generates different opinions and that must be tended to by the Inter-American
Court, as has occurred. I am referring to the petition to reconsider decisions
included in the judgment whose interpretation is requested. The State expressed
that it wants the modification of some aspects of the judgment and that with said
purpose it presents the petition we are currently analyzing. In effect, it stated that
“the cornerstone of our argument (…) seeks a change in the form of compliance of
some of the operative paragraphs.” Now, the forms of compliance do not constitute
agreements foreign to the judgment, but instead they are part of it. With regard to
this matter, it is convenient to go back to the powers of the Inter-American Court,
to the nature of the judgment issued by the latter, to the nature and scope of an
argument of interpretation, and to the standard jurisprudence of the tribunal
regarding each and every one of these matters.
25.
The Inter-American Court does not have the power to modify its judgments,
in response to objections presented by the parties. The Convention does not grant
it this power, nor has it created the possibility that it reform its judgments through
a proceeding that could be compared to a reconsideration, appeal, or annulment. If
it did so, it would exceed its powers.
26.
What the Court can do with regard to the judgments issued and notified is
interpret them upon request of the parties to the proceedings. This is a matter
different to the objection of a judgment and its possible modification. However,
interpreting does not imply alteration of the terms of the judgment. It does not
imply the issuing of a new judgment, but simply the clarification or precision of the
sense and scope of the decisions adopted, which remain final. The exercise of the
power of interpretation assumes darkness or lack of precision in the text of a ruling,
but not a step back in the examination of a matter that has already been analyzed
and decided on, or withdrawal of the definitiveness that corresponds to a judgment
on merits.
27.
In the present case it is not necessary that the Court develop greater
explanations about the sense of the words used or the meaning of the decisions
adopted, which are not obscure or imprecise, but instead clear and explicit. That is
probably why the request for interpretation has mentioned the desire that the Court
“change” –not only interpret—certain aspects of the judgment. In the end, the
Court limited itself –as expressed—“to the nature and scope of the request for
interpretation pursuant to the Inter-American system, which does not suppose a
new presentation of facts or juridical considerations regarding the same, additional
to those presented by the parties in the dispute on merits and analyzed by the
Tribunal for the purposes of the corresponding Judgment.”
28.
The Court has been asked to consider certain implications of some of the
aspects of the judgment in what refers to the public acknowledgment of
responsibility, the diffusion of the judgment, payment of compensations to several
people, and the engraving of names on the monument known as “The eye that
cries”.
29.
During the international trial the State admitted facts it was charged with
and accepted the international responsibility attributed to it. Now the matter is that
said acknowledgment must transcend to the domestic realm, as is characteristic of
the international human rights protection system. The Court has not specified who
must make the acknowledgment, nor has it gone into details in what specific
media, programs, and hours the parts of the judgment must be broadcasted. The
general and special statements regarding these matters must be associated with
the obtainment of the objective sought with these measures, linked to the current
and future protection of human rights. There is, therefore, a connection of those
with the purpose they seek to serve and with the reasonable manner in which it