27 practice the Catholic religion. Inmates were not allowed to use the telephone; they could only send letters. There was no physician, no dentist, no eye doctor and no psychiatrist. There was no infirmary, either. If the inmates “didn’t recover, they died.” If the guards discovered that inmates had knives, those inmates were sent to Emboscada. At the time of the February 11, 2000 fire, a guard had struck an inmate and the others became furious. They said they were going to burn the mattresses to attract the media. His friends were hungry and were being mistreated. The inmates decided to light the fire because “some had been there for eight years, ten years and they wanted out. They were bored.” He was asleep when the fire broke out. When he woke up he opened the window so that everyone could breathe. He was burned everywhere: on the arms, the chest and the back. The smell made him sick, and he spit up blood and ashes. They couldn’t get out because there was something sharp inside the lock. They begged for help and the guards said “pe manomba” which in Guaraní means “You can all die.” It was 15 minutes before the inmates were able to open the cellblock door. At the hospital, about a half hour passed before anyone examined him. He was in the hospital for seven months; two months of that time he was in a coma. Upon his release from the hospital he was brought home and recovered there. Later, the authorities had him returned to the Center, as they did not want to give him his freedom. He suffered horribly. He spent a year and six months under house arrest. By the time they convicted him he was in Itauguá. The place is better, but the food is terrible and they hit the inmates there as well. He wants to go to school and doesn’t want anything to happen to his family. Neither the Center nor Itauguá changed him for the better. He asked the Court for help to move forward with his life and to go to school. He would like to be a doctor, but does not have funds to go to school. He also asked for help for his home, since the family was evicted. Finally, he asked for help to regain the use of his arm. 73. On March 31, 2004, the State sent the sworn statements given at the Office of the Chief Government Notary of the Republic of Paraguay by witnesses Fernando Vicente Canillas Vera, Teresa de Jesús Almirón Fernández, Michael Sean O’Loingsigh, Teófilo Báez Zacarías, Estanislao Balbuena Jara, Gloria Carolina Noemí Nicora de Martínez, Edgar Eduardo Giménez Gamarra, Carolina Isabel Laspina de Vera, Mirtha Isabel Herrera Fleitas, Inés Ramona Bogarín Peralta, Ana María de Jesús Llanes Ferreira, María Elizabeth Flores Negri, Maureen Antoinette Herman, Teresa Alcaraz de Mencia, María Vilma Talavera de Bogado, Carlos Alberto Torres Alújas, Christian Raphael Rojas Salinas, Ciriaco Rubén Valdéz Cáceres and Miguel Angel Insaurralde Coeffier, and the expert opinions of Messrs. Jorge Rolón Luna and Pedro Juan Mayor Martínez (supra para. 45), also given at the Office of the Chief Government Notary of the Republic of Paraguay, in response to the President’s March 2, 2004 order (supra para. 42).36 The Court will now summarize the relevant parts of those statements. 36 Cf. file of written statements supplied by the State, the Inter-American Commission and the alleged victims’ representatives, volume I, folios 1-176.