APPENDIX III

RESOLUTION (CASE 1726)

WHEREAS:

A communication of October 10, 1971, alleged that, in the jail of the town of Manacas, Province of Las Villas, Cuba, Mr. Oriol Acosta y García, a political prisoner, had been murdered in his cell by guards on August 5, 1971, and other prisoners had been wounded;

Pursuant to the authority conferred upon it by Article 9 (bis) of its Statute, this Commission requested the Government of Cuba, by note of March 26, 1972, to provide information on the matter and transmitted to it, at the same time the pertinent parts of the aforementioned communication, in the manner established in Articles 42 (1) and 44 of its Regulations;

At its twenty-ninth session (October 1972), the Commission noted that the Government of Cuba had not yet furnished the information requested and that the 180-day period specified in its Regulations had elapsed;

Article 51 of the Regulations reads as follows:

1. The occurrence of the events on which information has been requested will be presumed to be confirmed if the Government referred to has not supplied such information within 180 days of the request, provided always, that the invalidity of the events denounced is not shown by other elements of proof.

2. The Commission may make an extension to the term of 180 days in cases in which it finds it justified”;

In view of the systematic silence of the present Government of Cuba in the face of the numerous communications received from this Commission, it would serve no practical purpose to make recommendations to that government of the type envisaged in Articles 9 paragraph b) and 9 (bis) paragraph b) of the Statute. However, this does not prevent the Commission from making known to the Assembly the judgments merited by the events denounced;

Neither the formulation of such observations nor, in general, the competence of this Commission to take cognizance of denunciations regarding violations of human rights committed in the territory of Cuba is barred by the measures adopted by the Organization of American States with respect to the present government of that country, since that government has not denounced the Charter of the Organization, as provided for in Article 148 of the Charter, for which reason it is the duty of this Commission to continue to take cognizance of these denunciations;

THE INTER-AMERICAN COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS,

RESOLVES:

1. To consider confirmed, through application of Article 51 of the Regulations, the occurrence of the events denounced in the communication of October 10, 1971, and that such events are imputable to the Government of Cuba.

2. To make known to the Assembly that the events described in case 1726 constitute a very serious case of violation of the right to life, liberty and personal security, set forth in Article I of the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man.

3. To transmit the text of this resolution to the Government of Cuba and to the claimants.