58. On January 26, 1995, Jorge Vásquez Durand traveled overland from Lima, Peru to Ecuador to fulfill orders from his customers. He entered Ecuador at Huaquillas on January 27 and from there had travelled to the city of Otavalo. On January 28, because of "the border conflict and the tension in the atmosphere he decides to return to Peru."40 On January 30, he called his wife, María Esther Gomero de Vásquez, twice from Aguas Verdes, the town on the Peruvian side of the border adjoining Huaquillas on the Ecuadorian side, to set her mind at rest and to tell her that he was worried "about getting his merchandise through customs in Huaquillas to Peru."41 59. Mrs. Gomero de Vásquez learned -- from Peruvian merchants Abel Jara and Juan Bustamante -- that on that same day, January 30, Mr. Vásquez crossed over to Huaquillas to pass migration control and to bring over his merchandise, and "just as he was setting about having his passport stamped in the Ecuadorian Migration Office," he was arrested by members of the Ecuadorian Intelligence Service.42 60. Mario Jesús Puente Olivera, a Peruvian merchant and friend of Mr. Vásquez, reported that -toward the end of January 1995 -- that they had both traveled to Otavalo in Ecuador and had shared a room in a hostel. He added that "after we had done our business with our merchandise," he had left for a village called Ibarra, where he was detained by a civilian, who took him to a police station. During his detention, he asked a policeman -- and offered him money -- to call Mr. Vásquez at the hostel in Otavalo and ask him to "look out for me," "because there are many people where we leave our merchandise who know us." 43 61. The next day he was told in the police station that they had gone to take statements from the merchants where he had left his merchandise and that he would be released that same day. However, he states that military personnel arrived at the police station in a pickup truck, placed a hood over his head and drove him in a vehicle for several hours, apparently to a military barracks, where he was interrogated. He was against transported for several hours, handcuffed and with his face in a hood, to what appeared to be somewhere far away, where they took him to a room and interrogated and tortured him.44 62. In his account, he states that he was again taken to a distant place where they put him in an underground cell. "There were lots of cells in that corridor, lots of Peruvians." In his statement, he indicates that the torture continued. In one torture session, a soldier told him: "You came with someone else, that Mr. Jorge Vásquez has been arrested at the border." 45 63. For his part, Ernesto Humberto Albedo Maulen, a Peruvian citizen, told APRODEH staff that he had been detained in Ecuador for 36 days, from May 14 until June 19, 1995. He stated that he had been detained in Manta, the city where he worked, and was subsequently taken to Portoviejo, where first they put him in police barracks 102, then police barracks 101, and then in the Teniente Ortiz military barracks at the 40 In María Esther Gomero de Vásquez's initial petition, dated March 9, 1995. The border between Peru and Ecuador at Aguas Verdes/Huaquillas amounted in 1995 to a bridge used by merchants, with pedestrians and cars freely crossing the bridge. In María Esther Gomero de Vásquez's initial petition, dated March 9, 1995. 41 42 In María Esther Gomero de Vásquez's initial petition, dated March 9, 1995. Appendix 26. Handwritten letter from Mrs. María Esther Gomero de Vásquez, signed February 13, 1995, addressed to the Director General of Consular Affairs in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Peru. Appended to a writ submitted by the State of Peru on November 10, 1995. 43 2003. Appendix 27. Statement on a DVD by Mario Jesús Puente Olivera. Appended to a writ submitted by the petitioners on June 6, 44 See Appendix 27 (Statement on a DVD by Mario Jesús Puente Olivera. Attached to the writ presented by the petitioners on June 6, 2003), in which the declaration reads as follows: They begin torturing me [...]. I was still hooded and two of them begin beating me, asking me who I was and why I had come to Ecuador. They asked me what military personnel had sent me there and what information I had been sending back. But I told them, Sir, I am a craftsman, all I have is my craftwork. At one point in tears I tell them if I have noting what can I tell you. As they did not agree with that, they tied my hands and put me under some showers [...] with electricity in the water. Take me out, take me out, I begged them. 45 6, 2003. (See Annex 27. Statement on a DVD by Mario Jesús Puente Olivera. Appended to a writ submitted by the petitioners on June 12