MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Inter-American Court hears case over the April 11, 2002 killings in Caracas

The only people convicted over the events were Metropolitan Police officers, released this year, and police commissioner Iván Simonovis, who escaped house arrest in 2019 and lives in exile

The Inter-American Court of Human Rights held this week in San José, Costa Rica, the first public hearing in the case over the killings of April 11, 2002 in Caracas, when an opposition march came under gunfire near the Miraflores Palace. Nineteen people died and dozens were wounded that day, in the run-up to the coup that removed then-president Hugo Chávez from power for two days.

The case, known as Trujillo et al. v. Venezuela, was brought before the inter-American system that same year by lawyers Alfredo Romero and Gonzalo Himiob of the NGO Foro Penal. The Inter-American Commission referred it to the Court on July 9, 2024, after concluding that the Venezuelan state had violated the rights to life, personal integrity, assembly, and judicial guarantees and protection, and had not shown that the use of lethal force was legitimate, necessary or proportionate. The Court has yet to rule.

Testifying before the court, journalist Delvalle Canelón, who witnessed the shooting from a rooftop and was a witness at the trial held in Venezuela, said she had been threatened during that process by two of the men who fired from the Llaguno bridge and who were later acquitted. “There has been no investigation in Venezuela into these events. There is total impunity that persists to this day,” Romero said. Mohamed Merhi, father of Jesús Capote, an 18-year-old shot in the head, said impunity “is the result of a system that has protected those responsible”.

The only people convicted over the events were Metropolitan Police officers, released this year, and police commissioner Iván Simonovis, who escaped house arrest in 2019 and lives in exile. Although Venezuela denounced the American Convention on Human Rights in 2013, the Court retains jurisdiction over events that occurred before that date.

The parties have until November 13 to submit their final written arguments, which may include alleged victims left out of the initial file and the request for reparations.