account the context and the circumstances of the instant case, according to which the forced
disappearance of persons was a practice carried out in Guatemala during the internal armed
conflict, and the fact that, up until this time, after having been forced to board a helicopter,
there is no news of their whereabouts, the Court considers that the 17 people indicated by
the representatives remain victims of forced disappearance to date.
127. Based on the above, the Court finds that the State has violated the rights recognized
in Articles 3, 4(1), 5(1), 5(2) and 7(1) of the American Convention, in relation to Article 1(1)
thereof, all in relation to the obligations established in Article I(a) of the Convention on
Forced Disappearance, to the detriment of Ramona Lajuj, Manuel Chen Sánchez, Aurelia
Alvarado Ivoy, Cornelio Osorio Lajúj, Demetria Osorio Tahuico, Fermin Tum Chén, Francisco
Chen Osorio, Francísco Sánchez Sic, Héctor López Osorio, Jerónimo Osorio Chen, Luciano
Osorio Chen, Pablo Osorio Tahuico, Pedro Chén Rojas, Pedro López Osorio, Pedro Osorio
Chén, Sebastiana Osorio Tahuico and Soterio Pérez Tum. The Court also finds that the State
violated Article 19 of the American Convention, in relation to Article 1(1) thereof, to the
detriment of Manuel Chen Osorio, a minor at the time of the facts.
X
RIGHT TO PERSONAL INTEGRITY IN RELATION TO THE RIGHT TO HONOR AND
DIGNITY, THE PROHIBITION OF SLAVERY AND SERVITUDE, THE OBLIGATION TO
RESPECT AND GUARANTEE THE RIGHTS OF THE CHILD, THE RIGHTS OF THE
FAMILY, FREEDOM OF CONSCIENCE AND RELIGION, AND THE GENERAL
OBLIGATION TO RESPECT AND GUARANTEE RIGHTS
128. In this Chapter, taking into account the acknowledgment of responsibility made by
the State (supra para. 17), the Court will analyze the presumed violations of personal
integrity in relation to: (a) the consequences of the rape suffered by María Eustaquia Uscap
Ivoy; (b) the consequences on the 17 children taken from the Río Negro community, who
were submitted to conditions of slavery and servitude, and (c) the survivors of the Río
Negro massacres, owing to the violations of their freedom of conscience and religion and the
consequences on the integrity of the survivors of the Río Negro massacres due to the effects
on their culture and the social fabric of the community.
A.
Violations of the rights to personal integrity and to honor and dignity of
María Eustaquia Uscap Ivoy, owing to the consequences of the rape she suffered
A.1.
Arguments of the parties and of the Inter-American Commission
129. The Commission and the representatives indicated that the rape committed by
members of the State’s security forces affected the physical, mental and moral integrity of
the victims, destroyed their dignity, and invaded one of the most intimate realms of their
life, that of their physical and sexual space, divesting them of their ability to make decisions
about their body. In addition, they argued that the acts of rape committed against the
women of the community of Río Negro constituted acts of torture, because they were
perpetrated by State agents, resulted in severe mental and physical suffering for the
victims, and were intended to humiliate them and exterminate the community. Thus, they
argued that the rape of the women constituted a “weapon of terror” for the destruction of
the Mayan population, since it “[destroyed] marital and social ties, generate[d] social
isolation, and stigmatized them within the community, cause[d] abortions and filicide, and
prevent[ed] marriages and births” within the group. Among these cases, the Commission
and the representatives mentioned that of María Eustaquia Uscap Ivoy.
53
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