-78Arguments of the Commission
147.
In this regard, the Commission stated that:
a)
“The next of kin of Ernestina and Erlinda Serrano Cruz expended
substantial financial resources […] to discover the whereabouts of the
sisters”;
and requested the Court:
b)
To establish, “the amount of the compensation corresponding to
indirect damage (daño emergente) and loss of earnings, in fairness, pursuant
to its ample powers in this matter,” so that it sets “a substantial precedent in
the inter-American system regarding loss of earnings and the situation of
disappeared children”; and
c)
“Should the Serrano Cruz sisters appear alive, to rule on compensation
for the damage to the life project suffered by the victims.”
Arguments of the representatives of the victims and their next of kin
148.
The representatives requested the Court:
a)
“To determine, in fairness, an amount that the State must pay to the
family for the expenses incurred and for the losses” of the pecuniary assets
they possessed, including “their home[,] which was burned down and
destroyed by the constant bombing […], their corn harvests, basic grains kept
from the previous harvests, domestic animals,” owing to the operations of the
Salvadoran Armed Forces;
b)
To order that the State pay the loss of earnings of Ernestina and
Erlinda as of June 1995, since it has jurisdiction to do this. The amount
corresponding to the loss of earnings of Ernestina Serrano Cruz is
US$68,796.00 (sixty-eight thousand seven hundred and ninety-six United
States dollars) and of Erlinda Serrano Cruz is US$74,520.00 (seventy-four
thousand five hundred and twenty United States dollars);
c)
With regard to indirect damage, they requested the Court to
“determine, in fairness, an amount the State must pay to the family for
expenses incurred and losses” of their pecuniary assets. The Serrano Cruz
family incurred diverse expenses in order to find Ernestina and Erlinda
Serrano Cruz. It also incurred various health-related expenses “owing […] to
the impairment [of the health of] the children’s mother (which led to her
death),” as well as travel expenses in order to find Ernestina and Erlinda; and
d)
“Throughout all [the] years of the [Serrano Cruz] family’s suffering,
without obtaining any information about the whereabouts of [Erlinda and
Ernestina Serrano Cruz], particularly the suffering of their mother and [their]
siblings, mental health care has been necessary, on both an individual and a
group basis; this has been possible through the Psychology Unit of the
Asociación Pro-Búsqueda.” The Asociación Pro-Búsqueda assumed various
expenses for the medicines, psychological care, and travel expenses of the
next of kin, in 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001 and 2003.