11 international and national system, of the public institutions, starting with the State itself in a democratic society. 39. It is inadmissible that armed forces invade a university campus in the most possible arbitrary way. The campus is the space for free thinking, where the production and circulation of ideas must be preserved and cultivated. Along the centuries, the University was awarded the characteristic of alma mater ("madre nutricia,” alma -soul- from Latin alere, which means feeding and growing), as a generator and promoter of ideas and knowledge, so as to engender and transform the human being by means of the knowledge, for him to be able to give answer to the challenges of the world in which he lives. The armed invasion is not the only way of aggression against the University as it was conceived along the centuries17, but maybe it is the roughest aggression against the production and free circulation of ideas. In this case of La Cantuta, as already remarked, the State security agents invaded the university campus and broke in the houses of professors and students to kidnap and execute their victims in the name of the “security of the State.” The Universitas itself was also attacked by the repression forces. The time for light searching was unduly taken by the State shadows heralds. 40. A departing Judge of the Inter-American Court, -who thanks God never missed one single session and never excused himself from participating in any deliberation of the Court during his 12 years of service rendered as Incumbent Judge- is fully entitled to set forth, in this Separate Opinion, one of his many reminiscences regarding the arguments on this case. Little after the Fujimori regime I visited Peru as President of the Inter-American Court, for a series of events; at that time, when receiving the degree of Emeritus Professor granted by another University which suffered during the dark days of the said regime18, in my speech of September 13, 2001, at the President´s Office of the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, among other things, I pointed out that "After the times of shadow, those of light have come. But nobody can guarantee us -and this with relation to any country - that the shadows will not return. Should this happen, the only certain thing is that the light would emerge again, - as in the sequence of night and day, or day and night. In the same way that shadows appear when the light fades, the first rays of light arise from the last remains of darkness. The clear-dark tension, of progress mixed with regression, is inherent to human condition, as the ancient Greek (always so contemporary) remarked centuries ago with total lucidity in one of their greatest legacies to the evolution of human thought. International human rights instruments have decisively contributed to wake up human conscience for the need to protect individuals in any and all circumstances. Events in Peru during the last months have revealed a true reencounter of Peru with its best tradition and legal thoughts (...). When this happens, we can say that the international human rights system has effectively reached the bases of the national society. Nothing of what happened during the last months in this Latin-American country, so rich in legal culture and tradition, which today I am honored to visit, would have been possible without the admirable mobilization of the Peruvian civil society, and its impact on the public 17 Another form of aggression, which has regrettably become normal in our shadow times, is the so called “privatization” of public Universities as “State policy” (in a dreadful inversion of values). As a defender of public University (thus belonging to an extinguishing species), I consider teaching as a public asset, to be conveyed from generation to generation, and not goods to be sold to whoever can pay more. At present, in the neighborhoods of Latin-American cities, there is a “Private University” next to any bakery, willing to “teach”, or, rather, to inform on anything, as long as they are well paid (with due respect for the bakeries which provide us, at an affordable price – almost a giveaway price-, our daily bread). 18 V.g., the military occupation of the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos in May, 1992. And to this, other acts of violence are added, such as, for instance, the case of the disappeared students of the Universidad Nacional del Centro in Huancayo; cf. "Huancayo y Cantuta: Dónde Están los Desaparecidos?", 4 Ideele Magazine (November, 1992) No. 44, pp. 13-14. Also, the crime of La Cantuta was attributed – as notorious and public – to a reprisal perpetrated by the Grupo Colina of extermination of senderistas, by the Tarata street attack; cf. U. Jara, Ojo por Ojo - La Verdadera Historia del Grupo Colina, op. cit. supra No. (1), p. 177.