VZCZCXYZ0185
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHAC #0162/01 0782048
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 192048Z MAR 09
FM AMEMBASSY ASUNCION
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 7684
RUEHPNH/NVC PORTSMOUTH
INFO RUCNMER/MERCOSUR COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS ASUNCION 000162 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR CA/FPP, HOMELAND SECURITY PASS TO USCIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: CMGT KFRD ASEC CVIS CPAS PA
SUBJECT: FRAUD SUMMARY Q ASUNCION 
 
REF: 08 STATE 074840 
 
¶1.  (U) This cable is in response to an action request in 
paragraph 6 of retel. 
 
------------------- 
COUNTRY CONDITIONS 
------------------- 
 
¶2. (U) After the 35-year dictatorship of General Alfredo 
Stroessner and six decades of Colorado Party rule, Paraguayans 
elected former Roman Catholic bishop Fernando Lugo president in 
free and fair elections in April 2008.  Lugo was inaugurated on 
August 15, 2008.  He has vowed to fight endemic corruption, 
strengthen democratic institutions, generate jobs, invest in 
education and social needs, and renegotiate Paraguay's bi- 
national dams with Brazil and Argentina. While Lugo's 
popularity ratings remain high, the president is struggling to 
implement his agenda, which includes controversial judicial and 
land reforms, as well as an anti-corruption campaign. 
 
¶3. (U) This landlocked country of 6.6 million people is hopeful 
for change, but endemic corruption, weak government 
institutions, difficult economic conditions and an inconsistent 
regulatory climate provide incentive and opportunity for 
consular fraud in Paraguay.  Unemployment and underemployment 
are problems and the primary motivators for immigration to 
Argentina, Brazil and Spain. 
 
¶4. (U) Paraguay is beginning to feel the effects of the global 
financial crisis.  The economic downturn hit Spain particularly 
hard, and there are approximately 2,000-3,000 Paraguayans who 
want to come back to Paraguay.  The Paraguayan government is 
trying to help its unemployed and stranded citizens return 
home, but the mechanisms have not yet been fully implemented. 
 
¶5.  (U) Paraguay has had great difficulty regulating commerce 
in its second largest city, Ciudad del Este, located in the 
Paraguay-Argentina-Brazil triQorder region.  This region is 
noted for trafficking in arms, drugs, contraband, and persons. 
This region is also home to large foreign communities, 
especially Brazilian, Taiwanese, Korean, and Lebanese, many of 
whom retain their foreign nationality.  Moreover, many 
Paraguayans receive foreign citizenship from Italy, Germany and 
Spain through their parents or grandparents, yet their economic 
and social situation in Paraguay cannot be compared to the 
situation of applicants who are presently living in the 
European Union. 
 
¶6. (U) Civil documentation is lightly controlled in Paraguay. 
For example, birth and marriage certificates continue to be 
hand written in the interior of the country.  Most 
documentation cannot be verified.  Exchange-rate changes highly 
favorable to Paraguay have made travel to the U.S. a 
possibility for a larger cohort of Paraguayan society who tend 
to travel to Florida, New York, Colorado and Kansas. 
 
¶7. (U) Post categorizes Paraguay as "low-fraud."  The 
percentage of applicants refused non-immigrant visas from 
October 1, 2008 to March 1, 2009 was 14.18 percent (adjusted). 
The number of refusals has increased in the last six months. 
 
------------------------ 
NON-IMMIGRANT VISA FRAUD 
------------------------ 
 
¶8. (U) Non-immigrant visa (NIV) fraud is generally found in a 
manageable percentage of applications.  It usually consists of 
fake or inflated employment letters and bank statements. 
Normally these are detected at intake in cases that are obvious 
candidates for refusal under section 214(b) of the Immigration 
and Nationality Act.  When the Consular Officer suspects that 
the applicant is using forged legal documents or bank 
statements, the Consular Officer (who also acts as Fraud 
Prevention Manager) coordinates with the NIV pre-screener (who 
also acts as a Fraud Investigator) and the Regional Security 
Office (RSO) to bring in the local police to question the 
applicant about the provenance of the documents. 
 
¶9. (U) The level of official corruption in Paraguay is very 
high.  It is not difficult to obtain fraudulent official 
government documents by paying a small fee.  Some immigration 
officials are also unscrupulous.  A back-dated entry stamp 
indicating re-entry into Paraguay months or even years prior to 
the actual re-entry date can be easily obtained at the airport 
for amounts ranging from USD 20 to USD 100 depending on the 
negotiating expertise and contacts of the individual.  In some 
cases, Paraguayans have obtained this service by sending their 
passports via courier from the U.S. to Paraguay to have them 
stamped without ever leaving the U.S.  The risk of visa fraud 
is particularly high in some areas of the country, notably the 
towns of Caraguaty (approximately 60 miles from Asuncion) and 
Isla Pucu (approximately 52 miles from Asuncion), which are 
known for the number of inhabitants who have immigrated to the 
U.S., primarily to the New York and New Jersey areas. 
 
¶10. (U) Post conducts statistically sound validation studies. 
Typically, Asuncion validation studies yield confirmed overstay 
rates of one to three percent. 
 
---------------------- 
IMMIGRANT VISA FRAUD 
--------------------- 
 
¶11.  (U) Post's cases of immigrant visa (IV) fraud have 
historically centered on employment visas.  These cases, which 
generally involve non-existent companies or positions for which 
the applicant did not have the required skills, have been most 
common among Korean applicants.  Post has also detected and 
investigated fraudulent marriages entered into solely for the 
purpose of obtaining immigration benefits, and there have been 
several cases of falsified New Jersey birth and marriage 
certificates in marriage-based petitions. 
 
--------------------- 
DIVERSITY VISA FRAUD 
--------------------- 
 
¶12. (U) Post historically has not experienced this type of 
fraud, most likely due to the low number of Paraguayan 
diversity visa (DV) applicants. 
 
--------------------------- 
ACS AND U.S. PASSPORT FRAUD 
---------------------------- 
 
¶13. (U) The little ACS fraud that is known to or suspected by 
Post occurs when U.S. citizens register orphans as their own 
and subsequently apply for Consular Reports of Birth Abroad 
(CRBA) and passports, stating that the children are their 
biological offspring. 
 
---------------- 
ADOPTION FRAUD 
---------------- 
 
¶14. (U) Adoption related fraud is not apparent at Post. 
Paraguay generally does not permit adoption by foreigners who 
are not resident in the country. 
 
------------------- 
USE OF DNA TESTING 
------------------- 
 
¶15. (U) Post occasionally uses DNA testing in IV cases.  Use of 
DNA testing in NIV cases is rarely done. 
 
----------------------------------- 
ASYLYM AND OTHER DHS BENEFIT FRAUD 
----------------------------------- 
 
¶16. (U) Post generally does not encounter asylum or other DHS 
benefit fraud. 
 
--------------------------------- 
ALIEN SMUGGLING, TRAFFICKING, 
ORGANIZED CRIME, TERRORIST TRAVEL 
--------------------------------- 
 
¶17. (U) Paraguay is a source country for trafficked and 
smuggled aliens, but generally they are not destined for the 
United States. Trafficking and smuggling visible to the 
Consular Section would most likely involve fraudulent domestic 
employee visas. Post has stepped up scrutiny in these cases 
after seeing a series of suspicious cases close together. 
However, the cases were not related and the volume is quite 
low. Regarding possible terrorist and criminal travel, Post has 
begun applying increased scrutiny to applicants from exchange 
houses (casas de cambio) and import-export firms from the Tri- 
Border Area (TBA). In these cases, the scrutiny is not directed 
against visa fraud per se, but against the likely activities of 
the applicants if they come to the United States. 
 
-------------------------------- 
DS CRIMINAL FRAUD INVESTIGATIONS 
--------------------------------- 
 
¶18. (U) The Consular Section and RSO work very closely on every 
fraud case.  Asuncion is a small mission with two Consular 
Officers and two DS agents.  Cases are referred to RSO whenever 
the Consular Officer or the FPU LES suspect fraud. 
 
----------------------------------------- 
HOST COUNTRY PASSPORT, IDENTITY DOCUMENTS 
AND CIVIL REGISTRY 
----------------------------------------- 
 
¶19. (U) The Paraguayan passport is a low-tech, but ICAO- 
compliant document.  The books are produced under contract by 
the La Rue Company.  The Crane Company now prints the country's 
currency.  The passport features high-security paper, the 
applicant's fingerprint, and a secure laminate on the 
biographical page.  The passport is particularly vulnerable to 
photo-substitution.  The passport application process has good 
procedural integrity, but the human element is crucial and 
lacking in integrity on occasion.  No automated record checks 
are utilized to vet passport applications.  Furthermore, 
passports can be renewed long after their expiration without 
the bearer having to provide a new photograph, which also makes 
the Paraguayan passport vulnerable to use by impostors. 
 
¶20. (U) Other civil documentation is very lightly controlled. 
Post requires most civil documents used to support consular 
applications to be legalized at a civil registry or at the 
Ministry of External Relations, depending on the document. 
Post, as a rule, does not consider civil documentation by 
itself to be absolute proof of the fact claimed by the 
document. 
 
-------------------------------------------- 
COOPERATION WITH HOST GOVERNMENT AUTHORITIES 
-------------------------------------------- 
 
¶21. (U) Cooperation with Government of Paraguay (GOP) 
authorities on consular fraud issues is generally good. 
However, prosecutors are sometimes hamstrung when the apparent 
victim of a fraud scheme - usually someone who has paid money 
to a visa "fixer" who has no connection to the Embassy and no 
intention of ever getting a visa for the victim - declines to 
go forward with a police report.  That said, police cooperation 
has been very good; it helps the Embassy create an atmosphere 
that deters attempts at visa fraud. 
 
----------------------------- 
AREAS OF PARTICULAR CONCERN 
---------------------------- 
 
¶22. (U) Easy access to fraudulent documents is the primary area 
of concern, particularly when they are used to paper over 
possible illegal activity in Ciudad del Este and the Tri-border 
region.  Internal controls in both the manufacture and issuance 
processes of birth certificates are virtually non-existent. 
Records are kept manually, and it is common practice in 
Paraguay to register a birth up to twenty years after the 
actual date of birth.  Compounding this lack of internal 
controls is the unfortunate fact that a large percentage of the 
Civil Registry workforce is unpaid and therefore vulnerable to 
bribes. 
 
--------- 
STAFFING 
--------- 
 
Ernest J. Abisellan, Consul and Accountable Consular Officer 
Olga Elena Bashbush, Vice-Consul and Fraud Prevention Manager 
Marie France Liegard, NIV Assistant 
Irma Liliana Casali, IV Assistant 
Claudia Escobar, ACS Assistant 
Jorge Arias, Fraud Investigator and NIV Assistant 
Post notes initial CA and DS approval for a new ARSO-I 
position, and CA approval of a temporary ACS Assistant. 
 
AYALDE