The petition refers to the forced disappearances of 15 people (7 of whom were children) - all members of the rural community Santa Barbara in Huancavelica. On July 4, 1991 the victims were deprived of their liberty by state agents as part of a military operation, and remained in state custody while they were transferred to an abandoned mine known as "Mystery" or "Vallarón".

There they were put in a cavern and gunned down by the military; their bodies were almost immediately immolated with dynamite explosions. Then authorities and state agents took steps to eliminate the evidence and erase all traces of the bodies to avoid identification so that what had happened to the bodies and their whereabouts could not be determined.

A criminal complaint was filed but the Amnesty Law 26479 was applied and therefore the events went unpunished.

The Inter-American Court analyzed components of the crime of forced disappearance and its consequences for victims and families. Moreover, it analyzed dimensions of the state obligation to investigate forced disappearances, and the relation between lack of access to justice and the violation to the right to truth.