directly proportional relationship to the limits on - in some cases the impossibility of obtaining the evidence and/or testimony, even making evidence gathering toward
establishing the facts at issue in the investigation difficult or ineffective, in attempts at
identifying the possible authors and participants and determining possible criminal
liability. 131 The Court has also warned that the State bodies in charge of investigating
the enforced disappearance of persons - investigations whose purpose is to determine
the whereabouts of those persons and verify what happened, identify those responsible,
and punish them - must carry out that work in a diligent and exhaustive manner. The
legal rights that the investigation concerns itself with require that the measures that
must be taken for the investigation to reach its goal be redoubled. 132 Therefore, for the
Tribunal it is clear that these initial actions were not ordered in a timely fashion.
123. The State acknowledged that the Daily Logbook of the first precinct had been
"tampered with.” (supra para. 110). The Tribunal notes from the domestic judicial case
file that on August 18, 2004, the Office of the Public Prosecutor of the Province of
Chubut ordered, among other things, that a handwriting test be carried out on "daily
logbook No. 10” in order to determine whether it contained falsifications, corrections,
crossing outs, or overwriting, and to verify whether the text corresponding to October
1, 2, and 3, 2003, correspond to “the same style of handwriting.” 133 The changes in the
aforementioned logbook were determined internally. In effect, the handwriting test was
carried out by the National Gendarmerie. That institution concluded that "'Daily
Logbook' number 10/03 of the First Precinct of Comodoro Rivadavia, displayed changes
in its binding, along with non-sequential pagination […]. The aforementioned book […]
had changes made to it with correction fluid […] making the operations carried out to
deduce the writing underneath unsuccessful." 134
124. With regard to the foregoing, the Court notes that the irregularities committed
during that stage of the investigation had been established internally since 2004,
following a visit made to the city of Comodoro Rivadavia, Chubut, by the Human Rights
Secretariat of the Nation in order to investigate the actions being taken with regard to
the disappearance of Mr. Torres. In a report, that body established that "the pretrial
examination of the case [was] plagued with errors and material sloppiness." Likewise,
that report places on the record that "the actions [of the local police] were protected by
the Judge pursuing the preliminary investigation […]," and that "the local young people
from poor backgrounds suffer[ed] permanently from abuse at the hands of police and
the local magistrates." Among other things, the report recommended "the intervention
of another body (Federal Police, Gendarmerie, Prefecture, etc.) to carry out an
investigation," and that this body be "agreed upon by the provincial government." In
addition, it recommended "a political trial of the judge in charge of Examining Judge No.
2[...].”135At the same time, the “Aide-Mémoire on the Investigation of the Iván Eladio
Torres Case” prepared by the Ministry of Justice, Security, and Human Rights, based on
the report previously indicated, suggested among other things that one of the measures
that should be taken was the intervention of an independent judge who "was not
131
Cf. Case of Heliodoro Portugal V. Panamá, supra note 69, para. 150; Case of Radilla Pacheco V.
México, supra note 23, para. 215, and Case of Ibsen Cárdenas and Ibsen Peña V. Bolivia. Merits, Reparations
and Costs. Judgment of September 1, 2010. Series C No. 217, para. 167.
132
Cf. Case of Ibsen Cárdenas and Ibsen Peña V. Bolivia, supra note 14, para. 173.
133
Resolution of the Fiscal Public Ministry of the Province of Chubut on August 18, 2004 (case file of
annexes to the application, tome XI, folios 8508 and 8509).
134
Expert Report no. 34.269 carried out by Ofice of Cientific Police la Dirección of Policía Científica of the
Nacional Police on December 10, 2004 (case file of annexes to answer to the application, annex 1, tome V,
folio 17397).
135
Cf. Report of the Verification Mission of the Alleged Enforced Disappearance of Iván Eladio Torres
based on the mission carried out on February 24, 25, and 26, 2004 at Comodoro Rivadavia, Chubut (case file
of annexes to the application, tome I, folio 228).
39
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