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DE RUEHTG #0268/01 0441912
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 131912Z FEB 06
FM AMEMBASSY TEGUCIGALPA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 1006
INFO RUEHZA/WHA CENTRAL AMERICAN COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RUMIAAA/CDR USSOUTHCOM MIAMI FL PRIORITY
RUEAHND/CDRJTFB SOTO CANO HO PRIORITY
RUEAORC/US CUSTOMS AND BORDER WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEPWJF/HQ BICE WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEHBJ/AMEMBASSY BEIJING PRIORITY 0115

UNCLAS TEGUCIGALPA 000268 
 
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/IP/WHA 
 
E.O. 12958:N/A 
TAGS: SMIG PGOV PREL ETRD PINS KCRM KJUS ASEC HO
SUBJECT: HONDURAN IMMIGRATION: THE PROBLEMS PERSIST, BUT 
WITH A ROADMAP FOR ZELAYA ADMINISTRATION TO REFORM 
 
 
¶1. (SBU) Summary.  Post worked closely with the outgoing 
Maduro Administration during its final months in office to 
both urge and assist reform of the Honduran immigration 
service.  Post has presented the GOH with solid evidence of 
ongoing corruption in the immigration service that is 
directly abetting illegal migration to the United States. 
Despite consistent GOH statements in support of reform, they 
took no concrete steps.  An independent commission 
established by President Maduro to assess and recommend next 
steps prepared and delivered to President Maduro a report 
that details weaknesses in the current system and outlines 
reform proposals.  The new Zelaya Administration has 
indicated interest in the issue; it remains unclear how or 
when it will begin to put that interest into action.  End 
summary. 
 
Corruption at Immigration - A Decades Old Problem 
--------------------------------------------- --------------- 
---- 
 
¶2. (SBU) The GOH immigration service has been a consistent 
source of scandal since at least the early 1990's scandals 
surrounding the sale of Honduran passports to mainland 
Chinese seeking an easy route to the United States.  The 
root of the problems in immigration, as in so many other 
areas in Honduras, is corruption.  Efforts to strengthen 
systems or introduce secure documents over the years have 
been frustrated by persistent, pervasive self-interest, from 
the lowest clerks to the Director and even higher. 
Following the mid-2005 criminal raids and investigations of 
the immigration service, the senior leadership was fired and 
briefly jailed.  The GOH still has a pending criminal case 
against the former immigration director and post continues 
to urge a vigorous prosecution, though with limited 
expectations that anyone will serve any significant prison 
time for the fraudulent sale of Honduran passports.  An 
outsider, a lawyer with a reputation for probity but no 
practical experience, was brought in to run the agency.  He 
lasted about two months before he resigned in the midst of a 
flurry of news stories when he labeled the agency a "gold 
mine" of corruption.  A placeholder who was labeled 
"incompetent" by his minister-level boss has held the job 
since then. 
 
The Embassy Seeks to Drive the Reform Effort Through the 
Election Season 
--------------------------------------------- --------------- 
-------------------------------- 
 
¶3. (SBU) Faced with this thicket of problems and recognizing 
the threat to U.S. national security from a near neighbor 
that issues passports without meaningful controls, Embassy 
sections and agencies including DHS/ICE, POL, RSO, and CONS 
began working together to propose specific reforms for the 
service.  In August 2005, post issued a press release 
expressing disappointment at developments in the criminal 
cases arising out of the earlier raids at Immigration.  This 
prompted a strong verbal confrontation between the then 
Minister of the Presidency, Ramon Medina Luna, and the 
Charge.  In September and October 2005, then Minister of 
Government Roberto Pacheco, whose ministry is responsible 
for passports, residencies, and other immigration matters, 
repeatedly told Embassy officers, including the Ambassador, 
that he had been instructed by President Maduro to seek our 
advice and to do anything we asked.  Many in the Embassy 
thought Pacheco, and perhaps Maduro, were merely seeking to 
avoid more negative headlines before the close-fought 
November 27 presidential elections. 
 
¶4. (SBU) On October 26, we proposed to Pacheco three areas 
for reform: 
 
¶A. Strengthen and better protect immigration's databases to 
deter, or even prevent, corrupt manipulation.  Create a 
tracking system that would record every action regarding 
passport and residence records to assist later 
investigations.  Install an automated entry/exit stamp 
system to minimize opportunities for the corrupt sale of 
backdated stamps. 
 
¶B. Create an internal affairs investigative unit, to work 
jointly with an Embassy-vetted police unit and the Organized 
Crime Prosecutor's office.  Restrict access by document 
fixers to the immigration services offices. 
 
¶C. Establish position descriptions and minimum skill 
requirements for immigration service employees, and ensure 
employees meet those requirements.  Improve salaries to 
reduce incentives to corruption. 
 
In his November 17 reply to our letter, Minister of 
Government Pacheco accepted substantially all of our 
proposals. 
 
¶5. (SBU) In mid-October, President Maduro ordered the 
creation of a Commission on Ethics and Transparency (CET) as 
a sub-part of the National Anti-Corruption Commission and 
directed them to report to him 45 days later, i.e. shortly 
after the election.  Those who thought the CET was little 
more than a fig leaf to suppress scandals until after the 
November 27 elections apparently underestimated them.  On 
December 7, the CET briefed the Ambassador and others on 
substantial problems they had uncovered in the databases and 
other systems at Immigration.  They reported that what had 
been previously presented to us and to the Honduran public 
as advances in systems security and in biometric data 
collection were, in fact, steps backward.  For example, the 
GOH's publicly touted biometrics collection system, which 
collects photos and fingerprints at the major international 
airports and several land borders, is not connected to a 
central database.  The data remains isolated at the 
collection point. 
 
The Commission's Report and the Road Ahead 
--------------------------------------------- ------------ 
 
¶6. (SBU) The CET reported to President Maduro in early 
January 2006 and proposed reforms in five strategic areas: 
 
Organizational Restructuring 
Administrative Processes 
System of Ethics and Institutional Transparency 
Anti-Corruption Systems 
Modernization of Applicable Laws 
 
Post believes the CET report provides a good summary of the 
existing problems in the Immigration Service and a road map 
for its reform.  The question now is whether the political 
will exists in the new Zelaya Administration to realize this 
possibility.  Some weaknesses could be resolved through 
administrative improvements, but others -- such as low wages 
and limited professional training -- will require the Zelaya 
Administration to find new resources. 
 
¶7. (U) Despite receiving the CET report in early December, 
Maduro left office on January 27 without taking any steps to 
implement the CET's recommendations or otherwise reform 
immigration.  Worse still, the GOH has apparently held the 
CET's report private so there has been no public pressure to 
move forward with reform.  Indeed, the director of 
immigration told the CG on February 7 that he had not seen 
the report. 
 
¶8. (SBU) Post began raising immigration reform with the 
Zelaya administration during the transition and key figures 
such as the new Minister of Government, Jorge Arturo Reina, 
indicated an awareness of the problem and our concern about 
it.  It remains unclear, however, where responsibility for 
immigration will lie in the new government.  The Ambassador 
has told senior GOH officials, including President Zelaya, 
that he has doubts about the suitability of Minister Reina 
to head reform efforts.  On February 2, President Zelaya 
told the Ambassador and FM Milton Jimenez that he would move 
the function from the Ministry of Government to the MFA.  On 
February 6, FM Jimenez told the Ambassador that President 
Zelaya had asked him and Minister of the Presidency 
Rosenthal to advise Reina of the change.  Post will continue 
to press the new GOH to face this threat to U.S. national 
security. 
 
Ford