all the information generated or stored by a state entity, without establishing safeguards that allow balancing
possible values or objectives in conflict, is not compatible with the right to seek and receive information
recognized in Article 13.1 of the American Convention290.
321. Likewise, the IACHR notes that the petitioners did not have any judicial or administrative remedy
intended to dispute the decision to classify as secret the documentation that the SIDE and other state
intelligence agencies incorporated into the investigation into the AMIA attack. The foregoing was not disputed
by the State. In this sense, the IACHR considers it appropriate to point out that according to the jurisprudence
of the Inter-American Court, “what is incompatible with a rule of law and effective judicial protection is not that
there are secrets, but rather that these secrets escape the law, that is, that the authority has areas in which it is
not responsible because they are not legally regulated and therefore are outside any control system” 291.
322. The Commission values the measures adopted since 2003 by the Executive Branch, the Ministry of
Justice, and the Intelligence Secretariat that relieved a considerable number of officials and intelligence agents
from the obligation to keep secrecy in order to enable their respective appearances in the framework of the
oral trial held before the TOF 3. Likewise, the IACHR considers that the enactment of decrees 786/03 and
787/03 which created within the Ministry of Intelligence and in each of the security forces security an
Information Collection Unit (URI) destined to search, verify and analyze the existing information and
communicate its findings to the competent judges, constituted a necessary measure in order to guarantee the
right of the petitioners to access the information, and of society in general to know the truth292.
323. However, the IACHR notes that the decision to initiate a survey of the information held by the SIDE and
the federal security forces and to hand over custody of the documentary funds to the UFI AMIA did not fully
guarantee the petitioner’s right to access to information. In this regard, the Commission notes that decrees
786/03 and 787/03 only had the effect of enabling intelligence information to be shared with the state
authorities in charge of investigating the attack, but they did not provide for the elimination of the security
classification placed on those documents. Consequently, the information gathered in these tasks continued to
be out of the reach for the petitioners, despite being constituted as parties in the proceedings.
324. The Commission understands that the situation described in the preceding paragraphs went on from
2004 until the enactment of Decree 395/15 in March 2015. Said regulation ordered the declassification of all
the documentation that was sent into custody by the Secretary of Intelligence to the UFI-AMIA (art 1), of the
additional documentation in the files of the former SIDE (art 2) and of all other documentation that had not
been provided in a timely manner to the case that, on the date of issuance of the decree, is in the power of the
Federal Intelligence Agency (art 3). In this way, as specified by the UFI-AMIA, all the information generated by
the former SIDE “ceased to be reserved to the parties and was strictly categorized as documentary evidence
under the terms of the National Criminal Procedure Code”293.
325. Based on the foregoing, the Commission concludes that the Argentine State, from July 18, 1994, to March
2015, did violate the petitioners' right of access to information related to the attack, in that it upheld the
confidentiality of those documents classified as secret by the intelligence agencies participating in the
investigations294.
I/A Court H.R., Case of Gomes Lund et al. ("Guerrilha do Araguaia") v. Brazil. Preliminary Objections, Merits, Reparations, and Costs.
Judgment of November 24, 2010. Series C No. 219, para. 202.
291. I/A Court H.R., Case of Myrna Mack Chang v. Guatemala. Merits, Reparations and Costs. Judgment of November 25, 2003. Series C No.
101, para. 181.
292 Decree
786/03 dated September 18, 2003. Available at: http://servicios.infoleg.gob.ar/infolegInternet/annexs/8500089999/88546/norma.htm;
Decree
787/03
dated
September
18,
2003.
Available
at:
http://servicios.infoleg.gob.ar/infolegInternet/annexs/85000-89999/88547/norma.htm
293 Annex 20. UFI AMIA. "The process of declassification of reserved or secret information on the attack and its cover-up" Page 11. Annex 27
to the petitioner's communication dated November 11, 2019.
294 I/A Court H.R., Case of Gudiel Álvarez et al. ("Diario Militar") v. Guatemala. Merits, Reparations and Costs. Judgment of November 20,
2012. Series C No. 253, para. 450; I/A Court H.R., Case of Myrna Mack Chang v. Guatemala. Merits, Reparations and Costs. Judgment of
November 25, 2003. Series C No. 101, para. 180.
290
61