on the basis that it was not incumbent on a human rights court, such as this one, to make a
determination of this type.
234. The Court has established in this Judgment that it does not have competence to rule
on many of the facts and human rights violations alleged by the Commission and the
representatives in this case (supra Chapters IV and V). Thus, the Court does not have the
pertinent factual and legal elements to make a determination such as the one requested by
the Commission and the representatives, should it be admissible.
B.9.
Conclusions
235. This Court finds that, under the American Convention, in force at the time of the
massacres, the State had the obligation to investigate all the facts with due diligence, an
obligation that was still pending when it recognized the Court’s contentious jurisdiction on
March 9, 1987. The said obligation was reaffirmed by the State by its ratification of the
Convention against Torture, the Convention of Belém do Pará, and the Convention on
Forced Disappearance (supra paras. 16). Consequently, the State should have ensured
compliance with them as of their ratification.
236. This Court finds that the investigation into the facts of the massacres committed
against the Río Negro Community has not been assumed by the State as its inherent
obligation, and has not been directed at the investigation, pursuit, capture, prosecution and
eventual punishment of those responsible, including both perpetrators and masterminds, in
a way that ensured the full and exhaustive examination of the multiple violations
perpetrated against the members of the Río Negro community within the specific context in
which the facts of the instant case occurred. Furthermore, the investigation has not been
designed to locate all the disappeared victims, or to find and to identify the remains that
have been found in the various exhumations performed. In sum, the facts of this case
remain in impunity. In this regard, this Court has indicated that its case law regarding the
merits of cases and monitoring compliance with the judgments that are delivered “reveals
that Guatemala has a grave problem with regard to the impunity that prevails in the
country, specifically in relation to the systematic human rights violations that took place
during the armed conflict.”312
237. Based on the foregoing considerations, as well as on the body of evidence in the
instant case and the State's partial acknowledgement of international responsibility, this
Court finds that Guatemala is responsible for the violation of the rights recognized in Articles
8(1) and 25(1) of the American Convention, in relation to Article 1(1) thereof, and also for
non-compliance with the obligations established in Articles 1, 6, and 8 of the Convention
Against Torture; Article I(b) of the Inter-American Convention on the Forced Disappearance
of Personas, and Article 7(b) of the Convention of Belém do Pará, to the detriment of the
victims of this case, in their respective circumstances.
312
Case of Bámaca Velásquez v. Guatemala. Monitoring compliance with judgment. Order of the InterAmerican Court of Human Rights of January 27, 2009, para. 25; Case of Molina Theissen v. Guatemala. Monitoring
compliance with judgment. Order of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights of November 16, 2009, para. 16.
The Court referred to the situation of impunity that prevails in the cases of Myrna Mack Chang, Tiu Tojín, Carpio
Nicolle et al., Bámaca Velásquez, Molina Theissen, and the “Street Children” (Villagrán Morales et al.), all against
Guatemala.
83
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