US embassy cable - 05TEGUCIGALPA900

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 TEGUCIGALPA 000900 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
STATE FOR DS/IP/WHA, DS/CR/CIL, AND DS/CR/VF 
STATE FOR CA, PRM, G/TIP, DRL/PHD and WHA 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: SMIG, ASEC, PGOV, KJUS, PTER, SNAR, PREL, HO 
SUBJECT: CORRUPTION SCANDAL AT HONDURAN IMMIGRATION: US ASSISTS 
INVESTIGATION 
 
 
1. (SBU) SUMMARY: State sections, with DS agents in the lead, 
and other U.S. agencies have assisted the Government of 
Honduras's (GOH) investigation of the GOH Immigration Service. 
Post received information from various sources indicating that 
the GOH Immigration Service is rife with corruption.  These 
allegations outlined how numerous Immigration officials were 
accepting bribes to sell Honduran passports to the highest 
bidder and allowing Chinese and other third country nationals, 
possibly including Special Interest Aliens (SIA), to enter 
Honduras without inspection or proper documentation.  END 
SUMMARY. 
 
BACKGROUND ON IMMIGRATION SERVICE PROCEDURES 
-------------------------------------------- 
 
2. (U) In Honduras, laws regulate how a person can apply for and 
receive Honduran passports and residence permits.  The Honduran 
immigration Service is responsible for maintaining and operating 
this system.  To receive a Honduran passport, individuals need 
to present Honduran identification documents, and pay a fee at a 
local bank to initiate the passport process of issuance. The GOH 
instituted bank fees to eliminate the flow of cash entering the 
migration office.  In effect, the bank serves as a screening 
agent to validate the identity documents and processing official 
fees for passport services.  The applicant receives a receipt 
from the bank to present to immigration officials (just as U.S. 
Consulates now use banks to collect fees for visa appointments.) 
When a person goes to the passport office he or she must have a 
Honduran identity document, despite the fact that the person 
showed it at the bank.  Applicants are required to present their 
national identity cards (cedula) to immigration officials at the 
passport office.  Failure to present the cedula at the time of 
the passport interview is a violation of Honduran passport 
regulations. 
 
OBTAINING A FRAUDULENT PASSPORT 
------------------------------- 
 
3. (SBU) RSO received information through other agency reporting 
that the Chief of the Passport Office in Tegucigalpa, 
Immigration Sub-Director Luis Fernando Moya, was accepting money 
from passport facilitators.  The facilitators bring in clients 
with various problems to Moya, who then makes the problems 
disappear.  For the right amount of money, the client then 
obtains a passport.  The source stated that Moya was doing this 
with the support and knowledge of Immigration Director Ramon 
Romero. 
 
4. (SBU) On March 17, RSO received information from a reliable 
source who has reported reliably in the past that he had 
obtained a Honduran passport without proper documentation. 
Before going to his appointment at the Tegucigalpa passport 
office, the source went to the Honduran National Registry Office 
to report that his Honduran National identification card 
(cedula) was lost.  The source received a receipt from officials 
at the national registry stating that his cedula would be sent 
to him within 90 days. 
 
5. (SBU) The source had an appointment at the Honduran Passport 
office, located in the Immigration building two blocks from the 
U.S. Embassy, for March 18.  The source stated that he met with 
Sub-Director of Immigration Luis Fernando Moya.  Moya told 
source that he could not help him obtain his Honduran passport 
because source did not have his cedula and he also had problems 
with his Honduran birth certificate.  Moya told the source that 
it would take a year to get another appointment at the passport 
office through the bank. 
 
6. (SBU) Upon leaving the immigration building, source was 
approached by a passport facilitator.  The facilitator told 
source that for 1,400 lempiras (approximately USD 75.00) he 
could solve his problem.  Source paid the facilitator 1,400 
lempiras.  The facilitator placed a call and within minutes 
source entered the passport office and was assisted by Moya's 
secretary, who took source's documents to Moya.  Source reported 
 
SIPDIS 
that Moya initialed the documents and that the secretary 
processed source's paperwork.  Source said he received his 
Honduran passport in less than an hour, without having presented 
any of the required and proper documentation.  This information 
directly implicates Immigration Sub-Director Luis Fernando Moya. 
 
7. (SBU) Luis Fernando Moya's visa was revoked under INA section 
214(b) on April 22, due to the probability he would flee the 
country in the face of his indictment. 
 
PALMER