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overcrowding and treatment, education, work, and psychiatric, medical, social and
spiritual care." The first of these rulings established, inter alia,
TO CALL UPON the director of Penitentiary Complex No. III (Almafuerte) in Cacheuta to
immediately take the steps, issue the orders, and/or execute the proceedings
necessary for the cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment suffered by the inmates
housed in SECTORS 1 and 2 of the Complex to cease […; to] ensure the inmates their
right to petition, having the duty to establish an effective and rapid means of attending
to the different briefs and/or correspondence sent, without prior restraint, to judicial
and/or administrative authorities […;] to take the steps toward providing and/or
allowing the entry of radio and/or television devices that ensure the right to information
enjoyed by the inmates […;] within the period of [5 days], to take steps toward
providing some means of telephonic communication to the inmates housed in Complex
III in order to ensure the inmates their right to communicate […] TO RECOMMEND that
the director of Penitentiary Complex No. III (Almafuerte) of Cacheuta reorganize the
activities of the inmates housed in SECTORS I and II of the complex in such a way as
to permit them to enjoy more recreation and thereby decrease the number of hours
under lockdown to the extent permitted by the safety conditions of the facility.
b)
In a ruling dated February 13, 2007, the Supreme Court of Justice of the
Nation found, inter alia, that "[…] as custodian of constitutional guarantees and
attending to the lack of results obtained by the order issued by the Inter-American
Court of Human Rights, it finds itself with the unavoidable obligation to call upon the
National State to, within 20 days, take those measures necessary to put an end to
the situation being faced in the prison units of the province of Mendoza and to take
the measures hereinafter indicated in the operative part of this judgment […]" and
ruled:
II.-To instruct the Supreme Court of Justice of the Province of Mendoza and provincial
tribunals of all levels, within their corresponding jurisdictions and by order of the
Supreme Court and considering the urgency of the case, to put an end to all eventual
situations of aggravation of detention that amount to cruel, inhuman, or degrading
treatment or any other situation possibly leading to international responsibility of the
Federal State; III.-To order the National Executive Branch to report to the Tribunal
every 20 days on the measures adopted to improve the situation of those detained.
Notify […] the National Executive Branch- the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights-;
and the Governor of the Province of Mendoza of this order […]
c) in an Order dated February 14, 2007, the Supreme Court of Mendoza ruled:
1. To notify and report on the contents of the resolution [of the CSJN dated February 13,
2007], to all the Tribunals of the Province of Mendoza for their compliance and in order to
cease any eventual situation of aggravation of detention that would violate Article 18 of
the National Constitution; 2. To order an extraordinary visit to the women's prison facilities,
Boulogne Sur Mer, and Gustavo André to be led by the magistrates of this Tribunal to all the
penitentiary units in the Province; 3. To order the immediate confirmation of the conditions
of the prison facilities via the Sentence Execution Judges; 4. To call [a] hearing for February
19, [2007,] in order to call the governor of the province of Mendoza before this Tribunal to
report on the degree of compliance with the precautionary measures [sic] ordered by the
Inter-American Court of Human Rights; and 5. To ask the Supreme Court of Justice of the
Nation to call on the National Executive Branch to immediately and urgently relocate the
federal inmates housed in the Provincial Penitentiary.
d) in an administrative order issued on March 1, 2007, the Supreme Court of Justice
of the Province of Mendoza, "examining the contents of the ruling handed down by