37
Court will set a compensatory amount intended to provide redress for the financial
consequences of the violations declared to be such in the instant Judgment.
79.
The representatives requested compensation for the loss of earnings of
Messrs. Oscar José Blanco-Romero, Roberto Javier Hernández-Paz and José
Francisco Rivas-Fernández based on the age of each of them on the date of the
illegal detention and forced disappearance, the official life expectancy in Venezuela51
and the statutory minimum salary in force in Venezuela. In this regard, the
representatives acknowledged that they do not have accurate proof of the income
earned by each victim, as they worked in the informal economy.
80.
The Court has noted that the file does not contain adequate receipts to
accurately assess the income earned by Messrs. Oscar José Blanco-Romero, Roberto
Javier Hernández-Paz and José Francisco Rivas-Fernández at the time the events
took place. Accordingly, considering the activities performed by the victim as a way
to make a living, as well as the circumstances and peculiarities of the instant case,
the Court hereby sets, on equitable grounds, the sum of US$ 45,000.00 (forty-five
thousand United States dollars) for Mr. Oscar José Blanco-Romero, the sum of US$
47,000.00 (forty-seven thousand United States dollars) for Mr. Roberto Javier
Hernández-Paz, and the sum of US$ 65,000.00 (sixty-five thousand United States
dollars) for Mr. José Francisco Rivas-Fernández, as reparations for the loss of
earnings. Such amounts are to be delivered as per paragraph 72 hereof.
81.
The representatives requested that the Court award compensation for
damnum emergens based on the expenses incurred by the next of kin of Messrs.
Oscar José Blanco-Romero (supra para. 51(3)), Roberto Javier Hernández-Paz and
José Francisco Rivas-Fernández in trying to determine their whereabouts and in
connection with the steps taken in their quest for justice, as well as the expenses
arising from the “destruction” caused by the members of the Infantry Battalion at the
home of Mrs. Alejandra Josefina Iriarte de Blanco on the date of Mr. Oscar José
Blanco-Romero’s detention, and the expenses incurred by Mrs. Nélida Josefina
Fernández-Pelicie to purchase the medication that was essential for her psychological
treatment (supra para. 51(35)). In this regard, in her testimony, Mrs. Iriarte de
Blanco said that the army officers who entered her house to detain her husband
caused damages she had to cover (supra para. 42). Similarly, Mrs. Gisela Romero, in
her affidavit before a public official whose acts command full faith and credit, and
Mrs. Nélida Josefina Fernández-Pelicie, in her testimony at the public hearing, both
claimed to have incurred various expenses in their efforts to find their sons and to
obtain justice in the instant case (supra paras. 41 and 42). For their part, expert
Claudia Carrillo also stated that Mrs. Fernández-Pelicie has received “medical care”
due to her “suicidal ideation” (supra para. 41).
82.
In connection with the above, it should be noted that the representatives
have failed to provide receipts or other similar evidence to assess the amount of the
sums disbursed by Mrs. Alejandra Josefina Iriarte de Blanco and by Mrs. Gisela
Romero, the mother of Oscar José Blanco-Romero, by Mrs. Teodora Paz de
Hernández and by Mr. Roberto Aniceto Hernández, the parents of Roberto Javier
Hernández, and by Mrs. Nélida Josefina Fernández-Pelicie and Mr. Francisco
51
Cf. Instituto Nacional de Estadística de Venezuela [Venezuela’s Nacional Institute of Statistics],
Esperanza de vida al nacer de ambos sexos, según entidad federal (Life expectancy at birth for both
genders, as per federal entity), 1999-2003 (file of appendixes to the brief containing pleadings and
motions, Vol. 2, folio 3014).
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