3 7. That same day the Secretariat forwarded the Government's brief to the Commission and on October 16, 1995, the Commission presented its answer contesting the preliminary objections. 8. On November 9, 1995, the Government submitted its reply to the application. 9. By Order of December 9, 1995, the President decided to summon the parties to a public hearing so that their comments on the preliminary objections presented in this case could be heard. 10. The public hearing was held at the seat of the Court on January 28, 1996, at which there appeared: for the Government of Guatemala: Dennis Alonzo-Mazariegos, Agent Fredy Gudiel-Samayoa, Advisor; for the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights: Claudio Grossman, Delegate John Donaldson, Delegate Domingo Acevedo, Attorney Felipe González, Assistant II 11. The following paragraphs summarize the events, circumstances and processing of this case before the Commission as they were set forth in the application and its attachments submitted to the Court. 12. According to the application, on March 26, 1985, Mr. Nicholas Chapman Blake, a United States citizen and journalist residing in Antigua, Guatemala, set off with Mr. Griffith Davis, a United States citizen and photographer, to the small village of El LLano in the Department of Huehuetenango, arriving there on March 28, 1985. The purpose of the trip was to collect information for an article on one of the Guatemalan guerrilla bands. That same day, the El Llano Civil Patrol, under the command of Mario Cano, questioned Mr. Blake and Mr. Davis “on the purpose of their trip.” Years later, it was established that after seeking instructions from officers of the Las Majadas military garrison, Mario Cano ordered three members of his patrol -identified as Epólito Ramos-García, Candelario Cano-Herrera and Vicente Cifuentes- to arrest Blake and Davis and take them to a place known as Los Campamentos on the border with the El Quiché Department, telling them, “You can kill them if you wish.” On arrival there, “Epólito Ramos-García fired on one of them, killing him instantly” and “Vicente Cifuentes ... shot the second man, killing him also,” whereupon the “three civil patrolmen threw the bodies into very dense undergrowth at the side of the path” and covered them with tree trunks “to make them disappear.” 13. The Commission in its application set forth the many measures Mr. Nicholas Chapman Blake's relatives took, to no avail, until Mr. Justo Martínez told them, in 1988, how Mr. Blake and Mr. Davis had been killed by the El Llano Civil Patrol. Mr. Martínez also claimed that the previous year (1987) the remains of the two victims had been burned to prevent discovery.