The facts of the case concern criminal proceedings faced by constitutional lawyer Brewer Carías for the crime of conspiracy due to his connection with the drafting of the "Carmona Decree", which dissolved public powers and established a government of "democratic transition" in Venezuela; all of these events took place in April of 2002.

The Inter-American Court of Human Rights upheld the State's preliminary objection to the exhaustion of domestic remedies; as a result, the Cout did not move forward on any substantive analysis of the matter.