The facts of this case account for the forced disappearance of Isidro Caballero Delgado and María del Carmen Santana, who were arrested in February 1989 by the Colombian Army’s patrol and by various civilians who were collaborating with them, in the province of San Alberto, Cesar region. The arrest was due to Isidro Caballero Delgado’s active participation as a faculty union leader and their involvement in the April 19 Movement. The victims’ families and different trade union and human rights organizations initiated their search in various military installations once the authorities denied that the two activists had been seized, however achieved no results.

The facts of the case illustrate the pattern of impunity relating to serious human rights violations committed in Columbia, given that when faced with the occurrence of these events, the victims’ relatives initiated judicial and administrative proceedings to locate the whereabouts of the disappeared and to punish those directly responsible, without these processes yielding positive results