political climate at the time. The Court concludes that the State of Honduras thereby violated the right to life, right to personal integrity, right to freedom of thought and expression, freedom of association, and political rights, as set forth in Articles 4(1), 5(1), 13(1), 16(1) and 23(1) of the American Convention, read in conjunction with Article 1(1) and 2 75 thereof, in injury of Herminio Deras García. 81. The Court notes, furthermore, that several members of the Deras García family, some of them still children or teenagers at the time of the incidents, were targeted for persecution, illegal arrest, mistreatment and torture, raids on their homes, and destruction of their property, all of which ended in breakdown of the family. 82. Specifically, the Deras Flores family home was raided on November 26, 1981. Deras García’s wife, Otilia Flores Ortiz, and her sister, Elba Flores Ortiz, were illegally arrested and subjected to acts of torture by agents of the state. They were held for three days, deprived of water and food, repeatedly interrogated about the whereabouts of Herminio Deras García, beaten and threatened with death. While this was happening, the small son and daughter of Herminio Deras García and Otilia Flores Ortiz, Lorena and Herminio Deras Flores, were in the home under the full-time watch of agents of the state, unable to go out and bereft of contact with or news of their parents or other family members. 83. Also on the same date, Herminio Deras García’s younger brother, Luis Deras García, was arbitrarily and violently detained and subjected to acts of torture, including “the hood” and death threats. He was held without food or water, not allowed to use the bathroom, and suffered other human rights violations. 84. The Deras García family home was raided on June 8, 1984, by agents of the state who arbitrarily detained eight members of the family with the use of excessive force: Irma Deras García, Consuelo Deras García, Cristóbal Hernández Pérez, Julio Chavarría Banegas, Marlen García Pineda, Sandra Hernández Deras, José Herminio García, and Marlon García Barahona. Héctor Deras García and Domingo Deras were also detained the same day. Besides the arbitrary detentions, they were physically and verbally attacked and threatened with death for “being communists.” Irma Deras García underwent acts of torture as she was repeatedly interrogated and beaten, hung by her hands while a hood was placed over her head, forced to dig her own grave, threatened with death, and kept in forced separation from her small children, including an eight-month-old baby after she was detained. 85. The Court has weighed the 30 years of persecution of the Deras García family, the extrajudicial execution of Herminio Deras García, the forced exile in which several members of the family lived for many years (infra para. 87), the arbitrary arrests, torture, and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment they received, including possible acts of sexual violence, and concludes that a deliberate attack was carried out against the Deras García family, producing profound consequences for family dynamics and injuring the psychological health of family members. The Court would point to the relevant conclusions of expert witness Carmen Lastenia Martínez García 76 following her analysis of the psychological impact on these family members: “[t]he consequences of the traumatic experiences can be seen in individual, family and psychosocial terms. Together they combine to leave the imprint of trauma, with 75 The representatives claimed violation of Article 2 of the American Convention based on the fact that the extrajudicial execution of Herminio Deras García took place in the framework of institutionalization of the so-called national security doctrine and the targeting of certain persons as enemies or as dangerous. The Court concurs with the State’s own recognition of responsibility for violating Article 2 of the Convention (supra para. 18). 76 Expert witness statement by Carmen Lastenia Martínez García, March 30, 2021 (evidence file, folios 2450 to 2452).