24 Forced Disappearance of Persons. Such arraignment was forwarded to the Juzgado Primero de Primera Instancia de Control del Circuito Judicial Penal del Estado Vargas (First Control Court of First Instance of the Criminal Judicial Circuit for Vargas State). c) Regarding Mr. Roberto Javier Hernández-Paz i) Arrest and disappearance 51.16 On December 23, 1999, at approximately 7.30 pm, Mr. Roberto Javier Hernández-Paz, of 37 years of age, was at the residence of his uncle Carlos Paz, located in the Tarigua area, Caraballeda village, Vargas State, when a vehicle identified with the DISIP acronym parked in front of the house. Five officers got out of the vehicle and three of them waited in the garden while the other two entered the house without a search warrant and arrested Mr. Roberto Javier Hernández-Paz, who was dragged out of the house. Mr. Roberto Javier Hernández-Paz was injured with a firearm in front of his residence by DISIP agents, who got him inside the aforementioned vehicle and drove him away to an unknown destination. Since that date, the whereabouts of Mr. Roberto Javier Hernández-Paz have remained unknown. 51.17 On December 30, 1999, Aleidy Maritza Hernández-Paz, sister of Mr. Roberto Javier Hernández-Paz, went to the office of the DISIP to request information on the whereabouts of her brother, but Police Commander Luis Pineda-Castellanos, Director of Investigations, said that they had no information regarding that person. In addition, she went to the National Guard office in Vargas State, where she could not obtain any information on her brother’s whereabouts either. On February 10, 2000, Hernández-Paz and her mother, Teodora Paz de Hernández, went to the Instituto de Medicina Forense (Institute of Forensic Medicine), but they did not obtain any information regarding Mr. Roberto Javier Hernández-Paz there. ii) Domestic proceedings 51.18 On January 21, 2000, PROVEA, the Red de Apoyo por la Justicia y la Paz (Justice and Peace Support Network), the COFAVIC (Committee of Next of Kin of the Victims of the Events of February-March 1989) and the Vicaría Episcopal (Episcopal Vicarship) filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus with the Tribunal Segundo de Control del Circuito Judicial Penal del Estado Vargas (Second Control Court of the Criminal Judicial Circuit for Vargas State). 51.19 On January 24, 2000, the Director General Sectorial (Sector General Director) of the DISIP, Lieutenant Colonel Jesús E. Urdaneta-Hernández, informed the Tribunal Segundo de Control (Second Control Court) that Mr. Roberto Javier Hernández-Paz had not been arrested by officers of the agency. 51.20 On January 25, 2000, the Tribunal Segundo de Control (Second Control Court) ruled that there was no “subject-matter for the Court to determine,” “inasmuch as it was established that citizen Roberto Javier Hernández-Paz [was] not illegally deprived of his liberty by order of [… the DISIP ], and given that there is no evidence or record of the detaining authority or the place of confinement where the person is allegedly being held.” 51.21 On January 28, 2000, an appeal was lodged with the Corte de Apelaciones del Circuito Judicial Penal de la Circunscripción Judicial del Estado Vargas (Court of