10
that the material damage referred to the "present value of an income from their monthly
earnings for the rest of their probable lifetime and is, perforce, less than the simple sum of
their earnings" (Neira Alegría et al. Case, Reparations, supra 15, para. 46).
40.
To the figure obtained by this procedure should be added interest from the date of
the victims death to that of the judgment, with a deduction for the personal expenses the
victims would have incurred during their probable lifetime -estimated in this case at one
quarter of their income- as accepted by the Government at the public hearing on
September 7, 1996.
41.
In the specific case of Isidro Caballero-Delgado, the Court accepts as the basis for
the calculation the updated statistics submitted by the Santander Teachers' Union and by
the Government concerning the salary the victim would have received in 1996, that is,
244,595.00 (Two hundred and forty-four thousand five hundred and ninety-five) Colombian
pesos per month, at an exchange rate of 1,054.00 (one thousand and fifty-four) pesos to
US$ 1.00 (one dollar of the United States of America), which would amount to US$ 232.06
(two hundred and thirty-two dollars of the United States of America and six cents).
42.
According to the Commission, two bonuses equivalent to one half of a monthly salary
should be added for each year at the end of each semester, and one month's salary for
each year worked, recognized as unemployment benefit; in other words, that the yearly
calculation should comprise fourteen months' salary. The Government, invoking provisions
of labor law, contested the inclusion of the unemployment benefit. However, this Court
does not share the Government's view and considers that the benefit should be included as
part of the salary due.
43.
In accordance with the above, and bearing in mind the salary that Caballero-Delgado
would have received between the date of his disappearance on February 7, 1989 and the
time to which he would have expected to live; his age, 32, at the time of his disappearance,
and life expectancy in Colombia, with a deduction of 25 percent for personal expenses, and
adding interest at the rate of six percent per annum from the date of his disappearance up
to the time of the present Judgment, the Court arrives at the sum of US$ 59,500.00 (fiftynine thousand and five-hundred dollars of the United States of America) due to the relatives
of Isidro Caballero-Delgado as compensation for the material damages caused by his death.
44.
In the specific case of María del Carmen Santana, there is no indication in the docket
that the Commission had presented any indisputable proof of her identity.
The
representative of the Government declared at the public hearing that there was no
information on María del Carmen Santana-Ortiz in the Civil Registry and that, disregarding
her second surname, there were sixteen registrations, thirteen of which were current
documents, none of which appeared to fit the description of the victim in the instant case,
or her age, which the Commission claimed to be nineteen, albeit failing to produce her birth
certificate. With regard to Mrs. Vitelma Ortiz, the presumed mother of María del Carmen
Santana, the Commission had not produced any proof of kinship and, according to the
Government, neither did her name appear in the Colombian Civil Registry. As regards Mr.
Cristóbal Anaya-González, her presumed constant companion, an extrajudicial statement
made by witnesses Isaías Carrillo-Ayala and Fanny González to a notary on the
Bucaramanga circuit, in which they declared that they had known and had dealings with
Cristóbal Anaya-González for 20 and 15 years respectively and were aware that he and Ms.
María del Carmen Santana Ortiz had been living under the same roof as man and wife.
Mention should also be made here of an earlier statement to the Attorney commissioned by
the National Human Rights Unit of the Office of the Prosecutor, in which Ms. Fanny González
stated that Cristóbal Anaya-González was her brother on their mother's side, that she "had