12
kidnap and execute their victims in the name of the “security of the State.” The
Universitas itself was also attacked by the repression forces. The time for light
searching was unduly taken by the State shadows heralds.
40.
A departing Judge of the Inter-American Court, -who thanks God never
missed one single session and never excused himself from participating in any
deliberation of the Court during his 12 years of service rendered as Incumbent
Judge- is fully entitled to set forth, in this Separate Opinion, one of his many
reminiscences regarding the arguments on this case. Little after the Fujimori regime
I visited Peru as President of the Inter-American Court, for a series of events; at that
time, when receiving the degree of Emeritus Professor granted by another University
which suffered during the dark days of the said regime18, in my speech of September
13, 2001, at the President´s Office of the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San
Marcos, among other things, I pointed out that
"After the times of shadow, those of light have come. But nobody can
guarantee us -and this with relation to any country - that the shadows will not return.
Should this happen, the only certain thing is that the light would emerge again, - as in
the sequence of night and day, or day and night. In the same way that shadows appear
when the light fades, the first rays of light arise from the last remains of darkness. The
clear-dark tension, of progress mixed with regression, is inherent to human condition, as
the ancient Greek (always so contemporary) remarked centuries ago with total lucidity
in one of their greatest legacies to the evolution of human thought.
International human rights instruments have decisively contributed to wake up
human conscience for the need to protect individuals in any and all circumstances.
Events in Peru during the last months have revealed a true reencounter of Peru with its
best tradition and legal thoughts (...). When this happens, we can say that the
international human rights system has effectively reached the bases of the national
society.
Nothing of what happened during the last months in this Latin-American
country, so rich in legal culture and tradition, which today I am honored to visit, would
have been possible without the admirable mobilization of the Peruvian civil society, and
its impact on the public institutions. This shows the importance of the international
instances of protection of human rights: they represent the last hope for those who had
lost trust and faith in justice, mainly those defenseless, oppressed and forgotten.
There could hardly be, for a jusinternationalist, such a gratifying experience as
the one I am living in these four days of visit to Peru. (...) This ceremony has great
symbolic importance to me. I come from the Academy, to which I shall continue
belonging. I belong to the University, the Universitas, which, by definition, has a
universal vocation. As jusinternationalist, I uphold the principles of mankind reason
above State reason.” (...).19
41.
Two years later, in a co generic ceremony in another Peruvian University, on
November 18, 2003, presided over by the President of the Pontificia Universidad
Católica del Perú (Dr. S. Lerner Febres), also President of the Comisión de la Verdad
y Reconciliación Nacional (CVR) of Peru, I outlined, in my speech at that time
18
V.g., the military occupation of the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos in May, 1992. And
to this, other acts of violence are added, such as, for instance, the case of the disappeared students of the
Universidad Nacional del Centro in Huancayo; cf. "Huancayo y Cantuta: Dónde Están los Desaparecidos?",
4 Ideele Magazine (November, 1992) No. 44, pp. 13-14. Also, the crime of La Cantuta was attributed – as
notorious and public – to a reprisal perpetrated by the Grupo Colina of extermination of senderistas, by
the Tarata street attack; cf. U. Jara, Ojo por Ojo - La Verdadera Historia del Grupo Colina, op. cit. supra
No. (1), p. 177.
19
A.A. Cançado Trindade, "Speech by the President of the Inter-American Human Rights Court at
the Celebrations during the 450th Anniversary of the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos
(Appointed as Emeritus Professor),” 58 Revista de Derecho y Ciencia Política de la Universidad Nacional
Mayor de San Marcos - Lima (2001) nrs. 1-2, pp. 729-730 and 733, paras. 21-24 and 33.
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