34
Judge ordered that the inspection be undertaken on July 5, 1999.87 However,
the case file does not reveal whether this inspection was ever carried out by
state authorities.
112. The State’s obligation to carry out investigations with due diligence includes
the obligation of all state authorities to collaborate in the gathering of evidence so
that the objectives of an investigation may be achieved. The authority in charge of
the investigation must ensure that all necessary investigative steps are undertaken
and must take appropriate action, in accordance with domestic legislation, when this
does not occur. At the same time, all other state authorities must collaborate with
the examining judge and abstain from acts that obstruct the investigative process.
Acts of this nature exist in the present case as a result of the investigation regarding
the inspection of the books containing the “arrivals and departures” records of the
personnel of the San Benito Battalion of the extinct National Police.
113. This Tribunal finds that, when the Third Trial Court ordered the inspection of
records of the San Benito Battalion of the extinct National Police in order to further
the investigation necessary to clarify the events (supra para. 87 and 111), state
authorities of the Ministry of National Defense and those of the Historical Archive,
located at the Navy Base, had the obligation to collaborate in a diligent and effective
fashion with the investigation set forth by the trial judge. As a result, the State did
not comply with the mentioned obligation by not permitting access to the books
containing the “arrivals and departures” personnel records of the San Benito
Battalion of the extinct National Police in June of 1994.
114. Regarding the prosecutorial investigation No. 34-00-03 (supra para. 92 to
94), the Court observes that José Mauricio García Prieto Hirlemann and Gloria Giralt
de García Prieto lodged a complaint on June 6, 2003 before the Public Prosecutors
Office, in which they stated that they “did not know the identities of the intellectual
authors of the homicide of [their] son, [but] affirme[d] that they suspect[ed]
Mauricio Ernesto Vargas Valdés [and] Roberto Hernán Puente Rivas” and indicated
that no one had been found guilty with respect to the individual who drove José Raúl
Argueta Rivas and Julio Ismael Ortiz Díaz to and from the scene of the homicide. On
June 16, 2003, the Office of the Attorney General opened prosecutorial investigation
No. 34-00-03 (supra para. 92) in relation to the homicide of Ramón Mauricio García
Prieto. There is no evidence of procedural action in the prosecutor’s file subsequent
to June 2004; in other words, to date, the investigation remains pending since that
date.
115. For the Court, the lack of state response is a determinative element when
evaluating whether a breach of Articles 8(1) and 25(1) of the American Convention
has occurred, because it is directly related to the principle of effectiveness that
should permeate the development of such an investigation. In this way, upon
receiving a criminal complaint, the State should undertake a serious and impartial
investigation, but also should resolve the case in a reasonable time in a manner that
reaches the merits of the circumstances alleged.
116.
Therefore, regarding the investigation carried out by the authorities in
relation with the homicide of Ramón Mauricio García Prieto, the Court concludes that
87
Cf. Document issued on June 28, 1999 by the Third Trial Court of San Salvador criminal
proceedings number 110/98 (exhibits to the application, exhibit 2, volume 6, page 2265).
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