86
bullets extracted from the bodies or those found in pavilions 1A and
4B, and in the “roundabout” and “no man’s land” f the Criminal Center
Castro Castro; and recently on April 21, 2006 a judicial inspection was
carried out in the criminal center (supra para. 197(74)).
217. It is important to observe the differences that existed in the number of
casualties: 41 identified inmates and one police officer, as well as in the number of
inmates injured (approximately 190) in contrast to approximately 9 wounded police
officers (supra para. 197(40)). The State has not established the cause of death of
the police officer or of the injuries of the mentioned agents.
218. In this order of considerations it is necessary to make reference to that
established in the judgment issued on February 3, 2004 by the National Terrorism
Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice of Peru (supra para. 197(67), which
acquitted the four inmates accused of terrorism, breach to personal liberty, exposure
or abandonment of people in danger, illegal possession of weapons and explosive
material, and violence and resistance to authority “against the State and others”,
based on the facts occurred as a consequence of the development of the “Operative
Transfer 1”. In said judgment the National Terrorism Chamber established, inter alia,
that “on May 6, 1992 the inmates of pavilions One A and four B were not rebellious,
or carrying out acts of force or displays of violence whatsoever that would have
justified an intervention of the police with the characteristics of the operative
“Transfer 1”. The testimonial evidence offered before this Court also coincides in the
fact that there was no riot of the inmates when the State started the attack (supra
paras. 186 and 187).
219. Since this Court has considered as proven that there was no riot or any other
situation that merited the legitimate use of force at the beginning of the “Operative
Transfer 1”, it is unnecessary and irrelevant to consider the controversy regarding
the possession and use of weapons by inmates, matter regarding which there is no
conclusive evidence.
220. In the present case it is clear that the State’s actions in the so-called
“Operative Transfer 1”, which lasted four days, were widely diffused in the Peruvian
society, they were treated by the press and publicly by state authorities as state
actions tending to control a riot of inmates considered members of subversive
groups, and they also meant a public exposure regarding the magnitude of force that
the State was capable of using in the anti-subversive fight.
221. The events, carried out directly by state agents whose actions were protected
by their authority, directed there actions toward people imprisoned in a state
criminal center, that is, people regarding who the State had the responsibility to
adopt security and special protection measures, in its condition of direct protector of
their rights, since they were under its custody.125
222. Another important piece of information that this Tribunal will take into
account when analyzing the State’s international responsibility is that the referred
125
Cfr. Case of the Penitenciary Center Capital Regional Yare I and II, Provisional Measures. Ruling
of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights of March 30, 2006, Ninth whereas; Case of the Internado
Judicial de Monagas (La Pica), Provisional Measures. Ruling of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights
of February 9, 2006, Ninth whereas; and Case of the Cárcel de Urso Branco, Provisional Measures. Ruling
of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights of June 18, 2002, Eighth whereas.