110
310.
Furthermore, in the framework of the working visit made by the Office of
the Rapporteur on the Rights of Persons Deprived of Liberty to the province of Buenos
Aires in June 2010 and at its follow‐up hearing in March 2011, the IACHR was informed of
the alleged disappearance of Luciano Arruga. According to the information received,
Luciano Arruga–aged 17 at the time of the events–is said to have disappeared in January
2009 after being unlawfully detained at Lomas de Mirador police station. Previously, on
September 21, 2008, Luciano Arruga was reportedly detained for 12 hours without any
record having being made of that fact. The suspicions about the possible involvement of
the police in Luciano Arruga’s disappearance stem from the repeated threats that he
received from the police station personnel as well as witness testimony given during the
proceeding at the domestic level to the effect that he was at Lomas del Mirador police
348
station.
311.
Likewise, the Centro de Prevención, Tratamiento y Rehabilitación de las
Víctimas de la Tortura y sus Familiares [Center for Prevention, Treatment, and
Rehabilitation of Torture Victims and their Families] (CPTRT) recorded at least six possible
cases of disappearance of inmates in prisons in Honduras between 2004 and 2006. 349
According to the CPTRT most of the victims in these cases were members of gangs (or
maras) and their disappearances were the work of other inmates. 350
312.
In light of the above considerations, the IACHR underscores that
international human rights law requires States to adopt certain specific measures to
prevent forced disappearance of persons deprived of their liberty. Examples of these
measures are: keeping up‐to‐date official records on persons deprived of their liberty,
which shall be made available to third parties; 351 holding of individuals in officially
348
Comité Contra la Tortura de la Comisión Provincial por la Memoria, Annual Report 2009: El Sistema
de la Crueldad IV [The System of Cruelty IV], pp. 440‐441; IACHR, Public hearing: Human Rights Situation of
Persons Deprived of Liberty in the Province of Buenos Aires, 141º Ordinary Period of Sessions, Participants: State of
Argentina, the Center for Legal and Social Studies (CELS), Comisión por la Memoria de la Provincia de Buenos Aires
[Truth Commission for the Province of Buenos Aires], March 28, 2011; Comité Contra la Tortura de la Comisión
Provincial por la Memoria, Annual Report 2010: El Sistema de la Crueldad V [The System of Cruelty IV],
pp. 30, 309‐312.
349
They are: (a) Sandy Otoniel Gómez González and Oscar Danilo Vásquez Corea, who both allegedly
disappeared from Támara National Penitentiary in February 2006; (b) José Rafael Reyes Gálvez, also an inmate at
Támara National Penitentiary, who was last seen in July 2005; and (c) José Arnaldo Mata Aguilar, Orlín Geovany
Funez, and Glen Rockford, who variously disappeared in 2003 and 2004 while confined at San Pedro Sula Prison.
Their remains were found buried in the ground under the Cell 19 after the process of restoration that followed the
fire in May 2004.
350
IACHR, Public hearing: Situation of the Persons Deprived of Liberty in Honduras, 124° Ordinary
Period of Sessions, Participants: State of Honduras, Center for Justice and International Law (CEJIL), Comité para la
Defensa de los Derechos Humanos en Honduras (CODEH), Comité de Familiares de Detenidos y Desaparecidos de
Honduras (COFADEH) and Centro para la Prevención, Tratamiento y Rehabilitación de las Víctimas de Tortura
(CPTRT). March 7, 2006. In this regard, see the report: Situación del Sistema Penitenciario en Honduras, drafted by
CPTRT and COFADEH, presented in the said hearing.
351
See, Inter‐American Convention on Forced Disappearance of Persons, Article XI; International
Convention for the Protection of all Persons from Forced Disappearance, Article 17(3); and the United Nations
Declaration on the Protection of all Persons from Enforced Disappearance, Article 10(2) and (3).
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