80
87.
As regards compensation for expenses incurred or to be incurred for medical
treatment and purchase of the necessary means to alleviate the disability caused to
the three surviving victims by the facts of this case, and because said expenses were
not fully covered by social security, the Court deems that said compensation must be
set, in fairness, as follows: US$15,000.00 (fifteen thousand United States dollars) in
favor of Henry Eduardo Herrera Hurtado, who became paraplegic, and US$7,000.00
(seven thousand United States dollars) each to Gregoria Matilde Castillo and Noraima
Sosa Ríos, each of whom lost a leg due to amputation (infra para. 90).
b) Lost earnings
88.
To establish compensation for lost earnings of Miguel Ángel Aguilera La Rosa,
Armando Antonio Castellanos Canelón, Luis Manuel Colmenares Martínez, Juan José
Blanco Garrido, Daniel Alfredo Guevara Ramos, Pedro Gustavo Guía Laya, Mercedes
Beatriz Hernández Daza, Crisanto Mederos, Francisco Antonio Moncada Gutiérrez,
Héctor Daniel Ortega Zapata, Richard José Páez Páez, Carlos Elías Parra Ojeda, José
del Carmen Pirela León, José Vicente Pérez Rivas, Jorge Daniel Quintana, Wolfgang
Waldemar Quintana Vivas, Yurima Milagros Ramos Mendoza, Iván Rey, Javier Rubén
Rojas Campos, Esteban Luciano Rosillo García, Leobardo Antonio Salas Guillén, Tirso
Cruz Tesara Álvarez, Héctor José Lugo Cabriles, Benito del Carmen Aldana Bastidas,
Boris Eduardo Bolívar Marcano, Julio César Freitez, Gerónimo Valero Suárez, Jesús
Calixto Blanco, Fidel Orlando Romero Castro, Roberto Segundo Valbuena Borjas, Elsa
Teotiste Ramírez Caminero, José Ramón Montenegro Cordero, Jesús Alberto Cartaya,
Sabas Reyes Gómez, Alís Guillermo Torres Flores, José Miguel Liscano Betancourt,
and Juan Acasio Mena Bello, all of them victims of homicide or missing persons, the
Court will presume that they earned or would have earned, since they attained
majority, and up to the age of life expectancy in Venezuela, a remuneration
equivalent to minimum wage.187 As it has done in previous cases,188 the Court takes
into account the respective lost wages, set in accordance with the minimum legal
wage in force in the country at the time of the events that breached rights protected
by the Convention, and adjusts them to present value, after having deducted 25% of
that minimum which, according to estimates, would cover the victim’s personal
expenses. There will, however, be no such compensation for the four victims of this
case with respect to whom the judgment on the merits only found a violation of the
rights protected by Articles 8 and 25 of the Convention.
89.
To establish the compensation to be paid for lost earnings of the three
surviving victims, the Court will proceed as follows:
a)
with respect to Henry Eduardo Herrera and Noraima Sosa Ríos it will
apply the provision set forth in the previous paragraph, but it will not discount
any part of the minimum wage that is the basis for calculations to establish
the amount of lost wages because these are victims who survived the facts,
who therefore have continued to incur living expenses and who suffer total
work disability (infra para. 90); and
187
For the respective estimate, the Court applied the minimum wage in force in 1989, which
according to Executive Decree No. 26 of February 19, 1989, was 4,000.00 Bs. (four thousand bolívares)
monthly.
188
Cf. “Street Children” Case (Villagrán Morales et al.). Reparations, supra note 19, para. 81; “White
Van” Case (Paniagua Morales et al.). Reparations, supra note 19, paras. 116 and 117; and Castillo Páez
Case. Reparations, supra note 19, para. 75.