Commission,40 and the third by the representatives41). The order also called for these statements
and opinions to be submitted to the Court by May 24, 2021. On May 20, 2021, the representatives
requested a time extension for sending in the statements by witnesses and expert witnesses.
Their brief made no express mention of the statements by alleged victims. The Registrar sent a
note on May 21, 2021, granting a time extension through May 28, 2021, to submit statements
by the twelve witnesses and the expert witness.
39. This Court takes note that the representatives submitted all the material on May 28, 2021,
including statements by the alleged victims as ordered by the President for May 24, 2021. The
brief offered no explanation as to the overdue submission of the statements by alleged victims.
Therefore, because the submission was time-barred, the Court will not admit the thirty-two
statements by the alleged victims.
40. The Court will admit all the other testimonies and expert witness statements delivered by
affidavit before a public attestor and in the public hearing,42 as they are consistent with the
purpose set forth in the President’s order for them to be taken and with the cause pursued in the
instant case.43
VII
FACTS
41. In view of the arguments brought by the parties and the Commission, and based on the
decisions made in the chapter on preliminary considerations, the main facts of the case will be
examined in the following order: (A) background; (B) domestic processes on behalf of the alleged
victims, and (C) the profile of the alleged victims in the instant case.
A.
Background
42. The Court emphasizes that the purpose of the instant case, as stated by the Commission in
its Merits Report, is the alleged failure of the state to execute thirteen final, non-appealable judicial
verdicts. This case needs to be understood by placing it in context, as part of the framework of
municipal devolution, known as municipalization, of the educational system during Chile’s military
dictatorship in the 1980s. The analysis will begin with a discussion of the relevant regulatory
framework (A.1), followed by a look at the transfer of teaching staff to municipal employment in
the framework of municipalization of education in Chile (A.2), and finally, a description of the
creation of a special allowance for teachers and the appearance of the “historical debt” (A.3).
A.1. Regulatory framework
A.1.1. The municipal system and the municipalization of education
43. The Chilean Constitution sets out the main features of the municipal system in the context
of a unitary State. It provides as follows:
Sworn statement by Luis Eduardo Thayer Morel before a public attestor, May 24, 2021 (evidence file, folios 18729 to
18768).
40
Sworn statement by Francisco Agüero Vargas before a public attestor, May 27, 2021 (evidence file, folios
19081 to 19119).
41
Statements from alleged victim Ceferina Olivia Matus Rodríguez and expert witnesses Tomás Jordán Díaz and
Jorge Fantuzzi Majlis were taken in the public hearing on May 31 and June 1, 2021.
42
43
The purposes of the statements are outlined in the Court President’s order of April 21, 2021.
14