5.
In keeping with the principle of iurit novit curia, the
Commission will examine in the stage on merits if a possible violation exists of
Articles 2 and 5 of the American Convention, as regards the duty to adopt
domestic legal provisions and the right to humane treatment, respectively. The
Commission also decides to make this report public and include it in its Annual
Report to the OAS General Assembly.
II.
PROCESSING BY THE COMMISSION
6.
The events that occurred on August 22, 1998, were brought to the
attention of the IACHR in a petition dated August 2, 2001. On August 31, 2001,
the IACHR began to process the petition and forwarded the information to the
State, giving it a period of two months in which to submit its comments, in
compliance with Article 30.2 of its Rules of Procedure.
7.
In a communication dated November 7, 2001, the State requested
an extension of the deadline for submitting its comments, which was duly granted
by the IACHR. By means of a communication dated December 6, 2001, received at
the Executive Secretariat of the IACHR on December 7, 2001, the State submitted
its comments, which were then forwarded to the petitioners. On January 29, 2002,
the petitioners submitted their comments, which were then relayed to the State.
In a communication of May 24, 2002, received at the IACHR Executive Secretariat
on May 28, 2002, the State reported that it had no further comments regarding
this complaint, following which the IACHR duly transmitted that information to the
petitioners.
8.
On October 28, 2002, the Executive Secretariat received from the
State updated information on the case and on the agreement reached by the
authorities and the victim’s next-of-kin on September 17, 2002,1 which it then
forwarded to the petitioners. In that agreement, the State, through the Secretariat
of National Defense, admitted that Mirey Trueba’s death was probably caused by a
soldier belonging to that same Secretariat of National Defense, for which reason it
granted compensation to the family for the moral and material damages inflicted
in the amount of 117,822.00 Mexican pesos.
9.
By means of a letter dated December 10, 2002, the petitioners
expressed their willingness to work toward a friendly settlement agreement. On
December 30, 2002, the IACHR forwarded the petitioners’ letter to the State,
noting its decision to make itself available to the parties with a view to reaching a
1 Military Justice Maj. Francisco de Jesús Pérez Chávez, Agent of the Military Prosecution Service,
representing the State through the Secretariat of National Defense; José Tomás Trueba Loera,
father of Mirey Trueba Arciniega; Dover de Jesús Soto Rasco, attorney-at-law, who certified the
proceedings; Elias Trueba Arciniega and Micaela Arciniega Ceballos, civilian witnesses; Sgt.
Silvestre López Corral and Sgt. Lazado Hernández Guevara, military witnesses.
2