IACHR Files Application Before Inter-American Court of Human Rights in Case Concerning Nicaragua About Forced Disappearance and Torture Against José Ramón Silva Reyes

December 12, 2023

Washington, D.C. – The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) filed on August 31, 2023, an application before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in Case 13,251 with regard to Nicaragua. This case concerns forced disappearance and torture perpetrated against José Ramón Silva Reyes by officers of the State, as well as threats and lack of access to justice suffered by his son, Denis Silva, in connection with his actions in search of truth.

When these events happened, José Ramón Silva Reyes was a retired colonel of Nicaragua's National Guard. As a result of the victory of the Sandinista Revolution on July 18, 1979, Silva Reyes and several other members of his family went to the Guatemalan Embassy in Managua to apply for political asylum and protection. Silva Reyes was granted asylum and requested safe passage several times, but his requests were refused.

On October 31, 1983, the Nicaraguan government said he had fled from the embassy with two other asylum recipients. In 1985, Álvaro José Baldizón Avilés said that Nicaragua's General Department of State Security (DGSE) had drafted a plan to murder a group of Nicaraguans who had been granted asylum in the Guatemalan Embassy. According to Baldizón Avilés, the DGSE had an undercover agent request asylum in this way and invite others to escape the facility, which some agreed to do. According to this statement, this group of people left the embassy and were captured and murdered by members of the F-1 Department, following orders from a lieutenant.

The petitioners filed complaints concerning these events on several platforms. On April 14, 2005, they send a letter to the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights denouncing disappearance, torture, and extrajudicial killing involving Silva Reyes, and this letter was sent to the relevant government institutions of the time. The petitioners also sent to the Nicaraguan government a copy of the petition they filed before the Inter-American System on April 28, 2005. Denis Silva said he had received death threats linked to his search and to his submission of data to Nicaragua's Permanent Commission for Human Rights and that he had been forced to flee from Nicaragua in the face of harassment by the public prosecutor's office.

After assessing this case, the Commission found that Silva Reyes had been subjected to a forced disappearance. In particular, the Commission noted that case records reflected allegations that these events had been perpetrated by agents who sought to detain, torture, and execute Silva Reyes for having been a member of the National Guard during the Somoza government.

Concerning the violation of the right to personal integrity given acts of torture, the Commission found that—based on information provided by various former members of the DGSE—Silva Reyes can be said to have been subjected to serious acts of physical and psychological violence while he was arbitrarily deprived of liberty and held in the custody of officers of the State, with the aim of obtaining information from him.

The IACHR further noted that the State had been informed of these events at various times and that, despite the fact that the supporting information was serious, it had failed to launch an investigation to establish what had happened. Finally, the Commission noted that the disappearance of Silva Reyes continued to cause profound pain, anxiety, and uncertainty to his family decades later.

The IACHR therefore concluded that the State of Nicaragua was liable for violations of the rights to juridical personality, life, humane treatment, personal liberty, judicial guarantees, and judicial protection held in Articles 3, 4, 5, 7, 8.1, and 25.1 of the American Convention on Human Rights, concerning the obligations held in Articles 1.1 and 2 of that instrument. The IACHR further concluded that the State had failed to comply with the obligations held in Articles 1, 6, and 8 of the Inter-American Convention to Prevent and Punish Torture.

The Commission therefore recommended that the State of Nicaragua adopt the following reparation measures:

• Provide comprehensive reparations—both material and immaterial—for all human rights violations
• Provide relatives of José Ramón Silva Reyes with adequate medical and psychological care, should they want it
• Identify the individuals responsible for these events and hand over the remains of Silva Reyes to his family
• Conduct a serious, effective investigation into these events, in compliance with international standards concerning due diligence (statutes of limitations may not be invoked to justify a failure to comply with this recommendation)
• Take measures of non-recurrence including legislative and administrative measures to adapt legislation to the applicable standards concerning the ban on statutes of limitations in criminal cases regarding forced disappearance and torture

A principal, autonomous body of the Organization of American States (OAS), the IACHR derives its mandate from the OAS Charter and the American Convention on Human Rights. The Inter-American Commission has a mandate to promote respect for and to defend human rights in the region and acts as a consultative body to the OAS in this area. The Commission is composed of seven independent members who are elected in an individual capacity by the OAS General Assembly and who do not represent their countries of origin or residence.

No. 291/23

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