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          : Arnold Morris, a former U.S. citizen wanted by the FBI and U.S. Department of Justice for felonies he committed in Florida, has lost his Honduran citizenship, according to a report in the daily La Tribuna of Tuesday (May 5).

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          An official of the Ministry of Government and Justice stated that  Morris' naturalization papers were canceled at the request of the U.S. Embassy in Tegucigalpa due to the fact that they were  fraudulently obtained.  The U.S. government is currently seeking his extradition.

  Morris, who lives on Roatan, obtained Honduran citizenship in  1992 during the administration of President Rafael Leonardo     Callejas, despite having a criminal record.

 In related news, La Prensa reported Thursday that the U.S.  Embassy has canceled the visas of Morris' Honduran wife Rita and his stepson, Emilio Silvestri.  (Honduras This Week)

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In a burst of uncommon legal righteousness, the Honduras Ministry of Government has – at long last – cancelled the fraudulent Honduras citizenship of Arnold F. Morris.  The  fact that the United States government is also seeking his extradition back to Florida to answer to a 26-count criminal Indictment is also acknowledged as if it were late breaking news.

 Without venturing a guess as to what might have spurred the almost moribund Honduras legal machinery into long-overdue action against Roatan’s long-time fugitive from U. S. justice, it must be said that it has been much too long in coming.

 As postings on this Site document beyond any opportunity for argument, beginning with an article entitled “How to Destroy an Island”, this author  chronicled the arrival of Arnold Morris on Roatan, his acquisition of a fraudulent Honduras citizenship, his collusion with then-Judge of Letters Fernando Azcona Schrenzel and their illicit  incursions into the Roatan real-estate market. I also published the Arnold Morris Indictment and the Florida Court’s Arrest Order from which he was fleeing.

 I wrote two separate letters (9, January, 1997 and 21, May, 1997) to then-Presidente, Carlos Roberto Reina, enclosing a variety of evidentiary materials to support my charges against the Morris gang, and asked for his help.  He did nothing. I wrote letters to the U. S. Embassy, with the same lack of results. In fact, Ambassador James F. Creigan didn’t even give me the courtesy of a reply!

 Carlos Flores Facusse was elected Presidente in January, 1998.  Based on his expansive campaign promises to clean up the Honduras judicial system, I wrote one letter to him on 10 February, 1998, and another on 16 March, 1998, asking for his intervention with the court system concerning Arnold Morris. He didn’t reply to either letter.

 I wrote letters to the Presidente of the Corte Suprema de Justicia, enclosing copious evidence of the theft of my properties through the combined efforts of the Morris gang and the corrupted Judge of Letters Azcona Schrenzel, who was producing  and entering the fraudulent documents that were illegally transferring my properties to the Morris interests. The Supreme Court Justices never answered my correspondence, but they finally did decide to investigate my charges against Judge Azcona Schrenzel.  They then removed him from the bench in October, 1997, for corruption and misfeasance.  

This is how  “Honduras This Week” reported it at the time:

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                                 Files of Corrupt Judges in

                         Hands of Special Prosecutor

   The special government prosecutor for corruption has  received the files of 36 judges who were fired for  alleged acts of corruption, the daily La Prensa reported Wednesday (Oct. 8).

 Currently, Honduras has 325 jueces de paz (justices of  the peace) and 208 jueces de letras (judges of letters).

  La Prensa stated that more than 1,300 accusations have been made against judges for irregularities and acts of  corruption during the Reina administration.

  Among the 36 judges is Fernando Azcona (former Juez de Letras for the Bay Islands), nephew of former President  José Azcona Hoyo.                     

(Honduras This Week - 10-15-97)

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  With this detailed recitation, there can be no room for anyone to claim that the either Honduras government, the top judicial authorities, or the U. S. Embassy was unaware of Arnold F. Morris or his ongoing illicit activities.   Indeed, from the moment Morris obtained his fraudulent Honduras passport (and renounced his American citizenship) until today, Honduras officials have been his knowing co-conspirators.  Morris could never have remained in Honduras without direct assistance from the highest levels of government. 

  It was through the good offices of then-Presidente Rafael Leonardo Callejas, that Morris first obtained his Honduras citizenship – reportedly for US$25,000.00 and a Cadillac sedan. As Carlos Roberto Reina and then Carlos Flores Facusse in their turns succeeded Callejas in the Presidency of the Republica, Morris maintained the continuity of his “safe haven” arrangements by merely switching his influence connections to successive incumbent officials.

  What urgings prompted the Honduras Ministry of Government to cancel the fraudulent Morris citizenship can only be guessed at.  Perhaps the death of the Chief Justice  Avila Banegas of the Supreme Court in a helicopter accident  on June 2, 200, had something to do with it. It might be noted that the Justice had stopped at Roatan for a meeting with Morris, after which he took off again. Shortly after takeoff, the helicopter crashed into the sea. No bodies were found.

  While the cancellation of the fraudulent Morris citizenship in Honduras and the latent hope for his extradition back to the U. S. to answer for his crimes, represents a step in the right direction, it falls far short of the requirements of even the most rudimentary or minimal justice.

  When Morris and the former Judge of Letters Azcona were intimately colluding in their rough-shod land thefts and document replacements by forgeries, they operated  with total impunity.  This was facilitated by the fact that Azcona was then serving as both the sitting Judge of Letters and the Registrar of Propiedad Inmuebles. In other words, Azcona (as the Judge) was able to falsify a land document and then (as Registrar of Documents) register it in the Land Register in lieu of the legal document being replaced.  

  This was all called to the attention of the Corte Suprema at the time it was going on.   But in spite of the fact that the high court fired Azcona for his judicial improprieties, all of the entreaties for Judicial Review and correction of  Azcona’s  document falsifications have fallen on deaf ears. 

  Until the Morris-Azcona conspiratorial activities are put under Judicial Review, the extent of those judicial frauds  will never be known – and the rightful owners of the stolen properties will never be able to reclaim their holdings.  

  Firing a crooked judge, without reviewing his misdeeds is no more than a bad judicial joke and a shameful farce on what is presumed to be justice.  One would hope that the distinguished justices that sit on the highest Honduras tribunal would realize this – and possess enough self respect to order the crucial review of  Judge  Azcona Schrenzel’s  corrupt and perverted orders, entered while he was in the pay of  the international fugitive from justice and Roatan’s notorious land thieves, Arnold F. Morris, et familia.

Lorenzo Dee Belveal

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