national newspaper with widespread circulation, and (b) this Judgment in its entirety,
available for one year, on an official website of the State accessible to the public.
C.2.2 Public act to acknowledge international responsibility and make a public
apology
306. The representatives asked that the State organize a public act to acknowledge
international responsibility, to make amends, to ensure non-repetition, and to offer
apologies to the members of the Landaeta Mejías brothers’ family, as well as to
Venezuelan society. The representatives indicated that the State must reach agreement
on the characteristics of the public act with the members of the family. They also asked
that the act be covered by the media with widest national coverage and at peak viewing
or listening time, in order to ensure the widest possible dissemination of the event.
Neither the Commission nor the State referred to this measure of reparation.
307. As it has in other cases, 393 the Court considers it necessary, in order to redress the
harm caused to the victims and to avoid events such as those of this case being
repeated, to establish that Venezuela should organize, in the state of Aragua, a public
act to acknowledge international responsibility and to offer a public apology for the facts
of this case. During this act reference must be made to the human rights violations
declared in this Judgment. The act must be held by means of a public ceremony in the
presence of senior State officials and the victims in this case. The State must reach
agreement with the victims or their representatives on the method of complying with the
public act of acknowledgement, as well as on its characteristics, such as the place and
the date on which it will be held. The State has one year from notification of this
Judgment to implement this measure.
C.3 Guarantees of non-repetition
C.3.1 Measures relating to the use of force and accountability
308. The Commission recommended that the State provide “mechanisms to prevent
repetition, including: (i) training programs on international human rights standards in
general, and with regard to children and adolescents, in particular, for the Police of the
state of Aragua; (ii) measures to ensure effective accountability in the criminal,
disciplinary, and administrative jurisdiction, in cases of presumed abuse of power by
State agents responsible for public security, and (iii) legislative, administrative, and
other types of measures for investigating with due diligence and in accordance with
relevant international standards the necessity for and proportionality of the lethal use of
force by State agents, to ensure the existence of effective protocols for the
implementation of adequate control and accountability mechanisms in response to the
actions of such agents.” Neither the representatives nor the State referred to this
measure of reparation.
309. It should be noted that, the Court has previously ordered Venezuela to implement
guarantees of non-repetition in relation to the use of force by its security agencies.
However, to date, the monitoring of compliance with those judgments has not revealed
that the State has complied with the measures ordered in them. 394
393
Cf. Case of Cantoral Benavides. Reparations and costs, supra, para. 81, and Case of Veliz Franco et al.,
supra, para. 257.
394
In this regard: (1) in the case of El Caracazo the Court ordered the State to adopt all necessary
measures to educate and train all the members of its armed forces and security agencies on the principles and
norms for the protection of human rights and on the limits to which the use of weapons by law enforcement
officials should be subject, even in states of emergency. Cf. Case of El Caracazo. Reparations and costs, supra,
fourth operative paragraph; (2) in the case of Montero Aranguren et al. (Retén de Catia) the Court ordered the
State to educate and train adequately the members of the security agencies in order to ensure the right to life,
and to avoid the disproportionate use of force. Cf. Case of Montero Aranguren et al. (Retén de Catia), supra,
85