IACHR Admits Fernando Lugo’s Case Due to Removal From Office

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) declared admissible the case of the former president of Paraguay Fernando Lugo against the State, in the framework of an impeachment trial described as arbitrary and which lasted less than 24 hours in June 2012, after the Curuguaty massacre.

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Now, the Commission will begin the analysis of the merits of the proposal made by the former president, who is currently a senator, with a term of six months. The admissibility has already been notified to the Paraguayan Foreign Ministry.

Lugo's lawyer, Emilio Camacho, explained the case's admissibility and that the Commission considered authenticity, reasonableness and credibility in the request.

Likewise, he mentioned that it also opens the possibility of reaching an amicable agreement between the parties.

"For us, it is an enormous act of justice, an enormous act of defense of the rights established in the Paraguayan Constitution, in the Pact of San José de Costa Rica in the face of the arbitrariness committed during the development of the impeachment trial," he said.

He also pointed out that admissibility reaffirms the conviction that they are defending a just cause and that both the Commission and the Court will agree with them in due course if there is no prior agreement.

The State, for its part, opposes the admissibility of the petition since it alleges that Lugo did not comply with the requirement of exhaustion of domestic remedies and that the facts outlined in the petition do not characterize human rights violations.