21 VI VIOLATION OF ARTICLE 732 (RIGHT TO PERSONAL LIBERTY) OF THE AMERICAN CONVENTION, IN 33 34 OF THE INTER- AMERICAN RELATION TO ARTICLE 1(1) THEREOF , TOGETHER WITH ARTICLE I CONVENTION ON FORCED DISAPPEARANCE OF PERSONS, IN RELATION TO ARTICLE II THEREOF35 82. Before presenting the arguments of the parties relating to the alleged forced disappearance of Heliodoro Portugal which, according to the Commission and the representatives, constitutes a violation of Articles 4, 5 and 7 of the American Convention, the Court considers it pertinent to summarize the facts in order to establish whether they resulted in the State’s international responsibility. To make the analysis of this case more comprehensible, the facts will be divided into the following time periods: (i) from 1970 to 1989; (ii) from 1990 to 1999, and (iii) from 1999 to the present. 83. As indicated in the chapter on preliminary objections (supra para. 27), the Court reiterates that it has competence over those facts that took place after May 9, 1990, or that constitute continuing violations that began before this date and persisted thereafter. Notwithstanding the above, the Court will refer to other facts that occurred in the period from 1970 to 1989 with the sole purpose of providing a context for the examination of the alleged violations. To this end, the Court will refer to the contents of the Final Report of the Panama Truth Commission of Panama of April 18, 2002,36 and also to decisions of the 32 In this regard, Article 7 establishes that: 1. Every person has the right to personal liberty and security. 2. No one shall be deprived of his physical liberty except for the reasons and under the conditions established beforehand by the constitution of the State Party concerned or by a law established pursuant thereto. 3. 33 No one shall be subject to arbitrary arrest or imprisonment. In this regard, Article 1(1) of the Convention stipulates: The States Parties to this Convention undertake to respect the rights and freedoms recognized herein and to ensure to all persons subject to their jurisdiction the free and full exercise of those rights and freedoms, without any discrimination for reasons of race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, economic status, birth, or any other social condition. […] 34 Article I of the Convention on Forced Disappearance establishes: The States Parties to this Convention undertake: (a) Not to practice, permit, or tolerate the forced disappearance of persons, even in states of emergency or suspension of individual guarantees; (b) To punish within their jurisdictions, those persons who commit or attempt to commit the crime of forced disappearance of persons and their accomplices and accessories; (c) To cooperate with one another in helping to prevent, punish, and eliminate the forced disappearance of persons, and (d) To take legislative, administrative, judicial, and any other measures necessary to comply with the commitments undertaken in this Convention. 35 Article II of the Convention against Torture establishes that: For the purposes of this Convention, forced disappearance is considered to be the act of depriving a person or persons of his or their freedom, in whatever way, perpetrated by agents of the state or by persons or groups of persons acting with the authorization, support, or acquiescence of the state, followed by an absence of information or a refusal to acknowledge that deprivation of freedom or to give information on the whereabouts of that person, thereby impeding his or her recourse to the applicable legal remedies and procedural guarantees. 36 This Commission was created by Executive Decree No. 2 of January 18, 2001, with the purpose of “contributing to clarify the truth about the violations of fundamental human rights committed […] during the military regime that governed the Republic of Panama after 1968.” The Commission was composed of commissioners Alberto Almanza (President), Juan Antonio Tejada Mora, Osvaldo Velásquez, Bishop Julio Murray, and Fernando Berguido. Executive Decree No. 2 of January 18, 2001 (file of appendixes to the brief with pleas and