3 to Commit a Crime; that on November 15, 16, and 17, 2009 an Arraignment Hearing was held for five of the mentioned officials; that another 12 officials “were arraigned” without specifying the date; that the Public Prosecutors’ Office requested a measure of preventive detention for all the officials involved; that the corresponding judicial authority ordered the imprisonment of the officials attached to the Bolivarian National Guard and to the Ministry of the People’s Power for Relations of the Interior and Justice, and that on November 18, 2009 the Public Prosecutors Officer requested the transfer of a citizen so he could offer a testimonial statement since “he is aware of the circumstances of manner, time, and place in which the facts occurred.” The State did not present any documentation to support the processes described.4 3. The Commission’s arguments to substantiate its request for provisional measures, namely that: a) the situation of extreme gravity and urgency is proven by the following circumstances: i) Mr. Natera Balboa was under the State’s custody the last time anyone heard of him, that is, on November 8, 2009. Three weeks have gone by without any news nor official response, despite a series of efforts made by the family and some organizations. Given the State’s special position of guarantor regarding detainees, when a person under State custody allegedly disappears, without any acknowledgment or elucidation whatsoever by the State, it is reasonable to infer that he is in a situation of grave risk; ii) from the information available several testimonies indicate that Mr. Natera Balboa was removed from the penitentiary center in a violent way by a group of state officials led by a captain of the National Guard, entity in charge of the external custody of prisons in Venezuela; iii) both the ordinary criminal investigation started by the State and the habeas corpus petition filed by the next of kin have failed to produce the immediate results required in situations such as this one, and iv) the next of kin of Mr. Natera Balboa and their representatives have turned to several state institutions related to the penitentiary centers in order to obtain information on Mr. Natera Balboa without being offered any response whatsoever; b) the State’s efforts, in cases such as this one, cannot be limited to starting an ordinary criminal investigation nor can they be based on the presumption that the person in question has escaped or fled, but instead they must take into account that it could be a forced disappearance and that the affected party could be in a situation of extreme risk, especially when there is indicia that favor that possibility, and c) the nature of the rights threatened, the right to life and to humane treatment, constitute “the extreme of irreparability of the consequences this request of provisional measures seeks to avoid.” 4. The request of the Inter-American Commission that the Court, based on Article 63(2) of the American Convention, Article 26 of the Rules of Procedure, and Article 74 of the Rules of Procedure of the Commission, request that the State comply with the following measures: 4 Cfr. Brief of response of the State of Venezuela of November 23, 2009, attachment 4 to the request of provisional measures of November 28, 2009.