-7- Manuel Cepeda Vargas, taking into account that the State failed to protect and guarantee the Senator’s exercise of freedom of expression, because he was arbitrarily prevented from expressing his thoughts by being killed. • For violation of the political rights embodied in Article 23 of the Convention, in relation to Article 1(1) thereof, of Manuel Cepeda Vargas who, at the time of his murder, was a Senator of the Republic, and an active member of a political party that opposed the Government’s policies, as a result of which he received death threats that he had reported to the public authorities. • Partially, for violation of the rights to judicial guarantees and judicial protection (Articles 8 and 25 of the American Convention) in relation to Article 1(1) of this instrument; essentially, because the investigation exceeded a reasonable time and, to date, those who masterminded Manuel Cepeda’s death have not been identified. 14. During the pubic hearing before this Court, the State reiterated the abovementioned acknowledgement, extended it to acknowledge Claudia Girón as a victim of the violation of the right to personal integrity and a beneficiary of measures of reparation in the instant case (infra paras. 180 and 212) and partly modified its position as regards the pertinence of alluding to the context in which the facts occurred.12 Thus, on behalf of the State, and with the Colombian delegation standing to attention, its Agent addressed the next of kin of Senator Cepeda Vargas who were present and, through them, those who were not there, to apologize for the facts that had occurred. He said: “[t]he State regrets profoundly the crime of which your father, brother, companion and father-in-law was a victim, [and] asks you to accept its apology for having violated his rights to life, personal integrity, honor and dignity and freedom of expression and his political rights, owing to acts of State agents and to omission by failing to grant him sufficient protection. The Colombian State considers inacceptable that the investigation conducted by the justice system has lasted more than a reasonable time and that the truth is still not known about the precise circumstances and the masterminds who took part in the indefensible facts. The State also apologizes for the direct violation of your personal integrity, because the death of a beloved family member caused you profound and irremediable suffering.” In addition, he indicated that “the acknowledgement of responsibility […] is the result of a profound self-examination by each institution involved in the errors that contributed to the violation of the rights of the honorable Senator Manuel Cepeda Vargas and to the fact that the full application of justice to all those responsible has not been achieved. […] It is also the acknowledgement that the State’s obligation was to avoid the occurrence of the facts that today we are reproaching, and is now to prevent any future repetition of abhorrent crimes such as the one that ended Senator Cepeda’s life.” 15. Regarding this declaration by the State, during the hearing, Iván Cepeda, speaking on behalf of the next of kin, expressed “their gratitude for this moment […] accorded by the State,” and indicated that, “after so many years of hearing the most senior State officials using denigrating and defamatory words against [his] father and against the members of the Patriotic Union, this is a significant moment.” In addition, he asked the State that “this acknowledgement be made in Colombia, […] by the President of the Republic, before the two Chambers of Congress and in a broadcast on 12 Press communiqué CIDH_CP-03/10 of January 27, 2010, available at: http://corteidh.or.cr/docs/ comunicados/ cp_03_10.pdf