HONDURAN IMMIGRATION: THE ZELAYA ADMINISTRATION

UNCLAS TEGUCIGALPA 000575

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

STATE FOR WHA/CEN, WHA/PPC, PRM, AND INL/LP
STATE FOR CA/VO, CA/FPP, AND S/CT
STATE FOR DS/DSS/OSAC, DS/DSS/CC, AND DS/CIL
STATE FOR DS/ITA AND DS/IP/WHA

E.O. 12958:N/A
TAGS: SMIG PGOV PREL ETRD PINS KCRM KJUS ASEC HO
SUBJECT: HONDURAN IMMIGRATION: THE ZELAYA ADMINISTRATION
TAKES ITS FIRST STEPS TOWARD REFORM

REF. A. 05 Tegucigalpa 1726,


B. Tegucigalpa 268


1. (SBU) Summary. The Consul General (CG) met on March 6
and 14 with senior officials in the Honduran Immigration
Service and they presented a picture of continued confusion
and corruption at the Immigration Service. President Zelaya
told the Ambassador on March 14 that a new Director of
Immigration would soon be named, but did not offer any
details about reform plans beyond saying that the
immigration function might be moved out of the Ministry of
Government and Justice. Minister of Government Jorge Arturo
Reina called on the Ambassador, together with the DCM and
CG, on 16 March to discuss the Zelaya Administration's plans
for immigration reform. The Ambassador told Reina the USG
would support a rapid, serious, and transparent program and
noted the national security implications for both Honduras
and the United States. End summary.

More of the Same . . .
--------------


2. (SBU) On March 6, Acting Immigration Director Daniel
Ramos gave Reina his letter of resignation. Ramos had
discovered that two Immigration employees had entered the
Immigration offices on Sunday, March 5, to print passports
for members of President Zelaya's family at the request of
the MFA. The Immigration employees were Oscar Castro, who
is in charge of systems, and Carlos Amilcar Sanchez, the
head of International Immigration and, effectively the
number two. According to Ramos, neither was authorized to
process or print passports, though they had the ability to
do so once Castro opened the system. Ramos said this
demonstrated the weakness of systems and controls at
Immigration.


3. (SBU) On March 14, Immigration official Sanchez called on
the CG and acting DHS/ICE representative. Sanchez painted a
picture of an agency adrift. He decried the lack of
sufficient personnel to do the job and said over-long shifts
were exhausting employees and making them more susceptible
to mistakes and corruption. He was concerned about systems
security and noted that people can enter their databases and
falsify data. He said the personnel structure must be
changed and decried the access that document fixers have to
clients and immigration officers.


4. (SBU) Sanchez called acting Director Ramos ineffective
(thus echoing the views of former Minister of Government
Roberto Pacheco). He was unclear whether Ramos's March 6
resignation had been accepted but thought the details of his
separation were still being negotiated. Sanchez expected a
temporary director, while a commission appointed by the
current Minister of Government, Jorge Arturo Reina, examined
immigration issues for 45 days. Sanchez does not know who
would be on the commission, but had heard Catholic Church
Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez would be involved.


5. (SBU) Sanchez is unhappy that the commission is looking
at Immigration from the outside and not interviewing
insiders. (Comment: This remark highlights the lack of
communication within the GOH on immigration issues; the
number two at Immigration does not know whether the
commission examining his agency yet exists, what its charge
might be, or who it will interview. End comment.) Sanchez
would favor making Immigration more independent, but would
not agree with moving it to the MFA. He believes the
Salvadoran model, where the police run immigration, failed.
He believes Immigration's problems are too deep-rooted to be
solved by just a move in the bureaucracy. For example, he
gave Emboffs a list of 28 named Immigration employees he
asserts have engaged in corrupt acts.

. . . Or A New Start?
--------------


6. (SBU) President Zelaya told the Ambassador on March 14
that there would soon be a new immigration director named
and that his government was considering how to restructure
Immigration. He said they were considering moving the
service out of the Ministry of Government.


7. (SBU) On March 15, MinGov Reina requested a meeting with
the Ambassador to outline the GOH's plans to reform
Immigration and the meeting took place on March 16. Reina
said he would accept Director Ramos's letter of resignation
on March 16 and move to name German Francisco Espinal Zuniga
(DPOB: 06 August 1951, Naraita, HO) as the new Director.
Espinal is favorably known to the Embassy as the former
executive director of the National Anti-Corruption Council
(CNA),from the days when Cardinal Rodriguez led the CNA.


8. (SBU) Reina will direct Espinal to convene a commission,
which must develop a work plan for reform within 60 days
from early next week. The report will include internal
structural reforms, as well as recommendations as to where
in the GOH Immigration should be located. Reina said
Immigration may continue to report to his Ministry, be moved
to another Ministry, or become an independent entity. The
commission will be composed of representatives from the
Ministry of Public Security, MFA, CNA, and, perhaps, FONAC,
a quasi-governmental body that addresses governance issues.
There would be several advisors, including Gautama Fonseca
Zuniga (DPOB: 17 August 1932, HO),a respected former
Congressman and Minister of Security and two-term Minister
of Labor, and Efrain Moncada Silva (DPOB: 14 February 1933,
HO),a respected lawyer and former Minister of Government
under President Reina and one of the principal drafters of
the bill creating the Public Ministry. According to Reina,
Cardinal Rodriguez knows of and supports his plan to name a
commission. Reina said the commission would be launched
with a press conference and that it would keep the public
apprised of its progress during its 60-day investigation.
(Note: A promise to let the Honduran public know about the
workings of a public commission may not seem to be a
significant concession to transparency, but it is a
significant contrast to the usual practice whereby a group
of worthies, and political insiders, gather behind closed
doors and then simply announce their conclusions. End
note.)


9. (SBU) The Ambassador pledged to support reform efforts
provided they were rapid, serious, and transparent. He
emphasized the importance of transparency in reform of
Immigration and noted the problems the GOH's recent
decisions on fuel prices had caused because they were made
without a chance for public comment on the analysis. He
also noted that a failed immigration service poses a
national security threat to both Honduras and the United
States. The Ambassador asked for, and Reina agreed to
provide, an outline of the commission's work plan and goals.
Reina noted that the Embassy of Spain has also pledged
support.


10. (SBU) The CG noted to Reina that a CNA special
commission had prepared a January 2006 report on the
problems in Immigration and proposing solutions. Reina said
that report's proposals might not be the best, but that they
would be considered by the new commission. As noted in Ref.
B, the January 2006 report was based upon and amplified the
Embassy's suggestions to the Maduro Administration.


11. Comment: Time will tell whether President Zelaya and
Reina's promise to clean up immigration will be backed by
effective action. We are encouraged by Reina's promise that
the new commission will operate in public, but remain
skeptical. A 20 plus year history of using Immigration to
make political insiders rich will be difficult to overturn.
As the last full-time Director of Immigration said of the
service, it is a gold mine for corrupt officials. That
said, we will continue to press the GOH to change this
dismal history. End Comment.

Ford