13 35. The Commission presented part of the helpful evidence requested by the Secretariat (supra para. 22).10 36. The representatives presented part of the helpful evidence requested by the Secretariat (supra para. 22).11 37. The State presented the helpful evidence requested by the Secretariat (supra para. 22).12 B) TESTIMONIAL AND EXPERT EVIDENCE 38. On April 23 and 24, 2004, the Court heard the statement of the witnesses, Juan Manuel Jerónimo, Buenaventura Manuel Jerónimo and Narcisa Corazón Jerónimo, and the expert witnesses, Augusto Willemsen-Díaz and Nieves Gómez Dupuis, proposed by the Inter-American Commission (supra para. 14). The Court will now summarize the relevant parts of these statements and reports. a) Testimonial statement of Juan Manuel Jerónimo, victim He belongs to the Mayan indigenous people of the Achí linguistic community. He has lived in the village of Plan de Sánchez since he was very young. He is a community leader, president of the drinking water project committee, a catechist of the Catholic Church, and also a delegate and a health worker. He is responsible for summoning the inhabitants of Plan de Sánchez to perform community tasks and to take decisions on the community’s needs. Before the massacre, the Plan de Sánchez community comprised approximately 40 families, and each family had a piece of land. On Sunday, July 18, 1982, the witness was in his mother’s house, with his wife, when news arrived that an Army patrol was approaching the Plan de Sánchez community on the road from Rabinal. His mother and his wife told him to leave the house and hide, because the Army was only looking for the men. When he left his mother’s house, he could see how the Army was gathering the people it had brought with it into his sister’s house. The Army then went from house to house collecting the neighbors and his family, including his children, his wife and his mother. He remained about 60 meters away watching what the Army did. He could hear the women and children’s screams. When they were all gathered in his sister’s house, they selected the “patojas” [Note: affectionate term for girls] of 15 to 18 years old and shut them up in another house. Then, the shooting began and they threw two grenades into the families gathered in his sister’s house. When they had killed them, they went to the other house to get the girls; they raped them, tortured them, and cut their throats. He lost 18 members of his family including his mother, his wife and his children, in the massacre. appendixes 1 to 9 and G-1 to G-7, folios 1 to 383; tome II, appendixes G-7 to G-14, folios 384 to 577. 10 Cf. file of helpful evidence presented by the Inter-American Commission, single tome, folios 578 to 690. 11 Cf. file of helpful evidence presented by the victims’ representatives, single tome, folios 691 to 766. 12 Cf. file of helpful evidence presented by the State, single tome, folios 767 to 930.

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