iii) “avoiding irreparable damage to persons.” These three conditions coexist and must be
present in every situation in which the Tribunal’s intervention is requested. In the same
way, the three conditions described must persist in order for the Court to maintain the
protection it has ordered. If one of those conditions has ceased to be relevant, it will be up
to the Tribunal to weigh the pertinence of continuing with the protective measures ordered.3
5.
Since these provisional measures were ordered, the Venezuelan State has submitted
only two bimonthly reports, the last of those on May 7, 2010 (supra Having Seen 2). In
those reports, it indicated that with regard to the complaint filed on September 9, 2009, by
the father of Mr. Guerrero Larez, the Third District Attorney’s Office of the Public
Prosecutor’s Office of the Circuit Court of Guárico state launched a criminal investigation
that same day into his alleged physical disappearance or escape from the place where he
had been imprisoned. On September 10, 2009, the Ninth Auxiliary District Attorney of the
Public Prosecutor in charge of Judgment Execution for the Second Judicial Circuit of Guárico
state went to the General Penitentiary of Venezuela and the Court Jail in order to physically
locate Guerrero Larez. In the presence of other government officials, “they carried out the
roll call procedure several times in the aforementioned prison facilities, reporting that it was
not possible to find Guerrero Larez in those prisons.” On September 11, 2009, a new
inspection of those two prison facilities in the state of Guárico was carried out. Mr. Guerrero
Larez was not found in either of them. The Third Prosecutor of the Public Prosecutor’s Office
of the Guárico State Circuit requested other procedures, including the carrying out of
interviews with possible witnesses to the incident, visual inspection of the place of the
event, and the legal situation of the prisoner. The State later reported that through
February 2010, the Office of the District Attorney was carrying out complimentary
procedures, consisting of an official letter sent to the director of the General Penitentiary of
Venezuela demanding information on the juridical situation of Mr. Guerrero Larez, a
description of the calls originating and terminating with the mobile phones referred to by
the father of Mr. Guerrero Larez, interviewing an official with the Bolivarian National Guard,
and sending an official letter to the director of the General Penitentiary of Venezuela asking
that security be provided for the officials in charge of doing a visual inspection of the prison.
As far as the writ of habeas corpus requested by the wife of Mr. Guerrero Larez, on
December 3, 2009, the oral constitutional hearing was held before the Second Court of the
First Supervisory Instance of the Criminal Judicial Circuit of Guárico state. The following
day, the Court granted the writ of constitutional amparo in the form of habeas corpus “in
view of the fact that the specific place where the prisoner is located is not known [...] and in
view of the version expressed by the directorship of the prison to the effect that the
prisoner is currently ‘evading’ serving his sentence.” The Court also ordered the Office of the
Public Prosecutor to conduct an immediate investigation to establish the whereabouts of Mr.
Gerrero Larez. The Court also ordered the Ministry of the People’s Power for Domestic
Relations and Justice and the General Command of the Bolivarian National Guard to take the
measures necessary to assist the Office of the Public Prosecutor and the People’s
Ombudsman’s Office in determining the juridical situation, whereabouts and physical
condition of Mr. Guerrero Larez, providing protection of his fundamental rights to life and
personal integrity. As of May 2010, the technical inspection of the General Penitentiary of
Venezuela’s prison facilities had yet to be carried out by the Forensic and Criminal
Investigation Team (CICPC in its Spanish acronym). No further information has been
provided by the State.
3
Cf. Case of Carpio Nicolle. Provisional Measures regarding Guatemala. Order of the Inter-American Court
of Human Rights of July 6, 2009, Considering 14; Matter of the Forensic Anthropology Foundation of Guatemala.
Provisional Measures regarding Guatemala. Order of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights of February 22,
2011, Considering 2, and Matter of A.J. et al. Provisional Measures regarding Haiti. Order of the Inter-American
Court of Human Rights of February 22, 2011, Considering 10.
3