25 When her son was released from the hospital, he was “like a baby” at home; they had to feed him because he couldn’t “manage on his own.” Twice a week her son went to the burns center for treatment. Later he had surgery. The witness asked the Court to order “restorative” or plastic surgery for her son, to restore her son’s mobility and correct and relieve his burns. She also asked that her son be “rehabilitated of all the after-effects, including the respiratory” after-effects. She would alike like her son to be able to study, as he has been unable to go to school and she does not have the means to make that possible. The witness lives in a property that belongs to someone else; she would like a house of her own, where she has a better chance of finding work. 72. On April 18, 2004, the representatives informed the Court that witnesses Pedro Iván Peña and Raúl Esteban Portillo would not “be attending the […] hearing.” On April 26, 2004, with the Court’s permission (supra para. 48), the representatives sent a video and transcripts of the statements made by Pedro Iván Peña and Raúl Esteban Portillo. That video and the transcripts were not sworn in the presence of a person legally authorized to authenticate statements and documents.35 The following is the Court’s summary of the pertinent parts of those statements: a) Testimony of Pedro Iván Peña, former inmate at the Center The witness was 17 when he was placed in the Center. It was a hellish place and truly overwhelming. Most of the inmates were between 15 and 18. The place was small but housed 300 inmates, almost all of them behind bars and separated into cellblocks. The inmates of each cellblock were let out for 15 minutes of recreation. The guards routinely hit the inmates if they failed to return to their cells quickly after playing a game of soccer. The inmates didn’t eat because the food was terrible. However, if visitors left them a little money, they could buy food at a little canteen. It was “pig’s slop”. He often got sick from the food. The inmates endured brutal physical abuse. The prison staff treated the inmates like “animals.” They used any pretext to hit the inmates on the hands, the feet, and the head; at times, they put them in an underground cell and chained them up. The trash littered in the underground cell attracted rats. He never saw a physician. The place was like a zoo when he tried to sleep. He and a friend had to take turns: one would sleep in the bed while the other slept on the floor. It was “a corral”. He took the first course at the Center’s school. He doesn’t remember what month it was when he was finally released. All this left him traumatized. He was in the fire on Friday, February 11, 2000 and was lucky not to have died. He suffered third-degree burns on his face, chest, back and nose. He doesn’t know what happened in the fire, because he passed out and regained consciousness only in the hospital. His sister did not recognize him because he was bandaged and unable to speak. He spent two weeks in the hospital and was then moved to the Tacumbú infirmary. They then ordered his release and he left. He needed treatment, but got none. Little by little he regained his speech. His family is poor and does not have means. The fire and the Center left him mentally scarred. He has no future and is in bad shape. 35 Cf. file of written statements supplied by the State, the Inter-American Commission and the alleged victims’ representatives, volume I, folios 264-289.