22
refunding the transaction tax” it offered, “to take the necessary steps before the
competent instances to ensure that people receive the refund.” Subsequently, the
State, “considering the victims’ representatives indicated that the payment of the
compensations had been completed, […] it request[ed] the Tribunal to declare
compliance with operative paragraph thirteen of the [J]udgment”.
82.
In its observations of May 22, 2009 and January 4, 2010 (supra Having Seen
11), the representatives acknowledged that “the State had paid the compensation
ordered by the Court" and made no reference to the result of possible actions taken to
obtain the refund for money deducted as tax (supra Considering Clause 81).
Furthermore, the representatives forwarded a brief in which some next-of-kin
expressed, inter alia, their disagreement with the response given by the authorities of
the Interior and Justice Ministry regarding the procedure they should follow in order to
be paid the compensation if one of the relatives, declared to be entitled to compensation
in the Judgment, were to die (supra Having Seen 11). In addition, some next-of-kin of
one of the deceased victims (supra Having Seen 7) complained about the payments
made by the State, indicating that they were less than they should have been.
83.
The Commission observed, inter alia, that it "value[d] the information regarding
the payments and the measures to refund the tax collected" and noted that "[t]he
representatives repeated that they confirmed the payments were made."
84.
In addition to the foregoing, the representatives brought some matters before
the Court related to the State’s decision to pay the compensations directly to the
beneficiaries and not through their representatives, which they consider "to affect the
victims and their next-of-kin inasmuch as such act disregards the legal representation
that the Colectivo de Abogados José Alvear Restrepo [José Alvear Restrepo Legal
Cooperative] provides on their behalf” (supra Having Seen 4). The State and the
Commission presented observations on this matter (supra Having Seen 5). The Court
and its Presidency ruled on said arguments by means of notes of March 28 and May 16,
2008 (supra Having Seen 6).27 Likewise, the Court refers to its decision in relation to the
alleged problems between some victims and the representatives regarding a percentage
charged by the representatives as a fee (supra Having Seen clauses 7 and 8).28
85.
This Court has verified that, as informed by the State, by means of Resolutions
N° 2402, N° 2444 and N° 3114 issued by the Ministry of Interior and Justice on August
25 and 28 and October 28, 2008, compensation payments for pecuniary and nonpecuniary damage were ordered, as well as the reimbursement of legal costs and
27
Following the instructions of the Presidency of the Tribunal, it was communicated to the parties that,
according to the provisions of paragraph 308 of the Judgment, "it [did] not note arbitrary conduct by State
when it intends to pay the compensations ordered by means of the deposit in said bank accounts of the
beneficiaries of the reparations”. Furthermore, it indicated that “it did not observe an impairment of the right
of the beneficiaries to appoint legal representatives, in the understanding that the representatives c[ould] act
on their behalf at the domestic level and before this Court in the event the payments to be made by the State
[were] contrary to what was stipulated in the [...] Judgment."
The Tribunal decided that “if the victims or their next-of-kin confer a specific power-of-attorney to a
third party to receive the payments ordered in the […] Judgment, after notice thereof, which shall have to
comply with the legal requirements established by the domestic legislation, the payment ordered in paragraph
308 of the Judgment [could] be made through an agent.”
28
By means of note of the Secretariat, it was indicated that "the Inter-American Court ha[d]
previously mentioned that ”it is not competent to rule on the agreements the victims may enter into with
their representatives in relation to professional fees” and that “any controversy that may arise for these
facts shall be settled at the domestic level before the competent local authorities.”