61
97.
With respect to how Juan Humberto Sánchez was treated by the State
authorities during his detention, the Court deems it proven that he was subject to
interrogation (supra 70.8) which, in accordance with the existing pattern at the time
of the facts (supra 70.1), necessarily led to preparing and deliberately inflicting
tortures to obtain information. In this regard, it should be recalled that this Court
has deemed it proven that during the decade of the 1980s and into the early ‘90s, in
Honduras there was a pattern of forced disappearances and extra-legal executions
committed by the military forces. The latter had a special, autonomous status and
acted under a certain doctrine of national security, due to which they captured
persons who were “suspicious” or “dangerous” of being alleged Honduran
subversives, supporters of the Salvadoran guerrilla forces or of the Sandinistas.
Usually these persons were detained at night, interrogated, tortured, given a
finishing shot, and buried in clandestine centers or unauthorized places. The military
forces, in turn, controlled the police forces, and the judges felt intimidated from
effectively investigating criminal cases in which there were allegations of human
rights violations by the armed forces, and this created a climate of impunity.
98.
While this Court does not have sufficient evidence to establish precisely the
days or hours that Juan Humberto Sánchez was detained, due to the illegality of the
detention, a brief period of detention is enough for it to constitute an infringement of
his mental and moral integrity according to the standards of international human
rights law.114 The Court has also stated that when said circumstances occur, it is
possible to infer, even if there is no additional evidence in this regard, that treatment
of the victim during his isolation was inhuman, degrading, and extremely
aggressive.115
99.
It has also been proven that the body of Juan Humberto Sánchez was found
lifeless between two rocks in the Río Negro, with the hands and feet tied toward the
back, the nose, ears and genitals severed, flayings on his back and a shot in the
forehead, exiting at the base of the skull, characteristics that are in keeping with the
existing pattern of human rights violations at the time of the facts (supra 70.1).
According to the expert witness, Leo Valladares Lanza, these marks of violence are
typical of the pattern of extra-legal executions at the time of the facts. Said expert
witness stated that the practice was to “keep close watch over presumably
suspicious persons and capture them without a warrant and take them to clandestine
places, not authorized by law. There, they were usually interrogated, but resorting to
torture. Finally, these persons were murdered, many of them with a finishing shot,
hand-tied and buried in clandestine cemeteries or unauthorized places.” The
characteristics of the existing pattern combine with what this Court has stated
regarding the existence of a presumption of responsibility of the State for the
mistreatment and torture shown by a person who has been under the custody of
State agents.116
Court H.R., Case of Ireland v. the United Kingdom judgment of 18 January 1978, Series A no. 25. para.
167.
114
Cf. Bámaca Velásquez Case, supra note 25, para. 128; Cantoral Benavides Case, supra note 103,
paras. 82 and 83; and “Street Children” Case (Villagrán Morales et al.), supra note 103, paras. 162 and
163.
115
Cf. Bámaca Velásquez Case, supra note 25, para. 150; Cantoral Benavides Case, supra note 103,
paras. 83, 84 and 89; and “Street Children” Case (Villagrán Morales et al.), supra note 103, para. 162.
116
Cf. Eur. Court H. R., Aksoy v. Turkey judgment of 18 December 1996, Reports of Judgments and
Decisions 1996 VI, supra note 106, para. 61;. Eur. Court HR, Ribitsch v. Austria judgment of 4 December
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