VZCZCXYZ0001
PP RUEHWEB

DE RUEHTG #0575/01 0821849
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 231849Z MAR 06
FM AMEMBASSY TEGUCIGALPA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 1561
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 0132
RUEHIN/AIT TAIPEI PRIORITY 0179

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