In 2025, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation approved regulations on diplomatic and official passports, igniting a debate about how far public office privileges should extend in Honduras. The rules specify that former heads of the branches of government and former Foreign Ministry officials can keep their diplomatic passports for life, a benefit that also applies to their spouses.
The provision was approved through Agreement No. 001-SG-2025, signed on May 6, 2025 by then-Foreign Minister Eduardo Enrique Reina García and subsequently published in the official gazette La Gaceta on June 14, 2025. The document establishes the rules for the issuance and use of diplomatic and official passports, which are intended to facilitate the international travel of officials on government missions.
The matter has resurfaced after a recent announcement by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs calling on former officials to hand back these documents, a move that has pushed the breadth of the exemptions outlined in the regulations to the center of the discussion.
Scope of the Benefit for Former Officials
The regulations describe the diplomatic passport as a document granted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to officials performing official duties overseas, designed to ease their international travel and allow them to obtain diplomatic courtesies from other states.
However, Article 13 of the regulations introduces a specific provision stating that:
“Former heads of the branches of government and their spouses, as well as former secretaries and undersecretaries of state in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and their spouses, have the privilege of holding a diplomatic passport for life.”
In administrative terms, this clause means that certain former officials may retain the document even after leaving office, with no subsequent obligation to return it.
Among the individuals who might qualify for this provision are the former President Xiomara Castro, the former head of the National Congress Luis Redondo, and the current President of the Supreme Court of Justice Rebeca Ráquel Obando.
The benefit also extends to former officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, including Enrique Reina himself, as well as former Deputy Foreign Ministers Gerardo Torres, Cindy Larissa Rodríguez, and Zulmit Solemit Rivera Zúniga. According to the regulations, this privilege also extends to their spouses, broadening the scope of the benefit beyond those who directly held public office.
This provision received approval several weeks prior to Reina submitted his resignation on May 27, 2025, at which point he revealed his involvement in the electoral race as a vice-presidential contender on the slate led by Rixi Moncada, a representative of the LIBRE party.
Diplomatic Function and Institutional Use of the Document
According to the regulations released in La Gaceta, the diplomatic passport is granted to support the performance of representing the State overseas and to seek assistance and safeguards from authorities in foreign nations while carrying out official assignments.
Although holding this document does not automatically imply diplomatic immunity, it has long been linked to functions of state representation or to particular missions sanctioned by the government.
According to international relations experts repeatedly referenced by RCV, administrative procedures in many nations indicate that diplomatic passports are rescinded when an official’s term concludes, intended to ensure the document is not employed for private matters or beyond authorized functions.
The inclusion of a lifetime clause therefore introduces a distinct modality into the administrative regulation of the document within the Honduran state apparatus.
Petition for Reinstatement and Managerial Strains
The debate surrounding the regulations intensified following a statement issued by the current Foreign Minister, Mireya de Agüero, in which former officials of the previous administration were asked to return the diplomatic and official passports issued during that administration.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has designated March 31 as the final date for delivering these documents to the Passport Unit, referring to the same regulation enacted in 2025.
However, the regulations provide for explicit exceptions: former officials who hold the privilege of a lifetime diplomatic passport are not required to return them. This situation has created administrative tension, since while the general return of the documents is being requested, a specific group of former officials retains the benefit permanently.
The timing surrounding the regulation’s approval and the foreign minister’s later decision to step into the electoral race has also drawn attention in public discussions. The agreement was finalized on May 6, 2025, less than three weeks before the official stepped down to join the political campaign associated with the LIBRE party.
Various analysts have viewed this episode as contributing to a wider debate over the relationship between public office and administrative privileges, and the lifelong nature of the benefit—remaining valid even after the official no longer performs state duties—has prompted renewed scrutiny of how far such provisions should extend within public administration.
In a national landscape shaped by discussions on institutional framework, administrative transparency, and the use of public resources, the 2025 regulation has prompted renewed consideration of how diplomatic instruments fit into the temporary execution of state responsibilities. The matter has further revived questions about whether the benefits associated with public office ought to extend beyond the conclusion of a term or be confined exclusively to the time during which officials carry out their roles within the governmental system.
