Judgment of 11.19.2004).12 In effect, in my Concurring Opinion in the case of the Mapiripán Massacre, I allowed myself to consider that “One does not combat terror with terror, but rather within the framework of the Law. Those who resort to the use of brute force brutalize themselves, creating a spiral of widespread violence that ends up turning the innocent, including children, into victims. (...) Brute force generates brute force, and at the end, what do we have? Nothing, general devastation, the breakdown of the social fabric, vengeance, torture, and summary executions and other grave violations of International Humanitarian Law and International Human Rights Law, the transformation of human beings into mere instruments of confrontation and destruction –opening wounds that will require generations to heal." (paras. 46-47). 26. And, in the same Concurring Opinion in the case of the Mapiripán Massacre, I added: As I noted in my Separate Opinion in the case of the Plan de Sánchez Massacre (reparations, Judgment of 19.11.2004), "the ancient Greek were already aware of the devastating effects of the use of brute force and of war, both on the victors and on the vanquished, revealing the great evil of substituting ends with means” (para. 29); since the times of Homers Iliad to the present day, all those in favor of brute force have become cogs in the killing machine. As in Homers Iliad, “there are neither victors nor vanquished, they are all taken over by force, possessed by war, degraded by the devastation of brutality and massacres” (para. 30), perpetuating themselves, multiplying their innocent victims. Long after Homer, in the 3d century of our age, Plotinus (204270), in his Enneads, argued that the fate of human beings cannot be left to chance, to fortune, because human beings are gifted with reason, which must prevail13 under all circumstances, at it is not just any type of reason, but a noble one, above the natural state, and which guides everyone.14 In our somber times, we must remember Plotinus’ enduring lesson, that of one who sought the “liberation” or “emancipation” of the soul15 so much." (paras. 48-49). V. The Importance of the Oral Procedure and the Need to Hold Public Hearings. 27. I allow myself, in the present Concurring Opinion, to spread upon the record the importance I attribute to the oral proceedings before the Court and the need – . The texts of both Concurring Opinions are reproduced in: A.A. Cançado Trindade, Derecho Internacional de los Derechos Humanos - Esencia y Trascendencia (Votos en la Corte Interamericana de Derechos Humanos, 1991-2006), México, Edit. Porrúa/Universidad Iberoamericana, 2007, pp. 595-613 and 457-465. 12 . Plotinus, The Enneads, London, Penguin, 1991 [reed.], p. 522. . Ibid., p. 33. . Cf. ibid., pages 51 and 115. 13 14 15