82
or persons that acted under its acquiescence. In its final report of 2003 the CVR
dedicated a section to the events occurred in the Miguel Castro Castro Prison titled
“Extrajudicial killings in the criminal center of Canto Grande (1992).” In what refers
to the context present in May 1992, that stated by the CVR is illustrative in the sense
that as of the coup d’état of April 5, 1992, and with the objective of fighting
subversive and terrorist groups, the State implemented in the prisons practices that
were not compatible with the effective protection of the right to life and other rights,
such as extrajudicial killings and cruel and inhuman treatments, as well as the
“disproportionate use of strength in critical circumstances.” Regarding a more
general context CVR also stated that
as of the coup d’état of April 5, 1992 a regimen de facto that suspended the democratic
institutionality of the country through an open intervention in the Judicial Power, in the
Constitutional Court, in the Public Prosecutors’ Office, and in other constitutional bodies
was established. The action of governing was done through decree through the so-called
“Government of Emergency and National Reconstruction”, which concentrated for a brief
period of time the State’s executive and legislative functions, neutralizing in the practice
political and judicial control over its actions.
206. It is also necessary to point out that in the mentioned final report of the CVR
it was analyzed that, within this context of violations to human rights during the
internal conflict, women were affected by the violence differently than men. In its
report the CVR included a specific chapter on sexual violence against women and it
also referred to the situation lived by the mothers detained in penitentiaries.
Likewise, in said report it concluded that during the internal conflict and based on it,
state agents were responsible for approximately 83% of the cases of sexual
violations against women.
207. Similarly, another State act of acknowledgment of the gross breaches to
human rights that occurred in the period between May 1980 and November 2000
was the enactment by the Peruvian Congress of Law No. 28592 of July 20, 2005,
which “seeks to establish the Legal Framework of the Comprehensive Plan for
Reparations –PIR for the victims of the violence occurred during [said] period,” in
order to follow the recommendations of the CVR.
208. It is also convenient to point out that the Ombudsman of the People of Peru
has referred in several reports to said context, and he has followed up on the
process of reparation of the victims of the violence of said time and, specifically, he
has gone on record regarding the form in which the accusations for said violations to
human rights have been investigated.123
209. The domestic investigation that should have been carried out regarding the
facts of this case was affected by the prevailing situation of impunity in the Peru of
that time of gross breaches to human rights. Recently, thirteen years after those
events occurred, on June 16, 2005 a court opened a criminal proceeding
corresponding to the investigation of the events that occurred in the Criminal Center
Castro Castro between the 6 and 9 days of May 1992, aspects that will be analyzed
in the chapter on the alleged violation to Articles 8 and 25 of the Convention (infra
paras. 373 through 408). Almost three months ago it was ordered that the
preliminary proceedings commence in an ordinary criminal proceeding against
123
Cfr. Ombudsman Report Nº 97, “Two years after the Commission for Truth and Reconciliation”,
September 2005.