to the highly respectable opinion of the majority, I believe that the weighting of
values in this case is relatively simple.
IV.2.c. The weighting of values in the case
124. Focusing now on the problem posed specifically by the brief for which the
alleged victims were prosecuted, the first thing that is obvious is that it does not refer
to any common act of administration, such as a tender or the granting of some benefit
or preference to someone, but to the involvement of no less than the head of the
executive in an attempted coup that led to his kidnapping or deprivation of liberty by
the armed rebel police and during which there were fatalities.
125. This Court has argued finely and with notable and wise majority and dissenting
opinions in cases such as Mémoli v. Argentina 34, where the public interest in the
correct allocation of niches in a cemetery was discussed, but the mere factual
statement of the event that gave rise to the brief that concerns us now, shows that
we are facing an event and a context that cannot even remotely be compared with
the public relevance of that and other cases.
126. Regardless of whether or not an attempt was actually made against the life of
the constitutional president in those circumstances, there is no doubt that he was in
danger, since there were shots and deaths, in a confused situation in which no
sensible person would have considered himself safe and much less happy to have
taken part.
127. There is little doubt that it was an episode of very particular institutional
gravity and high risk to the personal integrity and life of the president and others,
since this was an armed uprising against the institutional stability of the country.
128. I note that, in the written account of the facts, the Commission
underestimated the episode as a self-proclaimed coup d'état, although in the footnote
it cannot deny that it was a true coup attempt, recognized as such by the Permanent
Council of the OAS. Although it is not recorded in that brief, at the time it also
motivated reports from the UN and concern from European and American
governments.
129. In his article, the journalist delegitimized the intervention of the executive to
stop the coup, accusing it of committing a crime that he described as a crime against
humanity, but on which he does not offer any evidence.
130. The current opposition leader was not a simple citizen, but the constitutional
and democratically elected President of the Republic, who personally intervened to
dismantle an attempted coup d'état, during which he was deprived of liberty for about
six hours and his own life was in danger, that is to say that the article delegitimized
as much as possible the conduct of the head of the executive power who had just
intervened to stop a coup d'état in defense of the constitutional continuity of the rule
of law.
131. The article not only charges him with a very specific crime, but even makes
him responsible for his kidnapping, since it also attributes reckless and careless
conduct.
132. It is worth insisting on this because it is central to the legal assessment of the
case: faced with an attempted coup d'etat and the kidnapping of the constitutional
34
I/A Court HR., Case of Mémoli v. Argentina, Judgment of August 22, 2013, Preliminary Exceptions
Merits, Reparations and Costs. Series C No. 265.
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