41
closest members of the family, especially those who were in close
emotional contact with the victim;
b)
Walter David Bulacio’s family “broke down” after the facts, family
structure was lost and there have been physical consequences, such as
the various illnesses suffered by members of the family;
c)
the victim’s sister, Lorena Beatriz Bulacio, has suffered health
problems, has attempted to commit suicide several times, and has
been incapable “of establishing [an] emotional attachment outside the
family;”
d)
the grandmother on the victim’s father’s side deeply suffered Walter
David Bulacio’s death because she had a very close relationship with
him; and
e)
the situation of the next of kin has worsened due to lack of “an
effective response on the part of the system of justice,” because in this
situation “the pain and grieving become an unending process that does
not cease to affect their lives.” The members of the Bulacio family
“have suffered tremendous anguish due to the unending judicial
process and [to] the impunity prevailing in this case.”
93.
Therefore, the Commission stated that it deemed fair for the Court to set the
overall amount of US$200,000.00 (two hundred thousand United States dollars) as
compensation for the non-pecuniary damage caused to the victim and his immediate
next of kin: his parents, his sister and his grandmother on the father’s side.
Arguments of the State
94.
The State made the following arguments:
a)
the amount estimated by the Commission for this item constitutes
66.25% of the amount claimed for pecuniary damage, a percentage
that is high if one takes into account that in Argentina the ratio of
these two amounts varies between 20% and 40%;
b)
the amounts claimed for non-pecuniary damage exceed those usually
set by the Inter-American Court for this item, something that should
be taken into account in the instant case;
c)
both the content of the agreement reached for a friendly settlement,
and the acknowledgments made therein, constitute in themselves “a
satisfactory reparation;” and
d)
the expert opinion of expert witness Graciela Marisa Guilis before the
Court does not provide sufficient grounds to establish the impact of the
facts on the next of kin of the victim, and her conclusions are not
derived from the use of complex mechanisms for diagnosis, but rather
from “recent knowledge” regarding the family of Walter David Bulacio.
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