a) Immediately adopt all security and control measures necessary to preserve
the life and personal integrity of persons imprisoned at the Penitentiary of
Mendoza and the Gustavo André Unit in Lavalle, as well as all persons entering
the prisons, including employees and officers who work there;
b) Adopt immediate measures to separate accused inmates from convicted
inmates, in compliance with conditions required under the international
standards applicable in this area;
c) Conduct serious, complete and efficient investigations of the acts of violence
occurring inside the Penitentiary of Mendoza and the Gustavo André Unit;
identify the individuals responsible and impose the applicable punishments as a
mechanism for preventing further acts of violence;
d) Within a reasonable amount of time, submit for the consideration of the Court
a plan for relocating the excess inmates held at the Penitentiary of Mendoza and
the Gustavo André Unit, observing the maximum capacity and human resource
requirements, but without creating a new problem of over-crowding at other
prison facilities; and
e) Within a reasonable amount of time, renovate the facilities at the Penitentiary
of Mendoza and the Gustavo André Unit in order to provide the minimum
conditions in terms of sanitation, space and dignity necessary to house the
inmates.
25. Before the State submitted its observations on the request for information issued by the
President of the Court, the IACHR received additional information on various acts of violence at
the Penitentiary of Mendoza, among them the death of an inmate on October 30, 2004. The
Commission provided this additional information to the Court.
26. On November 4, 2004, the State submitted its observations regarding the request for
information from the President of the Court. The State indicated that it was in the process of
taking a series of measures intended to comply with the Commission’s request for
precautionary measures. In its submission, the State asserts that it does not question “the
decision of the honorable Commission to ask that precautionary measures be adopted in favor
of the inmates. However, it believes that, without prejudice to the overall situation that has
become more critical in recent days, it seems clear that the current state of affairs does not
allow for achieving all the anticipated results immediately but will, rather, require a complex
action plan involving short-, medium- and long-term measures.”
27. On November 22, 2004, the Inter-American Court decided, in the relevant sections to:
a) Request the State to immediately adopt the measures necessary to protect
the life and personal integrity of all persons imprisoned at the Provincial
Penitentiary of Mendoza and the Gustavo André Unit in Lavalle, as well as all
persons inside these facilities.
b) Request the State, as a protective measure appropriate to the situation, to
investigate the facts that led to the adoption of these provisional measures, in
order to identify those responsible and punish them accordingly.
28. At the request of the Argentine State and the representatives of the beneficiaries of the
provisional measures, a delegation from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights
conducted a working visit to Argentina on December 13-17, 2004 and traveled to Mendoza
Province to visit the prison facilities.
29. On April 6, 2005, the Commission submitted to the Court a brief of its observations
regarding the second State report, including its observations on the working visit to the
Penitentiary of Mendoza. The Commission informed the Court of its concerns regarding what it
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