SAIME (formerly ONIDEX) is a

Venezuela Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...

n government institution, traditionally in charge of

Civil registry Civil registration is the system by which a government records the vital events ( births, marriages, and deaths) of its citizens and residents. The resulting repository or database has different names in different countries and even in diffe ...

services. The name derives from the Spanish acronym for Servicio Administrativo de Identificación, Migración y Extranjería (Administrative Service of Identification, Migration and Foreigners). The function of this government office is to issue

passport A passport is an official travel document issued by a government that certifies a person's identity and nationality for international travel. A passport allows its bearer to enter and temporarily reside in a foreign country, access local aid ...

identity card An identity document (abbreviated as ID) is a documentation, document proving a person's Identity (social science), identity. If the identity document is a plastic card it is called an ''identity card'' (abbreviated as ''IC'' or ''ID card''). ...

s for immigrants, and other legal nationality documents for Venezuelan citizens and residents. Currently, the director of the institution is .

History

On 8 February 2017, a joint

CNN Cable News Network (CNN) is a multinational news organization operating, most notably, a website and a TV channel headquartered in Atlanta. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable ne ...

and

CNN en Español Cable News Network en Español (CNN en Español, stylized as CN͠N) is a Pan-American Spanish-language news channel, owned by CNN Worldwide, a news division for Warner Bros. Discovery. It was launched on pay television, on March 17, 1997. Hi ...

year-long investigation called "Passports in the Shadows" () - based on the information provided by a

whistleblower Whistleblowing (also whistle-blowing or whistle blowing) is the activity of a person, often an employee, revealing information about activity within a private or public organization that is deemed illegal, immoral, illicit, unsafe, unethical or ...

and subsequent investigations, reported that employees of the Venezuelan embassy in

Baghdad Baghdad ( or ; , ) is the capital and List of largest cities of Iraq, largest city of Iraq, located along the Tigris in the central part of the country. With a population exceeding 7 million, it ranks among the List of largest cities in the A ...

Iraq Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in West Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to Iraq–Saudi Arabia border, the south, Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq border, the east, the Persian Gulf and ...

has been selling passports and visas to persons from Middle Eastern countries (specifically Syria, Palestine, Iran, Iraq and Pakistan) with dubious backgrounds for profits. The SAIME confirmed the sold passports' genuineness as each passport came with an assigned

national identification number A national identification number or national identity number is used by the governments of many countries as a means of uniquely identifying their citizens or residents for the purposes of work, taxation, government benefits, health care, bank ...

, although the names of the individuals were altered when checking against the national database. At least one individual's place of birth was also changed from

. According to Misael López Soto, a former employee at the Venezuelan embassy in Iraq who was also a lawyer and CICPC officer, the Bolivarian government would sell authentic passports to individuals from the Middle East, with the Venezuelan passport able to access 130 countries throughout the world without a visa requirement. López provided CNN documents showing how his superiors attempted to cover up the sale of passports, which were being sold from $5,000 to $15,000 per passport. López Soto fled the Venezuelan embassy in Iraq in 2015 to meet with the

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...

in Spain, with a Venezuelan official who assisted him to fly out of the country being killed the same day. The investigation also found that between 2008 and 2012, Aragua Governor

Tareck El Aissami Tareck Zaidan El Aissami Maddah (; born 12 November 1974) is a Venezuelan politician, who served as the vice president of Venezuela from 2017 to 2018. He served as Minister of Industries and National Production since 14 June 2018, and as Ministe ...

ordered for hundreds of Middle Eastern individuals to obtain illegal passports, including members of

Hezbollah Hezbollah ( ; , , ) is a Lebanese Shia Islamist political party and paramilitary group. Hezbollah's paramilitary wing is the Jihad Council, and its political wing is the Loyalty to the Resistance Bloc party in the Lebanese Parliament. I ...

. The Venezuelan foreign minister,

Delcy Rodríguez Delcy Eloína Rodríguez Gómez (born 18 May 1969) is a Venezuelan lawyer, diplomat, and politician who has served as the vice president of Venezuela since 2018. Rodríguez has held several positions during the presidencies of Hugo Chávez and ...

, denied the government's involvement when questioned by the reporters during the

Seventy-first session of the United Nations General Assembly The seventy-first session of the United Nations General Assembly opened on 13 September 2016. The president of the United Nations General Assembly is from the Asia-Pacific Group. Organisation for the session Fijian Ambassador Peter Thomson w ...

and accused the network of performing what she described as an "imperialistic media operation" against

for airing the investigation. On 14 February 2017, Venezuelan authorities ceased the broadcasting of

two days after the Venezuelan president,

Nicolás Maduro Nicolás Maduro Moros (; born 23 November 1962) is a Venezuelan politician and former union leader serving as the 53rd president of Venezuela since 2013. Previously, he was the 24th Vice President of Venezuela, vice president from 2012 to 20 ...

, ordered CNN to "(get) well away from here". The government deemed the report "(A threat to) the peace and democratic stability of our Venezuelan people since they generate an environment of intolerance." Venezuelan

National Commission of Telecommunications National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, ce ...

director Andrés Eloy Méndez accused

of instigating religious, racial and political hatred, violence and other themes.

References

External links

Servicio Administrativo de Identificación Migración y Extranjería (SAIME)
{{Authority control Executive branch of the government of Venezuela Identity documents