But thousands of Hondurans don’t have a land title because the Property Institute has become so corrupt it can barely function.

ASJ’s investigations (published in one of Honduras’ most popular newspapers) showed that politicians were giving out land titles to the poorest of the poor in order to win their votes in elections. They paid little attention to the fact that the land they were titling was nearly on top of the airport runway, risking the lives of the people living there, and of airplane passengers.

In addition, Property Institute officials are accused of giving titles to desirable government land to private citizens for a bribe—stealing from the Honduran government for their own interest.

The politicization and corruption are so egregious that the Property Institute is currently facing about 50 million dollars in lawsuits from people who have been hurt by it.

As ASJ lawyer Ludim Ayala says, “Politicians use the Property Institute basically as a pot of free money. They know no one will speak up because getting titles is such a complex topic. It’s a silent corruption.”

ASJ is helping to break the silence. The government has already hired a private auditing firm to look at all the claims of corruption in the Property Institute, has fired the board of directors and hired new more qualified members, and has promised to submit staff to tests to make sure they are qualified for their jobs.

ASJ is committed to working with the government to build a healthy Property Institute that can provide what ASJ lawyer Ludim calls, “a basic right to own property.”