to reimburse “the expenses incurred by the family to give the victim a decent burial,” as well as “the expenses entailed by keeping the proceedings and the demand for justice open,” which involved holding public meetings, producing posters and leaflets, and weekly trips from Quilmes to La Plata from September 1994 to March 1998. However, they indicated that, owing to the complexity of quantifying the total for these expenses, and the impossibility of presenting vouchers for them, they asked the Court to consider allocating a symbolic amount that reflected these expenses. The Commission did not refer to this point. 175. The State considered “objectionable that, under the heading of consequential damage, the petitioner has included trial expenses and costs,” because, in its opinion, some of the representatives’ items were repeated “in the special section on costs and expenses.” 176. The Court has verified that the representatives of the victims presented three vouchers covering funeral expenses incurred by Nilda del Valle Maldonado between 1994 and 2004. 276 However, the Court presumes that, as of the execution of Jorge Omar Gutiérrez, his next of kin incurred diverse expenses owing to this act. Consequently, the Court establishes, in equity, compensation of US$1,000.00 (one thousand United States dollars) for consequential damage. This amount must be delivered to Nilda del Valle Maldonado. In the section on costs and expenses, the Court will assess those disbursements related to the expenditure involved in keeping the proceedings and the demand for justice open (infra para. 194). D.1.2. Loss of earnings 177. The representatives indicated that Jorge Omar Gutiérrez was 41 years of age when he was murdered and that, according to statistical data for 1999 of the National Census and Statistics Institute (INDEC), average life expectancy in Argentina for men was 68.53 years; they therefore calculated that Jorge Omar Gutiérrez would have lived a further 27.53 years, and received 330.36 more salaries. However, the representatives indicated that the calculation should take into account not only the 931.00 Argentine pesos a month that he received in 1994, but this amount should be updated, taking into account his commitment and the quality of his work, so that it could be expected that, during his career, he would be promoted to at least the rank of Commissioner General, with a current monthly salary of 23,923.59 Argentine pesos. According to the representatives, 25% should be deducted from the estimated amount of the income as the sum that the victim would have used for his persons expenses. Finally, the representatives asked the Court to establish, in equity, the rate that should be used to calculate interest, which should include interest calculated from the date of the incident until the date the payment is made. The Commission did not refer to this matter. 178. The State considered “unfounded the said expectation to assimilate the career in the police force of [Jorge Omar] Gutiérrez to a purported ‘successful career’ culminating in the achievement of one of the highest ranks and, consequently, the highest income on the current pay scale.” In addition, it asked that the “the items that the Court will consider be defined using strict criteria of equity,” taking into account that both the widow and the children of Jorge Omar Gutiérrez “have received and continue to receive the corresponding pension from the social security institute, which has been taking the place of the income with which [Mr.] Gutiérrez covered the his family’s living costs and, therefore, an essential part of what is sought to be understood by loss of earnings.” 276 The vouchers represent the sum of 495.50 Argentine pesos. Cf. Vouchers for funeral expenses (file of annexes to the pleadings and motions brief, folios 2634 to 2637). 59