The events of the case concern the extrajudicial execution of the senator Manuel Cepeda Vargas, which occurred on August 9, 1994 in the city of Bogota, and the lack of investigation and punishment for those responsible for the crime. The senator was furthermore a political leader and member of the Patriotic Union (UP) party and the Communist Party, and his extrajudicial execution is explained by his political activism, and can be placed in the context of systematic violence against UP members.

The IA Court highlighted the importance and relation of rights to freedom of expression, freedom of association and political rights in a democratic society and in particular, analyzed the State’s obligation to guarantee the effective participation of groups and peoples who express voices of opposition as indispensible elements for a democratic society, and to serve the members of certain groups or social sectors who find themselves in a vulnerable situation.