34
or by persons or groups of persons acting with the authorization, support, or acquiescence of the State, followed
by an absence of information or a refusal to acknowledge that deprivation of freedom or to give information on
the whereabouts of that person, thereby impeding his or her recourse to the applicable legal remedies and
procedural guarantees.”
125
179.
The Inter-American Commission,
the Peruvian Truth and Reconciliation Commission
126
(hereinafter “CVR”),
and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights have all established that at the time of the
127
events in Peru there was a pattern of extrajudicial executions, forced disappearances, and massacres attributed
to agents of the State and groups linked to the security agencies.
180.
As regards the context in which the events took place, the report of the Truth and Reconciliation
Commission finds that State agents involved in the counter-subversive effort adopted the practice of forced
disappearance as a means to combat subversion, as it had a deterrent effect on militants, potential members, or
persons who sympathized with subversive organizations. “The intimidatory effect and message that family or
community members could suffer the same violation could serve as a mechanism to discourage the population
128
from continuing to sympathize with, tolerate, or coexist in harmony with subversive groups.”
181.
The Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission also mentions that, as there was greater
impunity where the more isolated social groups were concerned (rural areas, peasants, Quechua speakers,
illiterate people, women, etc.), victims of forced disappearance were immediately executed based on the
assumption that these social groups would have more limited access to justice, greater fear of reporting the deeds,
and less attention paid to their complaints, and therefore it was not necessary to take precautions and mobilize all
the resources associated with forced disappearance (detention facilities, mechanisms for disposing of the bodies of
129
victims, etc.).
182.
The petitioners sustain that even though the facts that are the subject of this case were
investigated by Peru’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the State has not acknowledged in an international
proceeding its responsibility for the illegal detention and subsequent forcible disappearance of the 15 victims,
notwithstanding the existence of several documents in which the State accepts that the facts occurred. They say
that, to date, the mortal remains of the 15 victims in the case have not been located or identified.
183.
In September 1991, that is, two months after the events occurred, the State informed the
Commission that it had been determined that 14 members of Santa Barbara campesino community had been
125
IACHR, Report on the Situation of Human Rights in Peru, OEA/Ser.L/V/II.83, Doc. 31, March 12, 1993, pars. 16 et seq.; IACHR,
Report 51/99, Case 10.471 Anetro Castillo Pezo et al., Peru, April 13, 1999, pars. 68-75; IACHR, Report 52/99, Case 10.544 Raúl
Zevallos Loayza et al., Peru, April 13, 1999, pars. 45-52; IACHR, Report 53/99, Case 10.551 David Palomino Morales et al., Peru,
April 13, 1999, pars. 70-77; IACHR, Report 54/99, Case 10.807, William León Laurente et al., Peru, April 13, pars. 68-75; IACHR,
Report 55/99, Case 10.815 Juan De La Cruz Núñez Santana et al., Peru, April 13, 1999, pars. 62-69; IACHR, Report 56/99, Case
10.824 Eudalio Lorenzo Manrique et al., Peru, April 13, 1999, pars. 61-68; IACHR, Report 57/99, Case 10.827 Romer Morales
Zegarra et al., Peru, April 13, 1999, pars. 28-35; IACHR, Report 101/01, Case 10.247 et al., Extrajudicial Executions and Forced
Disappearances of Persons, Peru, October 11, 2001, pars. 172-179. All of these reports are available at
http://www.cidh.oas.org/annual.eng.htm.
126
Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Final Report, Lima: CVR, 2003, Volume VI, Chapter 1.2. Forced
Disappearances, p. 57, Available at http://www.cverdad.org.pe/ifinal/index.php; See also Chapter 1.3. Extrajudicial Executions,
p. 179.
127
I/A Court H.R., Case of Gómez Palomino. Judgment of November 22, 2005. Series C, No. 136, pars. 54.1 – 54.4.
128
Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Peru. Volume VI, Chapter I: Patterns in the
perpetration of crimes and human rights violations, 1.2. Forced Disappearances: Victims of Forced Disappearance, p. 85.
129
Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Peru. Volume VI, Chapter I: Patterns in the perpetration of
crimes and human rights violations, 1.2. Forced Disappearances: Victims of Forced Disappearance, p. 105.