investigation, including the victims or their representatives, witnesses and agents of justice,
have the appropriate guarantees for their safety.228
144. In keeping with its consistent case law,229 the Court finds that the State must ensure that the
victims or their next of kin have full access and capacity to act at all stages of the investigation and
prosecution of those responsible, pursuant to domestic law and the provisions of the American
Convention. In addition, the results of the corresponding proceedings must be published so that
Guatemalan society are informed about the facts that are the subject of this case, and also those
responsible.230
c.2
Identification and return of the remains of the victims killed during the
massacre and investigation of the fate or whereabouts of the persons disappeared or
their remains
145. The Commission asked the Court to order the State to identify and return the remains of all
those who died in the massacre and investigate the fate or whereabouts of the three forcibly
disappeared persons and of the eight individuals whose whereabouts have not been established since
the massacre.
146. The representatives asked the Court to order the State to conduct the search, localization,
identification and return of the remains of those killed during the massacre, as well as the search
and localization of the fourteen forcibly disappeared victims in this case, whose whereabouts remain
unknown.
147. In its brief with final arguments, the State indicated that it had made an “effort” to locate the
remains of the victims of the events of April 28 and 29, 1982.
148. The Court considers that the State, in addition to the investigations and criminal proceedings
underway, must immediately draw up a detailed organizational plan, defining specific objectives and
goals, and also defining periodic evaluation procedures, for the search for the inhabitants of the Los
Josefinos who were forcibly disappeared, as well as for the localization, exhumation and identification
of those presumably executed and determination of the cause of death. These people are identified
in Annexes I and II of this judgment.
149. In this plan, the State must establish the maximum use of its appropriate scientific and
technical human resources. In this regard, the State must:
a) Within six months of notification of this judgment, present the Court with a timetable with specific
short- and medium-term goals, including an estimate of the necessary administrative and
budgetary arrangements, and an indication of the state authorities or instances that will intervene
in the search, exhumation and identification of the disappeared and of those presumably executed,
as applicable, the competence of each one, and which authorities or instances will be in charge of
coordination;
Cf. Order on monitoring compliance with judgment of 12 Guatemalan cases, considering paragraph 167; Case of the
Las Dos Erres Massacre v. Guatemala, supra, para. 233; Case of the Río Negro Massacres v. Guatemala, supra, para. 257;
Case of Gudiel Álvarez et al. ("Diario Militar") v. Guatemala, supra, para. 327; Case of García and family members v.
Guatemala, supra, para. 196, and Case of the Human Rights Defender et al. v. Guatemala, para. 252.
228
Cf. Case of El Caracazo v. Venezuela. Reparations and costs. Judgment of August 29, 2002. Series C No. 95, para.
118, and Case of Pacheco Teruel et al. v. Honduras, supra, para. 130.
229
Cf. Case of El Caracazo v. Venezuela. Reparations and costs, supra, para. 118, and Case of Garzón Guzmán et al. v.
Ecuador, supra, para. 286.
230
44