the Republic, of the Ministry of Public Power for Internal Relations and Justice, and to
the Sixth Court of First Instance in Criminal Law in Functions of Execution for the
Metropolitan Area of Caracas respectively to present a demand for the disappearance
and to request information in this respect, and on October 13, 2009, Mr. Guerrero
Sanchez sent a communication to the Direction of Fundamental Rights of the Public
Ministry, with the purpose of filing a demand regarding the disappearance. In this
communication, Mr. Guerrero Sánchez mentioned that he had gone to visit his son
but he was not in the prison, and that a member of the National Guard informed that
a “PRAN”, an inmate that “ruled the prisons, will turn him in the next day. He pointed
out that he started receiving messages that indicated that Mr. Guerrero Larez was
dead. Finally, he stated that he was afraid for his and his family’s life given that their
address was stated in the record;
b) on October 7, 2009, the Fifty-First Public Defender from the Caracas Metropolitan
Area went to the PGV without being able to verify the presence of Mr. Guerrero Larez
in the penitentiary center, a situation that was informed to the Sub-Director and to
the General Secretariat of such facility;
c) on November 4, 2009, in agreement with the aforementioned background and
that stated in Article XIV of the Inter-American Convention on Forced Disappearance
of Persons, the Commission sent an urgent request for information to the State, for it
to inform, within the next 48 hours, of the location of Mr. Guerrero Larez, his
physical condition, and for it to point out the reasons why contact and visits with his
relatives had not been possible, and any other information regarding his location and
situation. On November 6, 2009, the State requested a prudential extension to
submit the requested information. Through a communication on November 9, 2009,
the Commission granted the State a 72 hour extension, and the information
requested has not been received to this date, and
d) on November 11, 2009, the Commission received a new brief by the
representatives, in which they informed that they did not yet have notice regarding
the location of Mr. Guerrero Larez. In the same communication, they stated that the
Direction for the Protection of Fundamental Rights of the Public Ministry “only
informed them that the facts were being heard by the Guarico State Prosecution.”
3.
The arguments of the Commission to ground its request of Provisional Measures, as
follows:
a) the situation of extreme gravity and urgency was demonstrated by the following
circumstances: i) Mr. Larez was under the custody of the State on September 7,
2009, the last time there was any notice of him. It is been over two months without
any notice, despite the efforts carried out by his family and of other entities, who
were not given any response from the penitentiary authorities. Due to the special
position of the State as the guarantor of people deprived of their liberty, when a
person under State custody is allegedly disappeared, without any acknowledgement
or clarification by the State, it is reasonable to infer that such person is in a situation
of grave risk; ii) there is a context of persistent violence acts in several penitentiary
centers in Venezuela, characterized by the lack of State control of the prisons and
weapon trafficking, a situation that favors the creation of bands and gangs that act
with deep violence against the inmates themselves; iii) there is evidence concerning
the existence of this type of gangs in the PGV where Mr. Guerrero Larez was
deprived of his liberty. The wife and the father of Mr. Guerrero Larez have received
messages and information from other inmates, and also from an official of the
National Guard that indicate that the possible beneficiary could have died and that he