the State be ordered “[t]o strengthen the capacity of the judicial branch to investigate the facts adequately and efficiently and to punish those responsible, [providing] the necessary materials and technical resources to ensure that the proceedings are conducted properly.” 255. The representatives asked the Court to order the investigation, prosecution and eventual punishment of the masterminds and perpetrators of the human rights violations committed during the Río Negro massacres, and of the execution of Evaristo Osorio Sánchez and Valeriano Osorio Chen. In addition, they described some criteria for these investigations,328 and asked the Court to order that the arrest warrant against retired colonel José Antonio Solares González be executed. 256. In this regard, the State undertook “to continue facilitating the criminal investigation in this case […]” and “to expedite the capture” of retired colonel José Antonio Solares González. It also undertook “to initiate the investigations into the facts that remain to be investigated,” and “to make arrangements with the Witness Protection Program of the Public Prosecutors’ Office in order to ensure the personal integrity of those involved in the criminal investigation in this case” who accept the protection offered by the said program, and “to publish in the Diario Oficial de Centroamérica [the official gazette] the results of the criminal proceedings that are held […].” In addition, the State declared that it had “taken specific measures to strengthen the system of justice” through the National Justice Commission. B.1.2. Considerations of the Court 257. The Court appreciates the State’s willingness to facilitate the criminal investigation in the instant case. However, taking into account the conclusions indicated in Chapter XII of this Judgment, the Court stipulates that the State must remove all obstacles, de facto and de jure, that maintain impunity in this case,329 and initiate, continue, facilitate, or reopen the necessary investigations to determine and, as appropriate, punish all those responsible for the human rights violations perpetrated during and after the five massacres that are the purpose of this case. The State must expedite, re-open, direct, continue and conclude, within a reasonable time, the pertinent investigations and proceedings to establish the truth of the facts, taking into account that approximately 30 years have elapsed since these five massacres occurred. In particular, the State must ensure that the following criteria are observed:330 328 Among other matters, the representatives indicated that the State must: (a) initiate all the investigations together, taking into account the systematic pattern of human rights violations that existed at the time, and endeavor to joinder the proceedings; (b) avoid the application of amnesty laws or similar provisions that benefit the perpetrators; (c) ensure that the competent authorities have and use the necessary logistic and scientific resources to collect and process the evidence and that they have the authority to access the pertinent documentation to investigate the facts denounced; (d) ensure full access and legal standing to the next of kin of the victims at all stages of the investigation; (e) ensure due guarantees of safety for all those who take part in the investigations; (f) guarantee that the authorities abstain from taking measures that entail the obstruction of the investigations, and open disciplinary, administrative or criminal actions, in accordance with domestic law, against those responsible for the different procedural and investigative irregularities, and (g) ensure that the results of the proceedings are publicized. 329 Cf. Case of Myrna Mack Chang v. Guatemala, supra, para. 277, and Case of Contreras et al. v. El Salvador, supra, para. 128. 330 Cf. Case of Anzualdo Castro v. Peru, supra, para. 181, and Case of González Medina and family members v. Dominican Republic, supra, para. 285. 88