In 1991, a military commando designed to combat insurgency entered the rural villages of Santa Bárbara, and captured fifteen people, including seven children, an elderly man, and five women, one of whom was pregnant. The soldiers burned the houses of the victims, slaughtered their livestock, and stole their possessions. Then, they led the victims to a mine, where they were forced into a sinkhole, shot them and destroyed their bodies with dynamite. Amnesty laws protected the soldiers, and the State failed to timely investigate, identify and exhume the remains in the mine. The Court found that the State violated the American Convention on Human Rights, the Inter-American Convention to Prevent and Punish Torture, and the Inter-American Convention on Forced Disappearance of Persons.
Case Summary: Peasant Community of Santa Bárbara v. Peru, Case Summary