6
occasions (supra tenth having seen paragraph). In this respect, the requests for
information should be presented within the established time limits, so that the Court
may evaluate it, together with the information provided by the State, and take the
corresponding decision on provisional measures, as most appropriate in accordance
with the circumstances of the case.
7.
That the Inter-American Court is not a permanent Court, so that matters
submitted to its consideration may only be decided when it is sitting. In the instant
case, when the fifty-eighth regular session of the Court was held from February 17
to March 7, 2003, the Court did not have sufficient information to evaluate the
request to lift the provisional measures, because the State, the representatives, and
the Commission had not yet transmitted all the requested information.
8.
That, on May 13, 2003, the State communicated to the Court its decision “to
cease to provide the safety measures that it had been providing to the next of kin of
Justo Victoriano Martínez Morales as of this date” (supra fourteenth having seen
paragraph).
9.
That provisional measures are exceptional in nature, are adopted in function
of the needs for protection and, once adopted, must be maintained while the basic
requirements mentioned in the second considering paragraph subsist.
10.
That only the Court has the competence to decide on the continuance or
lifting of a provisional measure. Consequently, the provisional measures that it
adopts are fully in force and produce their effects until the Court orders that they be
lifted.
11.
That, in accordance with the information provided by Guatemala in the instant
case, “Justo Victoriano Martínez Morales, Justo Víctor Martínez Morales or Justo
Víctor Morales Martínez”, as indicated in the clarification about his name requested of
the State, died on December 13, 2002, so that it is no longer necessary to maintain
the provisional measures adopted in his favor.
12.
That the Commission and the representatives of the beneficiaries of the
measures declared that the circumstances of extreme gravity and urgency that
justified the adoption of provisional measures in favor of the next of kin of Justo
Victoriano Martínez Morales persist, so that the measures of protection adopted in
favor of Floridalma Rosalina López Molina, Víctor Hansel Morales López, Edgar Ibal
Martínez López and Sylvia Patricia Martínez López, must be maintained, because
they are still at risk.
THEREFORE:
THE INTER-AMERICAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS,
in exercise of the authority conferred on it by Article 63(2) of the American
Convention on Human Rights and Articles 25 and 29 of its Rules of Procedure,