103
p)
in its final written arguments it states that “[i]n virtue of […] evidence
presented to the process in a supervening manner, […] it considers that the
suffering experimented by said next of kin due to the lack of information, as
well as the helplessness and anguish endured for years due to the inactivity of
state authorities in elucidating the facts and punishing those responsible for
the same, are reasons for which the victims’ next of kin must be considered
victims of cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatments in the terms of Article 5
of the Convention, in relation to the general obligation of respect and
guarantee established in the same treaty.”
Arguments of the common intervener
260. The common intervener argued the violation of Article 5 of the American
Convention. It also argued the violation of Articles 1, 6, 7, 8, and 9 of the InterAmerican Convention to Prevent, Punish, and Eradicate Violence against Women,
appreciations that are not found in the application presented by the Inter-American
Commission. The intervener argued, in synthesis, the following:
“Hermeneutics of Humanitarian law and the right to human rights”
a)
“the asphyxia, deprivation of water and food, the forced overcrowding,
the severe mental suffering inflicted by the attack and the specific weapons
chosen for it constitute a flagrant violation of the prohibition against torture;”
b)
“the attack was designed as a reproduction of hell.” This attack
included the cutting off of electricity, bombings, and firebombs that produced
an orange light, in an environment of complete darkness and of screaming
voices. This was “intentionally planned” so that it would remain in the
survivor’s neurons;
“Solitary confinement as a form of torture”
c)
the conditions of solitary confinement applied at the prisons of Santa
Mónica, Castro Castro and Cachiche to the survivors of the “operative”,
included total isolation from the exterior world, “without access to radios,
newspapers, television, books, work or study activities, 24 hours per day, in
cells of 2 by 2 meters, with at least another 2 people, with toilet included,
without an adequate access to running water, any type of light, with a
prohibition to talk among themselves, without bathroom materials, warm
clothes, or medical attention.” These conditions lasted more than 5 months
and constituted torture for the inmates, who on many occasions “went crazy”
as a result of said conditions;
d)
the prisoners of Santa Mónica did not see their next of kin until
September 1992, or the light of day until months after the massacre, which
led them to lose pigmentation in their faces and dizziness. Besides, they
remained with the same bloody clothes of the massacre, without even being
able to change her underwear or obtain a coat for the cold;