VZCZCXYZ0000
PP RUEHWEB

DE RUEHTG #1794/01 3182151
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 142151Z NOV 07
FM AMEMBASSY TEGUCIGALPA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 7281
INFO RUEHBU/AMEMBASSY BUENOS AIRES PRIORITY 0125
RUEHGT/AMEMBASSY GUATEMALA PRIORITY 3985
RUEHME/AMEMBASSY MEXICO PRIORITY 7812
RUEHDG/AMEMBASSY SANTO DOMINGO PRIORITY 0414

UNCLAS TEGUCIGALPA 001794 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR WHA/PPC, G-ACBLANK, AND G/TIP 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KCRM KWMN ELAB PHUM PGOV PREL HO
SUBJECT: TIP:  2007 INTERIM ASSESSMENT REPORT FOR HONDURAS 
 
REF: A. STATE 148925 
     ¶B. STATE 118936 
 
¶1.  (SBU) SUMMARY:  Post submits the following 2007 interim 
Trafficking in Persons (TIP) assessment report for Honduras 
(ref. A).  On September 26, 2007, Poloffs hosted a meeting 
with 15 members of the Inter-Institutional Committee, 
composed of Government of Honduras (GOH) officials, 
prosecutors, and police and NGOs, to inform them of the Tier 
2 Watch List Action Plan for Honduras (ref. B).  Poloff then 
met with the Special Prosecutor for Children, Nora Urbina, on 
November 9 to assess progress the GOH has made in combating 
TIP based on the recommendations of the Action Plan.  Post 
believes that the GOH is making strong, concerted efforts in 
each area of the plan to investigate and gather law 
enforcement data on TIP cases, coordinate better assistance 
for victims and vulnerable populations, train law enforcement 
officials, and raise social awareness of the problem of 
Trafficking in Persons.  END SUMMARY. 
 
----------------------- 
Law Enforcement Efforts 
----------------------- 
 
¶2.  (SBU) The Government of Honduras (GOH) has increased 
efforts to investigate trafficking offenders and is 
considering action to determine whether public officials were 
complicit in a particular TIP case.  INL recently paid for 
travel expenses and gas for two trips to the North Coast 
including El Progreso, Yoro, Tela, La Ceiba and Tocoa by 
agents of the Directorate of Special Investigations (DGSEI). 
The purpose of the stakeouts was to identify, confirm and 
gather prosecutable evidence in two cases involving 
Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children (CSEC).  In one 
case, agents were able to identify sources in the La Ceiba 
area for a subject who is exploiting minors at a local hotel. 
 In the other case, agents were waiting at the airport in La 
Ceiba to arrest an individual suspected of trafficking girls 
to the British Cayman Islands on a weekly basis, but he did 
not appear as expected.  It is suspected that the individual 
in question may have been tipped off.  When Poloff informed 
the Special Prosecutor for Children of the alleged leak, she 
said she would consider initiating a separate investigation. 
Both CSE cases continue to be investigated.  According to the 
Special Prosecutor for Children, there are now 32 TIP cases 
under investigation in Tegucigalpa and 49 in San Pedro Sula, 
with others ongoing elsewhere in the country.  In 
Tegucigalpa, seven cases this year have gone to trial, with 
two sentences so far.  The average time for a case to be 
tried in Honduras is three years or longer with many never 
reaching conclusion. 
 
¶3.  (SBU) During a visit to Roatan in September 2007, police 
told Poloff there were a few isolated cases of CSE, but the 
police, district attorney and courts have encountered 
conflicts and lack of coordination that make prosecutions 
difficult.  Under consideration is to initiate investigations 
from the prosecutor's office in Tegucigalpa, but this would 
require approval from the Attorney General or his deputy. 
The number of investigative analysts in Tegucigalpa assigned 
to children's issues, already disproportionately high in 
relation to other areas, has been increased this year. 
 
¶4. (SBU) The Division Against Abuse, Trafficking and CSE 
(DATESI), a unit of the criminal investigative police, 
conducted a series of detection operations throughout the 
country including highways, airports, ports and hotels.  On 
September 27, 2007, a woman was arrested for trafficking a 
female minor to Mexico for the purposes of CSE.  A number of 
other Honduran female minors were reportedly rescued from 
bars, massage parlors and brothels in Mexico and are being 
repatriated to Honduras this month.  Immigration authorities 
plan to hand them over to Casa Alianza for eventual 
reintegration into their families.  On November 9, police 
raided four massage parlors in Tegucigalpa simultaneously to 
rescue underage sex workers and arrested two Honduran men. 
 
-------------------- 
Law Enforcement Data 
-------------------- 
 
¶5. (U) The GOH has taken a qualitative step in improving 
efforts to gather law enforcement data on trafficking cases 
throughout the country.  In 2007, Honduras implemented a 
nationwide system to track all forms of criminal complaints, 
including TIP, from the first record of the case to 
prosecution, using a single file for all law enforcement 
agencies.  The new system is known as SEDI (Sistema de 
Expediente Digital Interinstitutional).  Additionally, the 
Interpol Division of the police is implementing a website of 
missing persons, a project which is financed by Save the 
Children Sweden.  Casa Alianza Honduras established a 
database of victims, which it is sharing with the Honduran 
Institute for Children and the Family (IHNFA) to coordinate 
victim assistance.  It is also working with the Special 
Prosecutor for Children in providing witnesses in certain TIP 
cases. 
 
------------------------------ 
Victim Protection and Shelters 
------------------------------ 
 
¶6. (U) As the third poorest country in the hemisphere, it is 
difficult for the GOH to increase dramatically its funding of 
shelters and other protection mechanisms.  Instead, the GOH 
has raised awareness within public institutions, especially 
police and immigration, so that they know what NGO-funded 
mechanisms are available, and institute rules that require 
them to utilize these resources.  In May 2007, the 
International Organization for Migration (IOM) launched a 
Protocol for the repatriation of children to coordinate 
attention to victims of CSE such that each entity of the 
Inter-Institutional Committee has a specific role.  The 
purpose of the new protocol is to ensure that victims such as 
those arriving at the border from Guatemala or the airport in 
Tegucigalpa receive primary care and attention and 
immediately are passed to shelters such as Casa Alianza's 
Centro Querubines or reintegrated into their families.  In 
the past IHNFA often failed to provide someone on the scene. 
Casa Alianza also is training IHNFA on victim assistance.  So 
far in 2007, Casa Alianza has provided assistance to 200 
victims of TIP.  It has placed 66 children in schools and 40 
in vocational studies.  It also has reintegrated 95 victims 
of CSEC with their families. 
 
¶7. (SBU) IOM already has conducted training on the protocol 
in the northern part of the country, including judges, 
immigration officials and civil society and is training 
professionals and technicians who give direct attention to 
victims or vulnerable persons.  Later this month IOM is 
holding organizational meetings to coordinate the transfer of 
vulnerable returnees, who are now arriving from Guatemala in 
greater numbers in the Department of Puerto Cortes instead of 
Ocotepeque, to the ABC shelter in San Pedro Sula.  As part of 
a INL-funded anti-TIP project that was initiated earlier this 
year, IOM provided a return ticket from Guatemala for a 
Honduran female minor by request from the Special Prosecutor 
for Children and in coordination with IHNFA and the consular 
affairs section of MFA.  IOM also provided travel costs to 
another Honduran female minor from San Pedro Sula so that she 
could give testimony in her case to the Special Prosecutor 
for Children after she was repatriated from Guatemala as a 
victim of CSEC.  IOM is coordinating rehabilitation services 
for a Honduran female minor after she was repatriated from 
Mexico as a victim of multiple violent sex acts and is 
coordinating action with the Special Prosecutor for Children 
and Honduran immigration authorities in a case of a Honduran 
female minor in Costa Rica.  In addition, a comprehensive map 
of trafficking routes was completed by Save the Children 
Honduras, which was distributed to police and immigration 
officials, so that they can be more vigilant, track the 
patterns, and make arrests. 
 
----------------------------- 
Training and Public Awareness 
----------------------------- 
 
¶8. (U) The Honduran National Congress currently is 
considering granting the Inter-Institutional Committee the 
status of a "GOH entity" which eventually may entitle it to 
its own funding.  Formed in 2002, the Committee consists of 
the Honduran Supreme Court; Ministries of Foreign Affairs 
(Consular), Governance (Migration), Internal Security 
(Police), Health and Education; prosecutors from the Public 
Ministry; IHNFA; the National Human Rights Commission 
(CONADEH), the National Association of Mayors (AHMON) and 
Casa Alianza.  It meets once a month with an agenda and often 
holds ad hoc meetings.  Six individuals from the Committee, 
including the Special Prosecutor for Children, immigration 
officials and investigative police, attended training in 
Trafficking in Persons for Law Enforcement Professionals from 
April 23 to May 4, 2007 in El Salvador sponsored by G/TIP and 
INL.  The Committee itself has embarked on an ambitious 
program of training and public awareness.  In 2007 they have 
hosted approximately 50  training sessions for political 
leaders, international organizations, civil society, women's 
and community groups, tourism and health workers, prosecutors 
and law enforcement, judges, education officials, students, 
municipal and urban transport workers and the press.  In 
January 2007 prosecutors from Tegucigalpa trained law 
enforcement officials in Roatan on CSE, including TV and 
radio spots.  The Mayor's office of Tegucigalpa trained a 
number of city groups earlier this year and on November 9 and 
10 it trained 50 police officers of the National Police 
Academy and 70 municipal officers.  The Child and Women's 
prosecutors conducted public awareness campaigns in Olancho, 
Comayagua and Choluteca.  The police also conducted training 
of justice officials in Ocotepeque and students in 
Tegucigalpa, Comayagua and Comayaguela.  IHNFA promoted the 
National Action Plan in nine regional areas and trained law 
enforcement, NGOs, and local and civil society authorities. 
Save the Children trained students, youth groups, teachers, 
and parents and community groups.  Casa Alianza conducted a 
course for DATESI police in El Progreso and municipal 
officials, judges, police, community groups, prosecutors and 
the press in Choluteca, including TV and radio spots.  The 
International Labor Organization's Program for the 
Elimination of Child Labor (ILO/IPEC) held training for the 
Association of the Honduran Press (APH) and completed on 
November 10 a journalism/CSE certification course for 30 
participants that took place on weekends for three months in 
Choluteca.  Even the Ministry of Governance has gotten into 
the act by encouraging 137 municipalities to name Public 
Defenders of Children.  To date the municipalities of Brus 
Laguna, Islas de la Bahia, Marcala, Choloma and Villanueva 
have named new Defenders, who now will be trained by the 
Ministry.  TV spots against TIP are now being run at the 
national level. 
 
¶9. (SBU) COMMENT:  As a result of more concerted efforts by 
the GOH led by the Special Prosecutor for Children and 
coordinated largely through the Inter-Institutional 
Committee, Post has witnessed much more public awareness of 
the problem of TIP in Honduras.  With a new anti-TIP law that 
came into effect on February 4, 2006, which sets increased 
penalties and specifically makes trafficking a crime, a 
number of cases have been exposed in the media, often with an 
explanation that Honduras fell to a Tier 2 Watch List ranking 
earlier this year.  As evidenced by the high number of cases 
under investigation in Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula, many 
of which originated from new citizen complaints, there is a 
growing and consistent public rejection of TIP.  With 
assistance from the USG and donor community, Post expects the 
GOH, NGOs and IOs to further enhance coordinated efforts to 
identify, investigate and prosecute cases successfully and 
continue to provide victims and vulnerable groups adequate 
sheltering and assistance.  END COMMENT. 
FORD