NewsWhore
08-15-2011, 03:00 PM
The most recent WikiLeaks cable from the confidential files of the US Embassy in the Dominican Republic, dated 13 July 2007 is a request for B1/B2 revocation of the Dominican consul in Hong Kong Casilda Teonilde Casado de Cheung, her husband Pak Shing Cheung, her children Yin Mey, Yin Ney, Sheung Leung and Jean Ney Cheung Casado and her brother Roger Casado Alcantara on the grounds of corruption. The family is accused of enabling the DR to be used as a stepping-stone for Chinese immigrants to enter the US. The paperwork could have been sold for US$10,000 each, according to the file.
As reported in the secret file, the visa revocation is justified under section 212(f) of the INA that calls for suspending the entry into the US, as immigrants or non-immigrants, of certain persons who have committed, participated in, or are the beneficiaries of corruption in the performance of public functions were that corruption ahs serious adverse effects on: "US foreign assistant goals (or) the security of the United States against transnational crime and terrorism."
The file states that Casado was the director of the Dominican Trade and Development Office in Hong Kong, which is the DR's diplomatic mission to the People's Republic of China. Other family members worked in the mission.
As reported, prior to traveling to Hong Kong to take up her new position, Casado had commented that she intended to become extremely wealthy in her new job. As the Embassy noted in Ref B, "she has followed through on this pledge primarily through the corrupt sale of visas to prospective migrants". According to sources in the local Chinese community that have given reliable information on this issue in the past, her husband works directly with Chinese human smuggling organizations to identify potential migrants.
The US source estimated that roughly 4-20 Chinese nationals a week were smuggled through this arrangement since at least 2004. It indicates that as of early 2006 most all of these individuals traveled using visas that had been personally signed by Mrs. Cheung.
"According to media reports and SAA contacts, these Chinese migrants are able to bypass regular processing at the airport and the scrutiny it entails because they travel with both their valid visas and with letters personally signed by Migration Director Amarante Baret. These letters are not issued to travelers from other countries, according to investigative reporting by independent newspaper Clave Digital [since closed]. SAA is in possession of scores of such letters signed by Amarante Baret confirming the granting of valid Dominican visas to hundreds (if not thousands) of Chinese nationals. In addition, Dominican authorities determined that the addresses declared by some of the arriving immigrants were incorrect and were not the actual destinations of those individuals."
In an interview with El Nacional newspaper on Saturday, former Migration director Carlos Amarante Baret, who is a member of the ruling PLD party Political Committee, said that the Migration Department does not have the authority to issue visas to foreigners interested in traveling to the DR. He said it is the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that approves the visas and then requests them from the Department of Migration that then authorizes the airlines to sell tickets to the Chinese citizens who had visas.
www.elnacional.com.do/nacional/2011/8/13/91788/Amarante-Baret-reacciona-a-cable-de-wikileaks (http://www.elnacional.com.do/nacional/2011/8/13/91788/Amarante-Baret-reacciona-a-cable-de-wikileaks)
www.noticiassin.com/2011/08/wikileaks-revela-acusaciones-a-funcionaria-dominicana-en-trafico-humano/ (http://www.noticiassin.com/2011/08/wikileaks-revela-acusaciones-a-funcionaria-dominicana-en-trafico-humano/)
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#6)
As reported in the secret file, the visa revocation is justified under section 212(f) of the INA that calls for suspending the entry into the US, as immigrants or non-immigrants, of certain persons who have committed, participated in, or are the beneficiaries of corruption in the performance of public functions were that corruption ahs serious adverse effects on: "US foreign assistant goals (or) the security of the United States against transnational crime and terrorism."
The file states that Casado was the director of the Dominican Trade and Development Office in Hong Kong, which is the DR's diplomatic mission to the People's Republic of China. Other family members worked in the mission.
As reported, prior to traveling to Hong Kong to take up her new position, Casado had commented that she intended to become extremely wealthy in her new job. As the Embassy noted in Ref B, "she has followed through on this pledge primarily through the corrupt sale of visas to prospective migrants". According to sources in the local Chinese community that have given reliable information on this issue in the past, her husband works directly with Chinese human smuggling organizations to identify potential migrants.
The US source estimated that roughly 4-20 Chinese nationals a week were smuggled through this arrangement since at least 2004. It indicates that as of early 2006 most all of these individuals traveled using visas that had been personally signed by Mrs. Cheung.
"According to media reports and SAA contacts, these Chinese migrants are able to bypass regular processing at the airport and the scrutiny it entails because they travel with both their valid visas and with letters personally signed by Migration Director Amarante Baret. These letters are not issued to travelers from other countries, according to investigative reporting by independent newspaper Clave Digital [since closed]. SAA is in possession of scores of such letters signed by Amarante Baret confirming the granting of valid Dominican visas to hundreds (if not thousands) of Chinese nationals. In addition, Dominican authorities determined that the addresses declared by some of the arriving immigrants were incorrect and were not the actual destinations of those individuals."
In an interview with El Nacional newspaper on Saturday, former Migration director Carlos Amarante Baret, who is a member of the ruling PLD party Political Committee, said that the Migration Department does not have the authority to issue visas to foreigners interested in traveling to the DR. He said it is the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that approves the visas and then requests them from the Department of Migration that then authorizes the airlines to sell tickets to the Chinese citizens who had visas.
www.elnacional.com.do/nacional/2011/8/13/91788/Amarante-Baret-reacciona-a-cable-de-wikileaks (http://www.elnacional.com.do/nacional/2011/8/13/91788/Amarante-Baret-reacciona-a-cable-de-wikileaks)
www.noticiassin.com/2011/08/wikileaks-revela-acusaciones-a-funcionaria-dominicana-en-trafico-humano/ (http://www.noticiassin.com/2011/08/wikileaks-revela-acusaciones-a-funcionaria-dominicana-en-trafico-humano/)
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#6)