81
due to the facts and the pecuniary consequences that have a causal relationship with the
facts of the case.”278
261. The Commission asked the Court to establish, in equity, the amount of
compensation corresponding to indirect damage and loss of earnings. The representatives
made specific requests concerning pecuniary damage, which include a claim for loss of
earnings and indirect damage. For its part, the State contested the claims of the
representatives, indicating that they “contradict the evidence” provided by the parties in
this representatives and the Commission in the case and represent the “enrichment [of the
victims] rather than a compensatory payment.”
262. As the Court has established previously, reparations must bear a relationship to the
facts of the case, the violations declared, the damage proved, and with the measures
requested to repair the respective harm. Therefore, the Court must observe the
concurrence of these elements in order to make an appropriate ruling in keeping with the
law.279
a) Rainer Ibsen Cárdenas
263. With regard to a compensatory payment for the sum that Rainer Ibsen Cárdenas
would have earned during his professional life, the representatives indicated that he was in
the third year of engineering studies at the time of his enforced disappearance.
Consequently, they indicated that the State should pay the sum of US$263,250.00 (two
hundred and sixty-three thousand two hundred and fifty United States dollars), calculated
on the basis of “the [approximately] 32.5 years [that he would have worked …] as a
professional,” receiving an “average monthly salary” of US$900.00 (nine hundred United
States dollars) as a probable engineer, and subtracting from this sum “25% for his
personal expenses.”
264. Before such claims, the State indicated that, at an initial procedural opportunity, the
representatives had never “proved that Rainer Ibsen Cárdenas had been a third-year
engineering student” at the time of his enforced disappearance and that it was unaware of
the source used to establish the amount indicated by the representatives as an average
monthly salary. However, in its answer to the application, the State projected the amount
that Mr. Ibsen Cárdenas would have earned as a probable engineer during 36 years of
work, based, among others, on a salary of US$450,00 (four hundred and fifty United
States dollars); in other words, 50% of the amount claimed by the representatives.
According to the State, this reduction is closer to the reality, because a recently graduated
engineer would not earn the same as one with broad experience. On this basis, the State
proposed a payment of US$157,950.00 (one hundred and fifty-seven thousand nine
hundred and fifty United States dollars) for loss of earnings.
265. On the contrary, in its final written arguments, the State indicated that Mr. Rainer
Ibsen was “a first-year law student” at the date of his enforced disappearance. Thus, “since
it was not possible to establish how much he would have earned as a lawyer,” the State
278
Cf. Case of Bámaca- Velásquez v. Guatemala. Reparations and Costs. Judgment of February 22, 2002.
Series C No. 91. para. 43; Case of Chitay Nech et al. v. Guatemala, supra note 6, para. 261, and Case of Manuel
Cepeda Vargas v. Colombia, supra note 6, para. 242.
279
Cf. Case of Ticona Estrada et al. v. Bolivia, supra note 1, párr. 110; Case of the “Las Dos Erres”
Massacre v. Guatemala, supra note 7, para. 227, and Case of Radilla Pacheco v. Mexico, supra note 8, para.
362.
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