a moving vehicle fired at them with assault rifles, as they were riding a motorcycle” and
describes the five weapons that participated in the events according to the shell casings that
were found.133 The Court also finds that there were a series of shortcomings in the police
report and in the visual inspection carried out by the Justice of the Peace on December 8,
2006, as well as in the autopsy carried out on December 10, 2006. These aspects were
reaffirmed by the expert witness Olga Marta Roldán in her statement before the Court on
March 7, 2019, where she also specified that there were a series of irregularities in the
processing of the crime scene.134
174. In addition, this Court considers that this series of omissions have, from the day of Mr.
Valenzuela's death to the present, made it impossible to clarify the facts or diligently
investigate, prosecute and, where appropriate, punish the possible perpetrators of the events,
despite the fact that almost 13 years have passed since the beginning of the investigation.
175. In consideration of: (i) the creation of the “Gavilán Plan” for the search and recapture
of the 19 fugitive prisoners from “El Infiernito” maximum security prison; (ii) the extrajudicial
executions promoted by the State between 2005 and 2006 to end the lives of the
aforementioned 19 fugitives under “Operation Gavilán” and its parallel structure; (iii) the
internal decisions that determined that once the fugitives were captured they should be
executed extrajudicially, which is consistent with the assertions by the CICIG, and the Special
Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Executions; (iv) the fact that Mr. Valenzuela was a fugitive from
justice and persecuted by State agents under “Operation Gavilán”; (v) to the death of Mr.
Valenzuela on December 8, 2006, along with another fugitive from the “El Infiernito” prison;
(vi) the negligence in the crime scene processing due to the set of omissions in the
investigation of the facts to clarify his death, and (vii) the ongoing impunity in this case, the
Court concludes that the State is responsible of the extrajudicial execution of Mr. Valenzuela
Ávila, in violation of the right to life enshrined in Article 4(1) of the American Convention, in
relation to Article 1(1) thereof, to the detriment of Tirso Román Valenzuela Ávila.
C. Conclusion
176. This Court determines that the State violated the right to life enshrined in Article 4(1)
of the American Convention, in relation to Article 1(1) thereof, to the detriment of Tirso Román
Valenzuela Ávila.
VIII-4
RIGHT TO HUMANE TREATMENT,
TO DIGNITY AND TO A PRIVATE LIFE 135
Expert opinion of the National Institute of Forensic Sciences, Ballistics Section of November 19, 2009 (file
of annexes to the brief with pleadings, motions and evidence, annex 40, fs. 12237 to 12240).
134
Such as: the crime scene was not cordoned off, there is no sketch of the scene; there is no description of the
method used to collect the evidence; there was no chain of custody of the collected elements; the corpses were not
individualized and marked; deficiencies in the collection of ballistic evidence, the position of a motorcycle found at
the crime scene is not documented; the photographs presented by the Public Ministry in which they are taken in the
morgue of the Judicial Branch present some deficiencies such as the numbered photographs not having a logical
order, and they were taken without forensic techniques, the clothes were not packed; there is an inadequate
description of the wounds, the autopsy or video were not photographed, blood samples were not taken, nor viscera
for the toxicology tests that must be done in violent deaths; in the conclusions of the autopsy protocol we do not
see the main objectives of a protocol that are the cause of death, the date of death, the identification and the
manner of death; In the visual inspection there was no use of forensic techniques such as photography, video, and
panoramic, intermediate and close-up shots, the evidence collected at the crime scene, has no connection with the
photographs, the video and the plan, and its origin cannot be identified.
133
135
Articles 5 and 11(2) of the American Convention.
43