect fees for visa appointments.)
When a person goes to the passport office he or she must have a
Honduran identity document, despite the fact that the person
showed it at the bank. Applicants are required to present their
national identity cards (cedula) to immigration officials at the
passport office. Failure to present the cedula at the time of
the passport interview is a violation of Honduran passport
regulations.

OBTAINING A FRAUDULENT PASSPORT
--------------


3. (SBU) RSO received information through other agency reporting
that the Chief of the Passport Office in Tegucigalpa,
Immigration Sub-Director Luis Fernando Moya, was accepting money
from passport facilitators. The facilitators bring in clients
with various problems to Moya, who then makes the problems
disappear. For the right amount of money, the client then
obtains a passport. The source stated that Moya was doing this
with the support and knowledge of Immigration Director Ramon
Romero.


4. (SBU) On March 17, RSO received information from a reliable
source who has reported reliably in the past that he had
obtained a Honduran passport without proper documentation.
Before going to his appointment at the Tegucigalpa passport
office, the source went to the Honduran National Registry Office
to report that his Honduran National identification card
(cedula) was lost. The source received a receipt from officials
at the national registry stating that his cedula would be sent
to him within 90 days.


5. (SBU) The source had an appointment at the Honduran Passport
office, located in the Immigration building two blocks from the
U.S. Embassy, for March 18. The source stated that he met with
Sub-Director of Immigration Luis Fernando Moya. Moya told
source that he could not help him obtain his Honduran passport
because source did not have his cedula and he also had problems
with his Honduran birth certificate. Moya told the source that
it would take a year to get another appointment at the passport
office through the bank.


6. (SBU) Upon leaving the immigration building, source was
approached by a passport facilitator. The facilitator told
source that for 1,400 lempiras (approximately USD 75.00) he
could solve his problem. Source paid the facilitator 1,400
lempiras. The facilitator placed a call and within minutes
source entered the passport office and was assisted by Moya's
secretary, who took source's documents to Moya. Source reported

SIPDIS
that Moya initialed the documents and that the secretary
processed source's paperwork. Source said he received his
Honduran passport in less than an hour, without having presented
any of the required and proper documentation. This information
directly implicates Immigration Sub-Director Luis Fernando Moya.


7. (SBU) Luis Fernando Moya's visa was revoked under INA section
214(b) on April 22, due to the probability he would flee the
country in the face of his indictment.

PALMER