5. The Inter-American Commission assigned number 708-03 to the petition and requested that
the Salvadoran State provide information on the pertinent parts of the complaint on December
24, 2003. The State responded on March 5, 2004 (received at the Executive Secretariat on
March 10, 2004). On April 22, 2004, the petitioners submitted their observations on the
information provided by the State, which was duly transmitted to the State.
III.
THE PARTIES’ POSITIONS
A.
The petitioners
6. The complaint received at the IACHR alleges that the siblings Gregoria Herminia, Serapio
Cristián and Julia Inés Contreras were victims of forced disappearance, presumably at the
hands of members of the Salvadoran Army. With respect to the facts of the case, the
petitioners state as follows:
On August 24, 1982, a large-scale military operation was deployed, from south of the hamlet
of San Juan Buenavista and probably affected part of the hamlets of El Socorro, San Andrés de
Achiotes, and San Jacinto, all in the jurisdiction of Tecoluca, department of San Vicente. The
operation was called by the civilian population “The invasion of the Ring,” for it was mobilized
so as to form a military cordon, so as to prevent the targets from taking flight.
In response to the operation, the population fled from their dwellings to the bush, as they tried
to hide. A group of persons sought refuge at the place known as “La Conacastada,” situated to
the north of San Juan Buenavista. The Contreras siblings took refuge in this place, along with a
family group made up of their mother, Mrs. María Maura Contreras, their father, Mr. Fermín
Recinos, and their siblings Marta Daysi, 10 years of age, and Nelson Geovany, eight years of
age. The second day of the operation, the group of persons who had hidden in La Conacastada
was discovered and attacked indiscriminately by the military forces, causing the deaths of
many persons. Afterwards, the members of the military proceeded to pursue small groups of
persons, among them the family group of Ms. María Maura Contreras.
As people fled, the children remained behind, they couldn’t keep up; Ms. María Maura
Contreras saw how a soldier grabbed her daughter Gregoria Herminia by the hair, and took her
with other children; she also saw that they took Serapio Cristián; and since she couldn’t walk
with all the children because she had her daughter Julia Inés, four months old, in her arms,
when she had to climb an incline she slipped and dropped the little girl when the soldiers had
almost reached her – she was forced to leave the child on the ground so as to continue
running, and the child was taken by the soldiers.
Ms. María Maura Contreras, her common-law husband, and their two children continued
running and hid in the bush for several days. Once the military operation was over, they began
the search for the persons who had disappeared, to which end they went to La Conacastada,
where they found that many people had died, including elderly and children, yet the bodies of
the three minors were not found. Accordingly, it is thought that her children survived the
operation. In addition, approximately 15 days after the disappearance of her children, Ms.
Contreras received news that they had been seen at the military post of Río Frío, in the
northern part of the municipality of Tecoluca, and that they were there for several days, and
that they were later taken away in a truck.
7. As for the investigation, the petitioners indicate that the various entities that were involved
in El Salvador have been ineffective and insufficient. The children’s mother first went to
denounce the facts in 1993, to the Truth Commission, after the peace accords were signed in
El Salvador. In addition, the same year she went to the Comisión de Derechos Humanos de El
Salvador (CDHES). When the Asociación Pro-Búsqueda was formed, she recurred to it as well.
And in 1996 she turned to the Office of the Human Rights Ombudsman (Procuraduría para la
Defensa de los Derechos Humanos). The resolution of the Ombudsman’s office, of March 30,
1998, was certified and sent to the Office of the Attorney General, without any results. On
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