points that, in its view, were crucial for the Court as it assessed this procedure: (i) the replica
of the Japanese ambassador's residence did not compare perfectly with the original residence,
as for example, the replica did not show the additional staircase between the first two floors
of the residence; (ii) the replica was not complete, as the back part of the building, where the
body of Eduardo Nicolás Cruz Sánchez was found and where his extrajudicial execution had
presumably taken place, was included neither in the model, nor in the reconstruction of the
facts, and (iii) the procedure had dramatized actions by several members of the MRTA,
including the alleged victims in the case, which did not necessarily reflect what had actually
happened but, in the words of the State, served as “an illustration” and an approximation. It
added that, regardless of the lack of evidentiary value of the reconstruction exercise as a result
of all these considerations, in the view of the Commission, the procedure to reconstruct the
facts could hold “limited evidentiary scope” concerning the way in which Operation Nipón 96
or Operation Chavín de Huántar had actually occurred, but had “no evidentiary value
whatsoever” concerning the way Eduardo Nicolas Cruz Sanchez, Víctor Salomón Peceros
Pedraza and Herma Luz Meléndez Cueva had died. The Commission also underscored the
difficulty of ascribing evidentiary value to the procedure to reconstruct the facts when the State
had not clearly associated it with the totality of the evidence contained in the case file. The
Commission concluded that the exercise “was not a reconstruction of the facts per se, but
rather, a demonstration of the position of one of the parties to a litigation.”
138. The Court finds, with respect to the procedure whose purpose was to substantiate the
physical and spatial circumstances surrounding the legally relevant facts that are essentially
in dispute (supra para. 133), that it had provided an important illustrative overall view. It gave
the Court a sense of the circumstances of means, time and place in which the hostage rescue
operation had been conducted in order to gauge, understand, and frame the specific facts that
stand as the basis of the alleged violations brought before it. The Court therefore holds the
procedure as valid and will assess it within the overall body of evidence in the case, under the
rules of sound judicial discretion, particularly considering the arguments given by the
representatives and the Commission. The parties’ arguments will be examined on this basis
throughout the coming chapters.
VIII
FACTS
A.
Context
139. To establish the context relating to the armed conflict in Peru, the Court has turned
repeatedly to the conclusions issued on August 28, 2003, by the Comisión de la Verdad y
Reconciliación (hereinafter CVR), Truth and Reconciliation Commission, 90 following publication
of its final report on August 28, 2003. This commission was created by the State in 2001 to
“to clarify the process, the matters of fact and the responsibility for the terrorist violence and
the violation of human rights that had occurred since May 1980 and extended until November
2000, attributable both to terrorist organizations and State agents, and also to promote
Cf. Case of De La Cruz Flores v. Peru. Merits, Reparations and Costs. Judgment of November 18, 2004.
Series C No. 115; Case of Gómez Palomino v. Peru. Merits, Reparations and Costs. Judgment of November 22, 2005.
Series C No. 136; Case of Baldeón García v. Peru. Merits, Reparations and Costs. Judgment of April 6, 2006. Series
C No. 147; Case of the Miguel Castro Castro Prison v. Peru. Merits, Reparations and Costs. Judgment of November
25, 2006. Series C No. 160; Case of La Cantuta v. Peru. Merits, Reparations and Costs. Judgment of November 29,
2006. Series C No. 162; Case of Cantoral Huamaní and García Santa Cruz v. Peru. Preliminary Objection, Merits,
Reparations and Costs. Judgment of July 10, 2007. Series C No. 167; Case of Anzualdo Castro v. Peru. Preliminary
Objection, Merits, Reparations and Costs. Judgment of September 22, 2009. Series C No. 202, Case of Osorio Rivera
and Family v. Peru, supra; Case of J. v. Peru. Preliminary Objection, Merits, Reparations and Costs. Judgment of
November 27, 2013. Series C No. 275, and Case of Espinoza Gonzáles v. Peru, supra.
90