27 149. Prolonged and coercive isolation is, by nature, cruel and inhuman treatment, harmful to the mental and moral integrity of the person and the right to dignity inherent to the human being. Thus, it also violates Article 5 of the Convention. 150. The practice of forced disappearances has often implied the secret execution of prisoners, without a trial, and the hiding of their bodies. That violation of the right to life infringes on Article 4 of the Convention. 151. This practice is a radical departure from the Pact of San José because it implies the crass abandonment of the values that emanate from human dignity and of the fundamental principles on which the inter-American system and the Convention are based. 152. The existence of this practice presupposes renunciation of the duty to organize the state apparatus in such a manner as to guarantee the rights recognized by the Convention. Actions calculated to bring about involuntary disappearances, to tolerate them, to avoid adequate investigation, or the punishment, as the case may be, of those responsible, constitute the violation of the duty to respect the rights recognized by the Convention and to guarantee their free and full exercise (Art. 1 (1)). The court refers, in this regard, to the two judgments previously cited (Velásquez Rodríguez Case, supra 112, paras 159-181, Godínez Cruz Case, supra 112, paras. 168-191). XI 153. The Court now turns to the relevant facts that it finds to have been proven. They are as follows: a. During the period 1981 to 1984, 100 to 150 persons disappeared in the Republic of Honduras, and many were never heard from again (testimony of Miguel Angel Pavón Salazar, Ramón Custodio López, Efraín Díaz Arrivillaga, Florencio Caballero and press clippings). b. Those disappearances followed a similar pattern. The victims were first followed and kept under surveillance and then kidnapped by force, often in broad daylight and in public places, by armed men in civilian clothes and disguises, who acted with apparent impunity and who used vehicles without any official identification, with tinted windows and with false license plates or no plates (testimony of Miguel Angel Pavón Salazar, Ramón Custodio López, Efraín Díaz Arrivillaga, Florencio Caballero and press clippings). c. It was public and notorious knowledge in Honduras that the kidnappings were carried out by military personnel or the police, or persons acting under their orders (testimony of Miguel Angel Pavón Salazar, Ramón Custodio López, Efraín Díaz Arrivillaga, Florencio Caballero and press clippings). d. The disappearances were carried out in a systematic manner, regarding which the Court considers the following circumstances particularly relevant: i. The victims were usually persons whom Honduran officials considered dangerous to State security (testimony of Miguel Angel Pavón Salazar, Ramón Custodio López, Efraín Díaz Arrivillaga, Florencio Caballero, Virgilio Carías, Milton Jiménez Puerto, René Velásquez Díaz, Inés Consuelo Murillo, José Gonzalo Flores Trejo, Zenaida Velásquez, César Augusto Murillo and press clippings). In addition,