23.
The representatives have expressed their willingness to collaborate with the State so
that it may comply with its obligation to guarantee decent living conditions for all those
displaced as a result of the Ituango massacres by adopting mechanisms aimed at their
social and economic rehabilitation. These include support for plans for production projects,
support for micro-enterprises, subsidies for the purchase of housing and/or land, and
subsidies and special conditions for education. However, they indicated that the State had
insisted in indicating that, owing to the representatives or the victims, it had not been able
to meet its obligations, because it had been unable to identify the beneficiaries. As a result
of the failure to comply with this measure of reparation, the representatives determined
that it was necessary to file an application for amparo before the Criminal Chamber of the
Superior Court of the Judicial District of Antioquia against the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the
Presidential Social Action Agency, against the Ministry of the Environment, Housing and
Territorial Development, and against the Ministry of Agriculture, in order to protect the right
to a decent life and to justice. In first instance, the Criminal Chamber of the Superior Court
of Antioquia rejected the objections filed by the State19 and ordered the protection of the
fundamental rights to a decent life and to justice of the displaced persons listed in Annex 1
to the Judgment of the Court, from the municipality of Ituango, owing to the events that
occurred in the villages of La Granja and El Aro in 1996 and 1997, respectively. The
Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice confirmed all aspects of the judgment of
the Superior Court of Antioquia. The Constitutional Court chose to review the ruling on
protection and, on May 11, 2010, confirmed partially the judgments in first and second
instance, by ordering the protection of the violated rights to a decent life and to justice, and
annulling the aspect relating to the need to register the victims in the RUPD as a mechanism
to guarantee them the reparation ordered by the Court. The representatives argued that the
State had not complied with what the Inter-American Court had ordered as regards
measures for the socio-economic rehabilitation of those displaced, or with the measures
ordered by the Constitutional Court in relation to compliance with the international
Judgment.
24.
The Commission has expressed its concern because the State has alleged
requirements under domestic law to postpone compliance with its international obligation;
in particular, because the victims have merely been incorporated into the RUPD and
measures have been taken to comply with a domestic rulings, which reveals that the State
had not taken measures to comply with what the Court ordered, but appeared to be
subordinating its obligations to the exhaustion of additional domestic proceedings filed by
the representatives. In addition, it considered it essential that the State identify and provide
details of the service that the beneficiaries are actually receiving.
25.
In its last report, the State indicated that the safety situation in the area had
improved, ostensibly due to the permanent military operations and actions of the National
Army. This is corroborated by the office of the Delegate Ombudsman for Prevention of the
Risk of Human Rights Violations, which did not include these areas in the June 2012 list
concerning early warning systems. In addition, the State presented information on a plan to
provide attention to the displaced population that was the subject of operative paragraph 17
19
The representatives reported that the State had contested the ruling and had insisted that the
representatives did not have legal standing; that the Judge of the amparo action was not empowered to rule on
aspects related to a judgment of the Inter-American Court, and that, in the case of those displaced, the
requirements established by constitutional case law in order to apply for amparo had not been complied with. The
Social Action Agency argued that, even though the Constitutional Court had reiterated that the forced displacement
was a de facto situation that did not require recognition by any authority, the legislator had imposed this as a
requirement to accede to the benefits of registration on the Unified Registry of Displaced Population (RUPD), so
that it was possible “to establish the truth” of the facts recounted.
10