CONCURRING OPINION OF THE JUDGE A.A. CANÇADO TRINDADE 1. I am a surviving Judge of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. On 11.29.2006, I issued my last Opinion in this Tribunal, in the Judgment on merits and reparations in the present case of La Cantuta, regarding the State of Peru. After more than a year has gone by, I have verified that, in the world of Law an actual “last” is difficult. The present request for the Interpretation of a Judgment leads me spread upon the record new reflections on the matter presented in the case file before the Court, which I present as a true surviving Judge of the Inter-American Court. During the saga of the long 12-year exercise of two terms as of Full Judge of the Court, during which I never excused myself from participating in any deliberation and I never missed a day of work in the Court, I had the chance to, through the cases of violations to human rights the Tribunal had before it, coexist with the darkest parts of human nature, in the search for the realization of justice. 2. When I thought I had retired to oblivion (service offered, service lost...), I am now summoned to deliberate on the request for Interpretation of a Judgment presented by the representatives of the next of kin of the victims in the present case of La Cantuta. Thus, I come back to the Tribunal, with this purpose, as a surviving Judge. My imaginary lantern, which I hold within the ship (the Court) in which I still find myself within the stormy high seas of the attacks against human dignity, points now not only towards the front, facing the threatening waves that come near it, even threatening to sink it – but also backwards, towards the waves that previously made the ship tremble, and now move away from it, taking with them the experience and the lessons that I now make an effort to recover. As the experimented sailor of S.T. Coleridge, "I viewed the ocean green, And looked far forth, yet little saw Of what had else been seen"1. I. Prolegomena: Preliminary Considerations. 3. I am – I repeat – a surviving Judge of the Inter-American Court, and, as such, I continue to insist, as I have in all my years within the Court, on spreading upon the record the grounds for my position regarding the matters treated in its Judgments, even when said grounds may deal with issues that others may find prima facie without greater relevance. To me, everything is important, and experience has taught me this. It is true that, from this point of view, experience takes more than it gives, since people with experience become more precautious; this is understandable and inevitable since they know a little more about human nature. 4. If human beings were born with experience they would not commit so many mistakes (specially during the first decades of their lives), which have consequences they have to live with later on, sometimes for the rest of their lives. “Experience” is a term that comes from the Latin "experientia", analogous of "periculum", danger. Therefore, those of us who have experience can at least comfort ourselves with the fact that we are survivors of dangers already lived. 5. And, as a survivor, I feel completely free and with the duty to spread upon the record my reflection, which maybe useful for the steering of the ship (the Court) in always stormy high sea of the never-ending assaults against human rights. Once more, I now offer the grounds for my position, as a surviving Judge of the Court, in this Judgment of Interpretation in the case of La Cantuta v. Peru. Maybe my 1 . S.T. Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (1798), verses 443-445.