60
260.
The Commission must also take into account the impact that the acts of torture and
extrajudicial execution of Marino López had for his immediate family.
261.
Article 5 of the American Convention establishes that
1.
[...]
Every person has the right to have his physical, mental and moral integrity respected.
262.
In view of the parties' positions, in the first place, the Commission understands that
Marino López's immediate family are his children and partner, Emedelia Palacios Palacios.
263.
The Commission and the Court have considered the right to physical and moral integrity
of the victims' families to be violated each time that the particular circumstances of the violations
committed against their loved ones and the subsequent acts or omissions of the State authorities have
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caused them additional suffering.
264.
In view of the acts of torture and extrajudicial execution of which Marino López was a
victim, the Commission concludes that the State is responsible for the violation of the right to personal
integrity to the prejudice of his immediate family, in violation of Article 5.1 of the American Convention, in
conjunction with its Article 1.1.
265.
With respect to the petitioners' allegations on the affront against the right to family
protection, the Commission considers that the facts involved the alleged violation of this right have
already been considered in relation to the violation of the physical and moral integrity of Marino López's
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immediate family.
5.
The Forced Displacement of the Cacarica Afro-Descendant Communities due to
Attacks against the Civilian Population
266.
In accordance with the findings of fact regarding the consequences of the bombardments
in "Operation Genesis", the announced paramilitary raids and the acts of violence occurring in this context
- inter alia, the acts of torture and extrajudicial execution of Marino López - approximately three thousand
five hundred individuals were forced to move out of the Cacarica basin, from February 24, 1997.
Members of paramilitary groups made death threats to the civilian population and intimidated them so that
they would displace from their lands towards Turbo. The torture and extrajudicial execution of Marino
López increased the fear and hastened the displacement. These persons left on foot or in rafts built by
them. Approximately two thousand three hundred displaced persons settled temporarily in the
municipality of Turbo and in Bocas del Atrato; around two hundred crossed the border with Panama; and
the rest were displaced to other areas of Colombia.
267.
The displaced Afro-descendants suffered a series of consequences which impacted
disproportionately on the women and children such as, for example, families split up, a lifestyle change in
the settlements in cramped conditions, the lack of access to basic services, food, and adequate health
services, as well as the subsequent increase in disease and malnutrition, among others.
268.
The Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement define internally displace persons as all
persons or groups of persons who have been forced or obliged to flee their places of habitual residence,
in particular as a result of, or to avoid, the effects of armed conflict, situations of generalized violence,
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I/A Court H.R Case of the Miguel Castro Castro Prison v Peru. Judgment of November 25, 2006. Series C No. 160,
para. 335; Case of Vargas Areco. Judgment of September 26, 2006. Series C No. 155, para. 96; and Case of Goiburú et al.
Judgment of September 22, 2006. Series C No. 153, para. 96; Case of the Rochela Massacre. Judgment of May 11, 2007. Series
C. No. 163, para. 137. IACHR Report No. 62/08 Manuel Cepeda Vargas, para. 111.
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I/A Court H.R. Case of the Girls Yean and Bosico. Judgment of September 8, 2005. Series C No. 130, para. 197; Case
of García Asto and Ramírez-Rojas, Judgment of November 25, 2005. Series C No. 137, para. 245 and Case of Tibi. Preliminary
Objections, Merits, Reparations and Costs. Judgment of September 7, 2004. Series C No. 114, para.205..