9 January, 1997

President Carlos Roberto Reina, Presidential Palace                                              Tegucigalpa, Republic of Honduras

Estimado Senor Presidente:

It has been several years since we have spoken together, but I am hoping that you remember me. I built Spyglass Hill Resort on Roatan, and lived on the island for many years. You may recall that we first met in the home of our mutual friend, Margarita Sempe Connor. Later, (on November 12, 1979) you and Lic. Jeronimo Sandoval prepared the document on a piece of Roatan land that Margo purchased from me.

Only the most urgent reasons would impel me to seek your personal intervention in a problem that should be easily solved in the Roatan Court of Letters. But after three years of trying, and the expenditure of several thousand dollars for legal representation, I haven’t even been able to get a "Diligencia Prejudicial de Exhibicion" hearing. The Judge of Letters is protecting a land thief.

The problem began when your predecessor, Rafael Callejas, arranged to sell a Honduras citizenship to Arnold F. Morris. Morris was and is a fugitive from justice in Florida, where a Federal Court has issued a 26-count indictment against him, for commercial fraud and money laundering. Morris ran to avoid going to trial. He first fled to Belize and then to Roatan, seeking to elude the F.B.I. and the United States Department of Justice. The Honduras citizenship protects him from being extradited back to the United States to stand trial.

Arnold Morris is a crook and a very dangerous man, both to the islanders, and to the sovereign dignity and reputation on the Republic of Honduras. He has gone into the real-estate business on Roatan, and his larcenous business practices are well known throughout the island. In spite of this, however, all efforts to get his Honduras citizenship revoked and have him expelled from Honduras have failed.

I have posted an article in this connection on the World Wide Web, at

                        < http://goodfelloweb.com/lorenzo/ >

that details the kind of problems this man is making for honest people. All of this information can be confirmed with your Governor of the Bay Islands, Sr. Stavely J. Elwin, who has brought this problem to the attention of your Minister of Gobernacion repeatedly.

After having done everything in my power to get this matter into the Roatan Court of Letters, and failed to even get a hearing, I have decided to adopt a different course of action. I intend to publicize this land thievery world-wide.

Morris has stolen two parcels of my land and re-sold it to unsuspecting visitors to the island. I have owned the land he claims for more than twenty years. I hold it under Titulo Superlatorio. It is in the public land Registry, and the taxes on it have been paid promptly each year.

When the Court system offers no protection for ownership rights, then publicity is the next best hope for finding relief from legal oppression. That is the course I am preparing to take.

As a first step, I am in touch with the United States Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and am preparing testimony which I hope to deliver in person within the next few weeks. The United States Embassy in Tegucigalpa, has been kept intimately advised of these matters as they have developed. They also have a complete file on this case that you might wish to see.

My reason for telling you this personally is that your functionaries seem much more interested in protecting Arnold Morris, than they are in protecting the honest people whose properties Morris has made a business of stealing. I’m sure they have their own reasons for doing this, just as your Judge of Letters, Fernando Azcona Schrenzel, has good a reason to continue to deny me a Court hearing - and an opportunity to regain possession of my properties.

If these matters are allowed to proceed to the next stage, they are going to turn into a full-fledged international scandal. I do not want this, nor do I think you want it. But neither am I going to sit idly by and be deprived of my property by collusion between an international crook and a corrupted Court of Letters.

I urge you to read the World Wide Web posting cited earlier, and give me the benefit of whatever suggestions you might have for finding an equitable and legal solution to this matter.

Again, Senor Jefe, forgive me for bothering you with this. I have only done so after all of my independent efforts have failed. At this point my choices are to just give up and let this thief take my land - or make one last effort to obtain help from you. I want to avoid the problems this matter can make.

Will you please have someone look into this before it is too late.

Sincerely yours,

Lorenzo Dee Belveal

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