49
demonstrate their unlawfulness, their arbitrary nature and the violation of all the guarantees recognized
in Article 7 of the Convention. The IACHR therefore concludes that the State also violated the right to
personal liberty protected under Article 7 of the American Convention, read in conjunction with Article
1(1) thereof, to the detriment of the 32 executed victims who lived in the community of Chichupac, the
others persons who were deprived of their liberty prior to being extrajudicially executed; and the
survivors Ciriaco Galiego López, Miguel Chen Tahuico, and Napoleón García Paz.
2.2
Concerning the forced disappearances (articles 3, 4, 5 and 7 of the American
Convention, read in conjunction with Article 1(1) thereof)
218.
The jurisprudence of the inter-American system has been that this phenomenon is an
unlawful act generating multiple and continuing violations of various rights protected under the
American Convention; it leaves the victim utterly defenseless and involves other related crimes. The
State’s international responsibility is compounded when a disappearance is part of a systematic pattern
or practice applied or tolerated by the State. In short, this is a crime against humanity that implies a
gross abandonment of the most essential principles upon which the inter-American system is
founded.304
219. Both the Commission and the Court have held that the crime of forced disappearance
leaves the victim completely defenseless, and is particularly serious when it is part of a systematic
305
pattern or practice applied or tolerated by the State.
The Court has repeatedly held that forced
disappearance, the prohibition of which is now jus cogens, is a continuing or permanent multiple
violation of various rights protected by the American Convention.306
220. Thus, forced disappearance involves three concurring and constitutive elements: a) the
deprivation of freedom; b) the direct intervention of state agents or their acquiescence, and c) the
307
refusal to acknowledge the arrest and reveal the fate or whereabouts of the interested person.
304
IACHR. Report No. 101/01. Case 10,247 et al. Extrajudicial executions and forced disappearances of persons. Peru.
October 10, 2001. Par. 178; I/A Court H.R., Case of Goiburú et al. Merits, Reparations and Costs. Judgment of September 22,
2006. Series C No. 153, par.82; Case of Gómez Palomino. Judgment of November 22, 2005. Series C No. 136, par.92; Case of the
Serrano Cruz Sisters. Preliminary Objections. Judgment of November 23, 2004. Series C No. 118, paragraphs 100 to 106; and
Case of Molina Theissen. Reparations (Art. 63(1) American Convention on Human Rights). Judgment of July 3, 2004, Series C No.
108, par.41.
305
IACHR. Application filed with the Inter-American Court, Case No. 11,324, Narciso González et al., Dominican
Republic, May 2, 2010, par.103; Application filed with the Inter-American Court, Case No. 12.517, Gregoria Herminia Contreras
et al., El Salvador, June 28, 2010, par. 131. See, also: I/A Court H.R., Case of Radilla Pacheco v. Mexico. Preliminary Objections,
Merits, Reparations and Costs. Judgment of November 23, 2009. Series C No. 209, par. 114; Case of the Serrano Cruz Sisters v. El
Salvador. Merits, Reparations and Costs. Series C No. 120, paragraphs 100-106; Case of Heliodoro Portugal v. Panama.
Preliminary Objections, Merits, Reparations and Costs. Series C No. 186, par.118; and Case of Anzualdo Castro v. Peru.
Preliminary Objection, Merits, Reparations and Costs. Judgment of September 22, 2009. Series C No. 202, par. 59; I/A Court
H.R., Valle Jaramillo et al. v. Colombia. Merits, Reparations and Costs. Judgment of November 27, 2008. Series C No. 192, par.
76.
306
I/A Court H.R., Case of Radilla Pacheco v. Mexico. Preliminary Objections, Merits, Reparations and Costs. Judgment
of November 23, 2009. Series C No. 209, par. 139; Case of Goiburú et al. v. Paraguay. Merits, Reparations and Costs. Judgment
of September 22, 2006. Series C No. 153, par. 84; and Case of Tiu Tojín v. Guatemala. Merits, Reparations and Costs. Judgment
of November 26, 2008. Series C No. 190, par. 91.
307
I/A Court H.R., Case of Gómez Palomino v. Peru. Merits, Reparations and Costs. Judgment of November 22, 2005.
Series C No. 136, par. 97; Case of Ticona Estrada v. Bolivia. Merits, Reparations and Costs. Judgment of November 27, 2008.