coexist and be present in any situation in which the Court’s intervention is requested.4
Similarly, this Court recalls that the American Convention requests that for the adoption
of provisional measures, the case must involve “extreme” gravity, that is, the most
intense or highest level of gravity. The urgency implies that the risk or threat must be
imminent, which also assumes that the response to remedy it must be immediate.
Finally, with regard to damage, there must exist a reasonable probability that damage
will occur and this may not refer to legal assets or interests that may be reparable.5 To
this end, it is necessary to establish the facts that prima facie would seem to meet the
requirements established in Article 63 of the Convention.6
12.
According to the documentation presented by the Inter-American Commission,
Mrs. Marianela Sánchez Ortiz acts as Legal Coordinator of the Venezuelan Prisons
Observatory and she has appeared in the media as a representative of this organization,
as well as together with Mr. Humberto Prado, General Coordinator of the Venezuelan
Prisons Observatory and beneficiary of these provisional measures. In particular, in view
of the fact that this organization is engaged in the promotion and observation of respect
for the human rights of detainees in Venezuela, Marianela Sánchez has rendered
statements regarding the state of prisons in this country on several occasions, as well as
the matter of the detention centers subject to provisional measures granted by this
Court. Moreover, Marianela Sánchez Ortiz was the main spokeswoman for this nongovernmental organization during the prison crisis at "La Planta" prison that took place
in the month of May of this year, for which she conducted the investigation and
denounced the structural causes that would have provoked the crisis (supra considering
paragraph 6(b)). In this regard, the Court notes that on May 31 of this year, it received,
in the processing of these provisional measures, information and press releases by Mr.
Humberto Prado regarding the “transfers made in relation to the conflict at Casa de
Reeducación y Trabajo Artesanal El Paraíso known as “La Planta” that took place from
last Friday April 27 [2012] to May 18 when said facility was closed down”, which
indicated that inmates had been sent to “centers that are subjected to provisional
measures ordered by the Court, such as: Capital El Rodeo I Judicial Confinement Center;
Yare I and Yare II Capital Region Penitentiary Center; Aragua Detention Center
(“Tocoron Prison”).” To this end, given that those inmates were relocated to prison
centers that are subject to this matter, the Court considers that the activities that
Marianela Sánchez Ortiz has carried out so far in the framework of the documentation of
aforementioned prison crisis are related to these provisional measures.
In this regard, the information recently submitted by the Inter-American
Commission specifically refers to alleged facts that constitute threats or intimidating acts
against the life and personal integrity of Marianela Sánchez Ortiz, her husband and her
children, which may be quantified as severe. In this respect, the Court recalls that, in
matters similar to the instant case, the extreme seriousness of the threat should be
13.
4
Cf. Case of Carpio Nicolle. Provisional Measures with regard to Guatemala. Order of the InterAmerican Court of Human Rights of July 6, 2009, fourteenth considering paragraph, and Case of the 19
Tradesmen; twenty-second considering paragraph.
5
Cf. Monagas Judicial Confinement Center (���La Pica”), Yare I and Yare II Capital Region Penitentiary
Center (Yare Prison), Penitentiary Center of the Central Occidental Region (Uribana Prison) and El Rodeo I and
El Rodeo II Capital Judicial Confinement Center. Provisional Measures with regard to Venezuela. Order of the
Inter-American Court of Human Rights of November 24, 2009, third considering paragraph, and Matter of
Martinez Martinez et al., sixth considering paragraph.
6
Cf. Case of the 19 Tradesmen. Provisional Measures with regard to Colombia. Order of the InterAmerican Court of Human Rights of July 8, 2009, seventieth considering paragraph, and Matter of Pérez Torres
et al. (“Cotton Field”). Provisional Measures with regard to Mexico. Order of the Inter-American Court of
Human Rights of June 30, 2011, eleventh considering paragraph.
8