3
González,14 Julio César García, José Amado Jara Fernando,15 Alberto David Martínez,
Miguel Ángel Martínez, Osvaldo Espinola Mora,16 Hugo Antonio Quintana Vera,17 Juan
Carlos Viveros Zarza,18 Eduardo Vera, Ulises Zelaya Flores,19 Hugo Olmedo, Rafael
Aquino Acuña,20 Nelson Rodríguez, Demetrio Silguero, Aristides Ramón Ortiz B.21 and
Carlos Raúl Romero Giacomo22 sustained in three fires at the Center.
3.
The Commission also petitioned the Court to find that the respondent State
had violated Articles 5 (Right to Humane Treatment), 7 (Right to Personal Liberty),
19 (Rights of the Child), 8 (Right to a Fair Trial) and 25 (Judicial Protection) of the
American Convention, all in relation to Article 1(1) thereof, to the detriment of all
juveniles incarcerated at the Center at any time in the period between August 14,
1996 and July 25, 2001, and those juvenile inmates subsequently remanded to the
country’s adult prisons.
4.
The Commission’s contention was that the “Panchito López’ Center embodied
a system that was the antithesis of every international standard pertaining to the
incarceration of juveniles, given the allegedly grossly inadequate conditions under
which the children were interned.
Specifically, those conditions involved a
combination of: overpopulation, overcrowding, lack of sanitation, inadequate
infrastructure, and a prison guard staff that was both too small and poorly trained.
5.
According to the Commission, after each of the three fires, all or some of the
alleged victims were remanded to adult prisons in Paraguay; it further alleged that
the vast majority of the juveniles transferred to adult prisons were in pretrial
detention. To make matters worse, the adult prisons to which they were sent were
elsewhere in the country, far from the juveniles’ defense attorneys and families.
6.
The Commission also petitioned the Court, pursuant to Article 63 of the
Convention, to order the State to ensure the exercise of the violated rights to the
alleged victims and their next of kin and to adopt certain measures of pecuniary and
non-pecuniary compensation.
14
This person’s name also appears as Clemente Luis Escobar and as Clementino Luis Escobar. The
Court will henceforth use the name Clemente Luis Escobar González.
15
This person’s name also appears as José Amado Jara Fernández, and as José Amado Jara. The
Court will henceforth use the name José Amado Jara Fernández.
16
This person’s name also appears as Osvaldo Mora Espinola. The Court will henceforth use the
name Osvaldo Mora Espinola.
17
This person’s name also appears as Hugo Vera Quintana. The Court will henceforth use the name
Hugo Antonio Vera Quintana.
18
This person’s name also appears as Juan Carlos Zarza. The Court will henceforth use the name
Juan Carlos Zarza Viveros.
19
This person’s name also appears as Cándido Ulice Zelaya Flores. The Court will henceforth use
the name Cándido Ulises Zelaya Flores.
20
This person’s name also appears as Rafael Oscar Aquino Acuña. The Court will henceforth use
the name Oscar Rafael Aquino Acuña.
21
This person’s name also appears as Arístides Ramón Ortiz Bernal. The Court will henceforth use
the name Arístides Ramón Ortiz Bernal.
22
This person’s name also appears as Carlos Raúl Romero García. The Court will henceforth use
the name Carlos Raúl Romero Giacomo.