28 a) Testimony of Fernando Vicente Canillas Vera, Deputy Minister from the Ministry of Justice and Labor In February 2000 I went to the Center when they informed me of the fire and alerted the firefighters, the prosecutor on duty and the National Police. The inmates had set the fire and “jammed” the cellblock lock; as a result there was a delay of around 15 minutes before the door could be opened and the inmates evacuated. Two inmates died in the fire at the Institute. According to their friends’ testimony, they were the ones who jammed the lock and burned the mattresses, which they put up against the only door in and out of the cellblock. The burned were taken immediately to the Medical Emergency Facility and to the Burns Institute. Another, less serious fire occurred in February 2001, caused by the opposition that the inmates sensed on the part of the communities where the opening of an educational center for the inmates was being negotiated. In July 2001, yet another fire occurred. The witness was at the Center when the fire broke out, because the prison guards were complaining that the inmates were not obeying their orders, creating a disorderly environment. This situation came to a climax when one of the youths supposedly attacked one of the guards and the latter shot him in the stomach. The inmate was taken immediately to the Medical Emergency Facility. It was at that point that the inmates started a fire of enormous proportions, which left the Center completely dysfunctional and unsafe for confinement purposes. It was for that reason that the inmates were transferred to various regional prisons. The measures that the Ministry of Justice took in the wake of the fire were as follows: immediate medical attention for any inmate who suffered any type of burn; the outfitting of three pharmacies to dispense the needed medications; skin grafts in some cases; psychological care for the victims and their families; and assistance for burial of the deceased. The transfer of the inmates after the third fire was endorsed by Judge Ana María Llanes; who issued a court order that transferred the minors to various prisons. Since the Itauguá Educational Center was already operating at peak capacity, it would have been counterproductive to send these inmates there. The police and the prison guards were never ordered to take any repressive measures. As Deputy Minister, the witness never ordered nor gave his consent to the practice of torture or other forms of inhumane treatment at the Center. If there were complaints, administrative preliminaries were ordered to investigate the facts. The witness himself even filed a complaint against two guards for alleged acts of torture. He never received any written complaint from any nongovernmental organization claiming inhumane treatment or torture at the Center. b) Testimony of Teófilo Báez Zacarías, guard at the Center The witness is a prison official and was a prison guard at the Center when it operated out of Emboscada prison; later, when the Center moved to Asunción, he worked there until October 1999. Therefore, he did not witness any of the fires because he was assigned elsewhere.