9 40. In the light of the above, as Mr. Blake's fate or whereabouts were not known to his family until June 14, 1992, that is, after the date on which Guatemala accepted the contentious jurisdiction of this Court, the preliminary objection raised by the Government must be deemed to be without merit insofar as it relates to effects and actions subsequent to its acceptance. The Court is therefore competent to examine the possible violations which the Commission imputes to the Government in connection with those effects and actions. IX 41. The second preliminary objection is based on a claim of this Court's incompetence owing to the subject, inasmuch as Guatemala considers that the events on which the application is based do not constitute a violation of any of the human rights and freedoms recognized in the American Convention and that they are ordinary unlawful criminal acts which cannot be imputed to the State, since Civil Self-Defense Patrols cannot be presumed to be agents of the State. Accordingly, if the members of those patrols commit criminal acts, their liability is direct and individual. 42. The Commission, for its part, asserts that the objection refers to the merits of the case, inasmuch as establishing whether the alleged facts constitute violations of the Convention will depend on the evidence supplied by the parties. 43. The Court is of the view that this second objection is not preliminary; that it is, rather, essentially linked to the merits of the dispute. In order to establish whether the Civil SelfDefense Patrols ought or ought not to be deemed agents of the State and, therefore, whether the events indicated by the Inter-American Commission are attributable to the State or, on the contrary, are ordinary crimes, it will be necessary to examine the merits of the dispute and consider the evidence supplied by the parties. Consequently, this objection must be rejected on the grounds of inadmissibility. X 44. The third objection concerns the alleged violation by the Commission of Article 29(d) of the Convention, which the Government attributes to a “distorted interpretation” of the human rights recognized in the Convention. The Commission maintains that this objection also concerns the merits, because only at that stage will the Court be able to establish whether or not the Commission has correctly interpreted the precepts of the Convention which the Government claims it has infringed. 45. This Court maintains that the Government's arguments are unclear, since the precept it invokes (supra, para. 36) has a different meaning to that attributed to it; moreover, the matter was not clarified at the public hearing held on January 28, 1996. The Government is apparently contending that the Commission's interpretation of the provisions of the Convention in which the human rights violated are enshrined is inaccurate. The objection evidently relates to the merits of the case; therefore this Court may consider whether the Commission's arguments regarding Guatemala's possible violation of those provisions of the Convention are well founded. Consequently, this objection should also be dismissed on the grounds of inadmissibility and the fact that it is not a preliminary objection. 46. As the first preliminary objection is only partially founded and the other two are inadmissible, the hearing of the case should proceed. Whereas the victim's detention and