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the victims had usually been under surveillance for long period of time (testimony
of Ramón Custodio López and Florencio Caballero);
ii.
The arms employed were reserved for the official use of the military and
police, and the vehicles used had tinted glass, which requires special official
authorization. In some cases, Government agents carried out the detentions
openly and without any pretense or disguise; in others, government agents had
cleared the areas where the kidnappings were to take place and, on at least one
occasion, when government agents stopped the kidnappers they were allowed to
continue freely on their way after showing their identification (testimony of Miguel
Angel Pavón Salazar, Ramón Custodio López and Florencio Caballero);
iii.
The kidnappers blindfolded the victims, took them to secret, unofficial
detention centers and moved them from one center to another. They interrogated
the victims and subjected them to cruel and humiliating treatment and torture.
Some were ultimately murdered and their bodies were buried in clandestine
cemeteries (testimony of Miguel Angel Pavón Salazar, Ramón Custodio López,
Florencio Caballero, René Velásquez Díaz, Inés Consuelo Murillo and José Gonzalo
Flores Trejo);
iv.
When queried by relatives, lawyers and persons or entities interested in the
protection of human rights, or by judges charged with executing writs of habeas
corpus, the authorities systematically denied any knowledge of the detentions or
the whereabouts or fate of the victims. That attitude was seen even in the cases of
persons who later reappeared in the hands of the same authorities who had
systematically denied holding them or knowing their fate (testimony of Inés
Consuelo Murillo, José Gonzalo Flores Trejo, Efraín Díaz Arrivillaga, Florencio
Caballero, Virgilio Carías, Milton Jiménez Puerto, René Velásquez Díaz, Zenaida
Velásquez, César Augusto Murillo and press clippings);
v.
Military and police officials as well as those from the Executive and Judicial
Branches either denied the disappearances or were incapable of preventing or
investigating them, punishing those responsible, or helping those interested
discover the whereabouts and fate of the victims or the location of their remains.
The investigative committees created by the Government and the Armed Forces did
not produce any results. The judicial proceedings brought were processed slowly
with a clear lack of interest and some were ultimately dismissed (testimony of Inés
Consuelo Murillo, José Gonzalo Flores Trejo, Efraín Díaz Arrivillaga, Florencio
Caballero, Virgilio Carías, Milton Jiménez Puerto, René Velásquez Díaz, Zenaida
Velásquez, César Augusto Murillo and press clippings).
154. Francisco Fairén Garbi and Yolanda Solís Corrales entered Honduran territory at the Las
Manos border post, in the Department of El Paraíso, on December 11, 1981. That is the last
reliable information on their whereabouts. Despite initial contradictions, Honduran authorities
subsequently admitted that the two disappeared persons had entered their territory (Report of the
Government of March 8, 1982, on the certificate of the Secretary General of Immigration of
Honduras, February 11, 1982).
155. There are many contradictions regarding the presence of Francisco Fairén Garbi and
Yolanda Solís Corrales in Honduras and their departure from Honduras territory. Initially, the
Government of Honduras and Guatemala denied those persons had crossed the border between
the two countries. Then they affirmed they had entered Guatemala on December 12, 1981, and
Guatemalan authorities added that they had left for El Salvador on December 14 of the same
year. The Government of Guatemala ratified the latter version on October 6, 1987, but was later