189. In this chapter, the Court will include prior considerations on the persons it will
consider presumed victims in this case, describing the evidence and the reasons for finding
them as such. Despite its considerations on the jurisdiction ratione temporis in this case
(supra paras. 63 to 65), the Court will rule on the alleged violations that are based on facts
that occurred or persisted after December 10, 1998. Accordingly, in addition to the alleged
forced disappearance of Luis Ferreira da Cruz and Iron Canuto da Silva, in this judgement,
the Court wil examine the alleged violations related to facts that took place or continued after
the date indicated above: in other words: (i) the investigation and proceedings instituted as
a result of the April 1997 inspection in Hacienda Brasil Verde, and (ii) the March 2000
inspection in Hacienda Brasil Verde, and the respective investigation that was opened
subsequently.
190. However, before beginning to analyze the merits of the case, the Court finds it
necessary to include some prior considerations to establish clearly the presumed victims who
will be taken into consideration in this case and who are connected to the facts of the case
that fall within its jurisdiction ratione temporis. First, the Court notes that the lists of
presumed victims provided by the parties and the Commission contain numerous differences
in the identification of the workers who were providing their services in Hacienda Brasil Verde
at the time of the April 1997 and March 2000 inspections.
191. In this regard, the Court finds it evident that this case is of a collective nature and
that, in addition to the large number of presumed victims who have been named, it has been
extremely complicated to identify and locate them following the said inspections. Bearing this
in mind, the Court concludes that, in this specific case, the exceptional circumstance
established in Article 35(2) of the Court’s Rules of Procedure is applicable. Consequently, it
will now proceed to determine the persons who were providing their services in Hacienda
Brasil Verde at the time of the inspections in 1997 and 2000.
A. April 1997 inspection
A.1. Arguments of the parties and of the Commission
192. In its Merits Report, the Commission indicated that, at the time of the April 1997
inspection, there were 81 workers in Hacienda Brasil Verde, but it had only been able to
identify the names of 59 of them. It also indicated that 12 of them had been identified by
means of informal invoices for debts the workers contracted with the employer and that, in
many cases, the workers appeared registered without their last names or with aliases, or
their names were illegible. Consequently, the Commission had insufficient information to
determine whether or not a worker had been identified previously.
193. Meanwhile, the representatives agreed with the Commission that, at the time of the
April 1997 inspection, there were 81 workers in Hacienda Brasil Verde. However, they added
that, according to the inspection report, 12 other workers had escaped before the Ministry of
Labor and the Federal Police visited Hacienda Brasil Verde, which gave a total of 93 presumed
victims. Despite this, the representatives included the names of 96 workers on their list of
presumed victims, explaining that 49 of the names had been obtained from informal notes
for purchases or blank receipts.
194.
By comparison, the State argued that it was necessary to distinguish the total
number of “workers found" from the total number of “workers rescued” by the Ministry of
Labor and the Federal Police. Thus, although the inspection report indicated that there were
81 workers in Hacienda Brasil Verde, only 36 workers were rescued, which meant that only
these 36 were in a specific situation of risk to their physical integrity in order to consider
them presumed victims in this case. Consequently, the State asserted that, regarding the
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