Concurring opinion of the Judge ad hoc Arturo Alfredo Herrador Sandoval in the case of Fermín Ramírez v. Guatemala INDEX I. II. III. IV. V. VI. Introduction Jurisdiction of the Court Of the procedural deficiencies Of the Pardon Of the prison conditions Conclusion “GUATEMALA IS A STATE OF TRANSITION, GUATEMALAN DEMOCRACY, THE PRODUCT OF DECADES OF GENERATIONAL FIGHTING, IS STILL YOUNG BUT PROMISING” I. Introduction In my quality of judge ad hoc appointed by the State of Guatemala I concur in my opinion with the eminent jurists that make up the Court, with whom I have had the undeserved honor of working on the present case. The Inter-American Court of Human Rights as the highest instance of regional jurisdiction in this subject must always remain faithful to the principles that inspired its creation, reaffirming its purpose to consolidate democracy and full respect for human rights in the American Continent. During the last decade the State of Guatemala has been repeatedly accused before this regional instance, some times for having maintained and promoted a hostile policy with regard to the human rights of its inhabitants, and, in others, for not having the political will or sufficient strength to vigorously defend them. The present case escapes by far the previously mentioned situations. As with the rest of the democracies of this part of the continent, the Guatemalan one is permanently besieged by the groups of factual power that co-opt the institutionalism of the State that must so necessarily be strengthened. The endemic problems of poverty and extreme poverty afflicting the country have only worsened the crime phenomena that threatens with devouring the Constitutional State causing with its whirl a dangerous undermining of the credibility of the judicial courts as the only ones legitimately empowered to exercise and apply justice. The rates of common violence cause a daily impact on citizen awareness generating a sensation of defenselessness and powerlessness before said hardships. Within this framework of action, the fight to make the Constitutional State prevail and for the defense of human rights reaches an enormous stature. When the social dynamic, degenerated by the system’s malfunctions causes us to face crimes as abominable as the one that motivated the process that culminated with this new punishment to the Guatemalan State; our wish would be that the justice system in its totality would operate in an optimal matter so the State, as the representative of the society and protector of the life and security of its habitants,