21
people.72 In view of such confrontations, the authorities of Jambaló intervened in order to
reach a settlement of disputes, which ended in 1994 when the two families came to an
agreement and the cease of all type of aggressions.73
61.
Furthermore, the representatives and the Commission did not challenge the evidence
furnished by the State regarding the fact that during 1976 and 1987 the Instituto
Colombiano de la Reforma Agraria (Colombian Institute of the Agrarian Reform) acquired
and expropriated 27 pieces of land with the purpose of restructuring the Indigenous
Resguardo de Jambaló,74 which would have ended the existing conflicts over land between
the indigenous and the local owners of large estates.
62.
Finally, the line of investigation carried out by the Public Ministry is oriented to the
personal motives the militaries who executed Germán Escué Zapata had when they received
the tip that in Escué's home there were firearms and applied "its motto [...] 'guerrillero
captured, guerrillero dead.'"75
63.
Based on the foregoing, the Court cannot considered proved the fact that the
militaries acted on their own behalf or by other indigenous or local landowners' challenge,
with the specific purpose of executing Germán Escué Zapata for the leadership he exercised
within his Community. The foregoing is the result, in general, to a lack of efficiency in the
domestic investigations that, up to the present, could not clarify all of the facts; such issue
shall be analyzed by the Tribunal in Chapter X of this Judgment.
64.
Therefore, the Court considers that, though there is evidence that would allow the
Tribunal to interpret that there was a serious situation against the human rights of the
indigenous peoples of the department of Cauca at the time Mr. Escué Zapata was extra
judicially executed, there are no sufficient facts in the case file for this Tribunal to decide
that this case is framed within the alleged situation.
VII
ARTICLE 5 (RIGHT TO HUMANE TREATMENT)76 IN CONJUNCTION WITH ARTICLE 1(1)
(OBLIGATION TO RESPECT RIGHTS) OF THE AMERICAN CONVENTION
72
Cf. Statement rendered by Edelmiro Ul Vargas on December 20, 2002 (record of Appendixes to the
answer of the complaint, Prosecutor's File, Folder 1, page 1893); statement rendered by Jairo Gómez on October
27, 2006, Folder 6, page 3242; statement rendered by Edelmiro Ul on October 25, 2006 (record of Appendixes to
the answer of the complaint, Prosecutor's file, Folder 6, pages 3221 to 3229); statement rendered by Mario Henry
Cifuentes Ul on October 23, 2006 (record of Appendixes to the answer of the complaint, Prosecutor's file, Folder 6,
pages 3198 to 3201), statement rendered by Pablo Elías Filigrana Mostizo on October 26, 2006 (record of
Appendixes to the answer of the complaint, Prosecutor's file, Folder 6, pages 3238 to 3240) and statement
rendered by Etelvina Zapata on October 17, 2002 in the public hearing held before the Inter-American
Commission.
73
Cf. Statement rendered by Ángel Quitumbo Dagua on September 4, 2005 (record of Appendixes to the
answer of the complaint, Prosecutor's file, Folder 4, pages 2260 and 2261); statement rendered by Edelmiro Ul on
October 25, 2006 (record of Appendixes to the answer of the complaint, Prosecutor's file, Folder 6, pages 3220 to
3229) and statement rendered by Aldemar Escué Zapata on November 30, 2002 (record of Appendixes to the
application, Exhibit 15, page 94).
74
Cf. Resolutions Nº 68 of October 22, 1992 and Nº 10 of February 20, 2001 of the Instituto Colombiano de
la Reforma Agraria (record of Appendixes to the answer of the complaint, Exhibits 5 and 6, pages 1311 to 1353).
75
Cf. Statement rendered by Oscar Iván Arias Herrera on March 18, 2006 (record of Appendixes to the
answer of the complaint, Prosecutor’s file, Folder 3, page 2411) and resolution of the 21 Specialized Prosecutor's
Office of the National Unit of Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law, on January 12, 2007 (record of
the merits, Volume III, page 681).
76
Article 5 of the Convention, in its relevant part, provides for: