both to the Inter-American public order and to the subject matter of the expert reports
offered by the Inter-American Commission.”
11.
The notes of the Secretariat of March 9, 2012, in which, following the instructions of
the President of the Court, the parties were informed that the Court has scheduled a public
hearing on the merits, reparations and costs of this case during its 45th Extraordinary Period
of Sessions, which will take place from April 23 to 27, 2012 in the city of Guayaquil, in the
Republic of Ecuador.
CONSIDERING THAT:
1.
The offer and admission of the evidence, as well as the formal summons to the
alleged victims, witnesses and expert witnesses, are regulated under Articles 35.1.f, 40.2.c,
41.1.c, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 52.3, and 57 of the Court’s Rules.
2.
The Commission offered as evidence three expert opinions, the representatives
offered eleven statements as well as four expert opinions, and the State did not offer any
declarants or expert witnesses. The evidence offered by the parties was communicated at
the appropriate procedural moment, with the exception of one of the expert opinions
proposed by the Commission, which was submitted after the deadline had expired (supra
Having seen 2 and infra considering paragraphs 15 and 16).
3.
The Court allowed the parties the right of defense with respect to the evidence
offered in the brief submitting the case and in the brief of pleading and motions, as well as
in the definitive lists (supra Having Seen paragraph 9), without any objections or challenges
being presented.
4.
The President confirmed that, among the persons proposed by the representatives as
definitive witnesses, four persons were mentioned for the first time as alleged victims in the
lists attached to the representatives’ brief of pleadings and motions.3 Given the
circumstances of this case, which concerns numerous alleged victims, and given the
procedural details involved in determining their identity, the President deems it appropriate
to receive their statements, without requiring that the alleged victims in the instant case
before the Court be duly identified at this stage of the proceedings.
5.
As to the individuals offered as witnesses or expert witnesses by the representatives,
whose statements or expert opinions have not been objected to, this Presidency deems it
appropriate to gather said evidence, so that the Court may determine its value at the
proper procedural moment, within the context of the existing body of evidence and
according to the rules of sound judgment. This includes the statements of Juan Bautista
Márquez Argueta, Sofía Romero Pereira, Sonia Tobar, María del Rosario López Sánchez,
Antonia Guevara Díaz, Juan Antonio Pereira Vigil, María Margarita Chicas Márquez, Eduardo
Conception Argueta Márquez, Saturnino Argueta Claros, José Pablo Díaz Portillo, and the
expert opinions of María Sol Yáñez de la Cruz, Luis Fondebrider, Silvana Turner and
Mercedes C. Doretti, Salvador Eduardo Menéndez Leal and Father David Scott Blanchard.
The value of these statements and of the expert opinions shall be assessed in due course,
within the context of the existing body of evidence and according to the rules of sound
3
Namely: 1) Sonia Tobar, 2) Antonia Guevara Díaz, 3) Eduardo Conception Argueta Márquez and 4) José
Pablo Díaz Portillo.
3