6 21. Although no proof of the expenses incurred has been presented, the Court considers it fair to grant an indemnity of US$2,000.00 to each of the families of the deceased victims and to each of the survivors, as compensation for the expenses they incurred in their various representations to the national authorities. VII 22. In arriving at an appropriate amount for the remainder of the material damages suffered by the victims, the Commission bore in mind the minimum rural wage on the date on which the events occurred (October 1988), incorporating the adjustments for general wage increases during the period, as well as the corresponding inflation indexing. Life expectancy is estimated at 69 years. The Commission arrived at a figure of approximately US$5,500.00 for each victim and US$2,800.00 for the two survivors. 23. The State, for its part, declared in its brief of January 2, 1996 that there was no evidence to support the claim of each of the persons proposed as successors-in-title, except for the victims themselves, and certainly not for the amount sought for each of them. [It added that the amounts requested] were out of all proportion to the actual living conditions of the victims and their families, to the conditions prevailing in their geographic location, and to the general economic and social conditions in the Republic of Venezuela. 24. At the public hearing on January 27, 1996, the Delegate of the Commission said that “[w]e consider the amount we are seeking, approximately $5,000.00 for each of the victims or their next of kin, to be a reasonable sum for the time that has elapsed.” At the same hearing, one of the victims' representatives said that the figures arrived at by the Commission were very modest, that a conservative estimate had been made of the victims' earning capacity, and that an error had also been made in the calculation, which was why the actuarial study had been requested. 25. On April 29, 1996 the President requested the Commission to clarify some data on the subject. This information was furnished by way of briefs submitted on May 13 and 29, 1996. Moreover, in the first of the briefs, the Commission also indicated that “a factual error had been made in calculating the victims' loss of earnings” and changed the requested amount to a figure ranging between US$67,000.00 and US$197,000.00 for each of the victims, and approximately US$5,000.00 for each of the survivors. The Commission also stated that the basic rural wage for the month of October 1988 was “1,700 Bolívares, [and that] the exchange rate at that time was 37.14 Bs/US$.” 26. By communication of June 14, 1996, the Government presented its observations on the Commission's aforementioned briefs of May 13 and 29, and alleged that it was not a simple factual error, but a new calculation that exceeded by more than 1,000 percent the calculations presented at the relevant stage of the proceedings by the victims’ attorneys themselves and supported by the Delegates of the Commission, [and that the Government had in good faith] accepted the amount formally requested for loss of earnings at the hearing held on last January 27. [Only months later], the calculations [were] being radically altered ... and astronomical figures [were] now being proposed.