The purpose of the amparo proceeding eventually is for the plaintiff to obtain a judicial adjudication from the competent court, providing for the immediate protection of his harmed or threatened constitutional rights, for instance, through a judicial decision restraining some actions, preserving the status quo, or commanding or prohibiting actions.

Amparo and injunctions are both extraordinary remedies having the same purpose, the main difference between them being the rights to be protected. In the United States, injunctions are equity remedies that can be used for the protection of any kind of personal or property rights, but in Latin America, the amparo proceeding is conceived only for the protection of constitutional rights, which explains its regulations in the constitutions, and not for the protection of rights established in statutes.

In this matter of the amparo proceeding, as well as in matters of injunctions, two general sorts of judicial adjudications can be issued by the courts for the protection of constitutional rights: preliminary measures that can be ordered from the beginning of the procedure, with effects subject to the final court ruling; and definitive decisions preventing the violation or restoring the enjoyment of the threatened or harmed rights.

THE PRELIMINARY AMPARO MEASURES

In Latin America, according to the regulations established in the Civil Procedure Codes, all courts are empowered to adopt, during the course of a procedure, what are called “medidas preventivas” or “medidas cautelares,” that is, interlocutory and temporal judicial measures that are also applied to the amparo proceeding.