I INTRODUCTION OF THE CASE AND PURPOSE OF THE DISPUTE 1. On November 12, 2010, pursuant to the provisions of Articles 51 and 61 of the American Convention, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (hereinafter “the Inter-American Commission” or “the Commission”) submitted to the jurisdiction of the Court case 12,703 against the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela (hereinafter also “the State,” “the Venezuelan State” or “Venezuela”). 2. The proceedings before the Commission were conducted as follows: a) On October 12, 2005, Patricia Andrade of the Venezuela Awareness Foundation lodged the initial petition before the Inter-American Commission (No. 1133-05) in which she also requested precautionary measures in favor of Mr. Díaz Peña, who at that time was subject to preventive detention in the Pre-Trial Detention Center of the General Directorate of the Intelligence and Prevention Services, located in El Helicoide in Caracas, Venezuela.1 b) On March 20, 2009, the Commission issued admissibility report No. 23/09 (hereinafter “admissibility report”), declaring that petition No. 1133-05 was admissible with regard to the presumed violation of Articles 5, 7, 8 and 25 of the American Convention in relation to Articles 1(1) and 2 of this instrument, and inadmissible with regard to the claims concerning the presumed violation of Articles 4, 11, 15 and 24 of the American Convention. c) On July 13, 2010, the Commission approved merits report No. 84/10 (hereinafter “merits report”), under Article 50 of the Convention, in which it concluded that the Venezuelan State was responsible for the violation of Articles 5, 7, 8 and 25 of the American Convention, in relation to Articles 1(1) and 2 of this instrument, and made a series of recommendation to the State. d) On August 12, 2010, the State was notified of the said report and granted two months to provide information on the measures adopted to comply with the Commission’s recommendations. In view of the State’s failure to present any information, the Commission decided to submit this case to the jurisdiction of the Court. The Commission appointed Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro, Commissioner, and Santiago A. Canton, Executive Secretary, as delegates, and Elizabeth Abi-Mershed, Deputy Executive Secretary, and Silvia Serrano Guzmán, lawyer of the Executive Secretariat, as legal advisers. 3. The Commission submitted to the Inter-American Court all the facts and human rights violations described in its merits report No. 84/10.2 The facts presented by the Inter-American Commission occurred in the context of the protests which took place in Venezuela, particularly in Plaza Francia in Altamira, Caracas, beginning in October 2002 and continuing into part of 2003, and related to events that occurred on February 25, 2003, when two explosive devices were detonated in the Consulate General of the Republic of Colombia and in the Office for International Trade of the Kingdom of Spain in Caracas and, specifically, to the detention of Raúl José Díaz Peña for his alleged responsibility in them. It is alleged that his detention was illegal and arbitrary and 1 Mr. Díaz Peña was sentenced and convicted to nine years and four months’ imprisonment by a judgment of April 29, 2008, and when the time he had spent in preventive detention was subtracted four years and eleven months remained to be served (infra para. 89). On May 13, 2010, he was granted the alternative measure of serving his sentence in an open regime, and on September 5, 2010, he did not return to the Community Treatment Center as he should have done under the said regime. Currently, he is living in the United States of America where he has requested asylum (infra para. 90). 2 According to Article 35(3) of the Rules of Procedure of the Court, “[t]he Commission shall indicate which facts contained in the report to which Article 50 of the Convention refers it is submitting to the consideration of the Court.” 3