contacts.5 The Court’s Secretariat again attempted to contact the alleged victims, 6 without receiving a response. On December 19, 2019, the Secretariat reported the Court’s decision to suspend further proceedings in the case due to the unsuccessful attempts to communicate with the alleged victims. On June 10, 2020, the Commission was again requested to provide contact information and it responded with new information on June 16. Two days later, the Secretariat contacted the alleged victims and reopened the case. On June 23, the alleged victims requested that the Court appoint the Inter-American Public Defenders, which was done on July 6, 2020. 6. Notification to the State and to the representatives. – On July 10, 2020, the submission of the case was notified to the representation of the alleged victims (hereinafter “the representatives” or “the Inter-American Public Defenders”) and to the State.7 7. Brief with petitions, motions and evidence. – On September 9, 2020, the InterAmerican Public Defenders presented its brief with petitions, motions and evidence (hereinafter “brief with petitions and motions”), pursuant to Articles 25 and 40 of the Rules. It substantially agreed with the arguments of the Commission and presented additional allegations.8 8. Answering brief. – On December 1, 2020, the State presented its brief (hereinafter “answering brief) responding to the submission of the case by the Commission and to the brief with petitions and motions. Venezuela disputed the human rights violations alleged by the Commission and the representatives, as well as the requested measures of reparation. 9. Final written procedure and acceptance of oral evidence. – By Order of April 14, 2021, the President of the Court, after consulting the other judges, decided that, for reasons of procedural economy and in view of the situation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, it was not necessary to convoke a public hearing in the present case and, therefore, decided to receive the oral statements by videoconference. On May 7, 2021, the Court confirmed the President’s Order after the State had objected on April 30, 2021. The evidentiary phase by videoconference took place on May 14, 2021 (infra para. 23). 10. Final written arguments and observations. – On July 14, 2021, the Commission, the representatives and the State presented their observations and arguments. The representatives and the State attached documentation to their respective briefs.9 5 The Commission repeated the contact information that it had sent earlier in the proceedings. 6 Communications were sent on October 7 and November 7, 2019. The representation of the alleged victims was provided by the Inter-American Public Defenders Javier Mogrogevo and Renée Mariño Álvarez. In addition, Luis José Gomez Nuñez was named Alternate InterAmerican Public Defender. Venezuela was represented by its Agent, Larry Devoe Márquez. 7 The representatives alleged violations of Articles 1, 6 and 8 of the Inter-American Convention to Prevent and Punish Torture, as well as the violation of the right to personal integrity of the next of kin of Olimpiades González, in relation to his death, and to the alleged lack of an investigation into his death. These infringements to human rights were not mentioned by the Commission. 8 The final written observations of the Commission and those of the State and the representatives, as well as the annexes of these latter, were communicated to the parties and to the Comission. The Court set July 26, 2021 as a deadline for the Commission and the parties to send, if they deemed it pertinent, their observations to those annexes. 9 5