13. On four occasions (July 2 and 13, and August 4 and 13, 2004, the Commission repeated its
request for information from the State about the Barrios family’s situation and about the
measures adopted to protect the lives and persons of the individuals named in the IACHR’s
request for precautionary measures. The Commission received no reply. The Commission
noted that:
a) On September 4, 2004, Caudy Barrios and Rigoberto Barrios were arrested by a patrol
of Aragua police – comprising three units, all attached to the police station in the town of
Guanayen. Once detained, they were taken to the Barbacoa station and beaten.
Rigoberto Barrios was released the next day; in contrast, on September 6 Caudy Barrios
was transferred to the sub-office of the Scientific, Penal, and Criminal Investigation
Corps, based in the town of Villa Cura in the same state. Once there, after verifying that
he was not wanted for the commission of any crime, he was released.5
b) On September 18, 2004, a squadron of state police attached to the Guanayen station
visited the home of Oscar and Luis Barrios and told them not to be surprised if a group of
men wearing masks were to pay a call.
(c) On September 20, 2004, Luis Barrios was murdered in the yard of his home in the
town of Guanayen.6
C.
Provisional Measures
14. On September 20, 2004, the Commission was informed that Mr. Luis Barrios, the instigator
of the investigations into the death of Narciso Barrios and a beneficiary of the precautionary
measures that the Commission had requested, had been extrajudicially killed in the yard of his
home, located in the town of Guanayen, by two masked men who shot him four times, killing
him instantly. In light of that information, seeing that the IACHR’s precautionary measures had
been ineffective in preventing Mr. Luis Barrios’s death, and given the continued intimidation of
several other family members, on September 23, 2004, the IACHR sent the Inter-American
Court a request for provisional measures on behalf of Eloisa Barrios, Jorge Barrios, Rigoberto
Barrios, Oscar Barrios, Inés Barrios, Pablo Solórzano, Beatriz Barrios, Caudy Barrios, Carolina
García, and Juan Barrios. In lodging the provisional measures request with the Court, the
Commission explained that the beneficiaries were relatives of Mr. Narciso Barrios and that they
had been eye witnesses to his murder or instigators of the corresponding investigation.
15. In a resolution of September 24, 2004, the President of the Inter-American Court extended
urgent measures to protect the lives and persons of Eloisa Barrios, Inés Barrios, Beatriz
Barrios, and Carolina García, and of Jorge Barrios, Rigoberto Barrios, Oscar Barrios, Pablo
Solórzano, Caudy Barrios, and Juan Barrios.
16. On November 23, 2004, the Inter-American Court ratified all points of the President’s
resolution of September 24, 2004.
17. On January 13, 2005, the Commission sent additional, urgent information to the Court,
telling it that on January 9 of that year the minor child Rigoberto Barrios, covered by the
protective measures extended by the Court, had been shot eight times and was in a critical
condition at Maracay Central Hospital. On January 26, 2005, the Commission informed the
Court that it had been notified that, on January 19, Rigoberto Barrios had died at the aforesaid
hospital.
5 Communication of September 16, 2004, to the IACHR from the Human Rights, Justice, and Peace Commission of
Aragua State.
6 Communication of September 21, 2004, to the IACHR from the Human Rights, Justice, and Peace Commission of
Aragua State.
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