3
9.
On May 20, 1994 Venezuela requested that the President grant an extension of three
months to answer the petition. It further informed the President that it had decided "not to
interpose the objection of failure to exhaust domestic legal remedies." By note of the same date,
the Secretariat transmitted to the Government the President's decision to grant an additional 30
days to answer the complaint. By note of June 13, 1994 the Government asked the President to
reconsider the 30-day extension and to grant the extension that had originally been requested. In
its communication of June 16, 1994, the President extended the term to answer the petition until
August 1, 1994. On this date the answer to the complaint was received by the Secretariat.
II
10.
According to the petition, the events occurred when "16 fishermen who resided in the town
of 'El Amparo' were traveling in the direction of the 'La Colorada' Canal on the Arauca River, in the
Páez District of the State of Apure, to participate in a fishing trip . . . on board [a] boat driven by
José Indalecio Guerrero." The complaint indicates that at
approximately 11:20 a.m. they stopped and it was under such circumstances —when some of the
fishermen were leaving the boat— that members of the military and the police of the "José Antonio Páez
Specific Command" [hereinafter "CEJAP"] —who at that time were conducting a military operation
known as "Anguila III"— killed 14 of the 16 fishermen who were at the site of the events.
11.
The Inter-American Commission expressed that "Wollmer Gregorio Pinilla and José Augusto
Arias, who were still inside the boat, escaped by jumping into the water and swimming across the
'La Colorada' Canal . . . The survivors took refuge in the 'Buena Vista' farm located 15 Km. from
the site of the events," and the following day turned themselves in to the Commandant of the
Police of "El Amparo," Adán de Jesús Tovar-Araque, "who, together with other police officials of
the area, immediately offered them protection." The complaint further states that "Tovar was
subject to pressure by police and military functionaries of San Cristóbal, State of Táchira, to turn
the survivors over to the Army, resulting in an attempt to seize them by force . . . which was
thwarted by the presence of numerous persons who stood in front of the police post."
12.
According to the petition, Celso José Rincón-Fuentes, Chief Inspector of the DISIP
(Dirección de los Servicios de Inteligencia y Prevención / Intelligence and Prevention Services
Directorate), visited Tovar in the afternoon of October 29, and "inform[ed] him that they had
killed 14 guerrillas and that two had escaped." The Commission expressed that
[o]n that very afternoon and early the following day, Tovar was approached by relatives of several
fishermen who inquired about the whereabouts of those who had gone fishing on the 29th, since they
had not yet returned and the media was beginning to air news about an armed confrontation with
irregular Colombian combatants.
13.
According to the Commission, the following Government agents participated as military
and police members of the CEJAP in the October 29, 1988 "Anguila III" military operation:
Lieutenant Commander, Alí Coromoto-González; First-Class Technical Master (Army), Ernesto MoralesGómez; First-Class Technical Sergeant (Army), Omar Antonio Pérez-Hudson; Second-Class Sergeant
Major (Army), Salvador Ortiz-Hernández; Chief Commissioner (DISIP), Andrés Alberto Román-Romero;
Commissioner (DISIP), Maximiliano José Monsalve-Planchart; Chief Inspector (DISIP), Celso José
Rincón-Fuentes; Chief Inspector (DISIP), Carlos Alberto Durán-Tolosa; Inspector (DISIP), José Ramón
Zerpa-Poveda; Inspector (DISIP), Luis Alberto Villamizar; Deputy Inspector (DISIP), Franklin GómezRodríguez; Deputy Inspector (DISIP), Omar Gregorio Márquez; Detective (DISIP), Tony Richard UrbinaSojo; Chief of Summary Proceedings III (PTJ) [Policía Técnica Judicial / Technical Judicial Police],
Gerardo Rugeles-Molina; Chief Inspector (PTJ), Edgar Arturo Mendoza-Guanaguey; Deputy
Commissioner (PTJ), Florentino Javier López; Deputy Inspector (PTJ), Alfredo José Montero; Principal
Agent (PTJ), Daniel Virgilio Gómez; Police Official (PTJ), Rafael Rodríguez-Salazar; and, Huber BayonaRíos (a Colombian citizen who provided intelligence services to the CEJAP).