ambushed by a person, later identified as Luis Carrera Almoina, who, using violence and threatening to kill her, force her into his vehicle and kept her deprived of liberty until July 19, 2001. The following is a partial transcript of the testimony given by Linda López on these facts and the attacks she suffered during this time: [...] Someone came up behind me and took me by force to a dark red SUV, pointed a pistol at me, moved the seat forward... he took me to Hotel Aventura, before parking he told me that [...] if I did anything he would kill me, he had the gun in his suit coat pocket, he took me to the hotel, I wasn’t asked for identification [...] he dragged me, I tried with my eyes to make signs to a guard... [the hotel room was not ready so they went to the Dorávila apartment complex] where likewise [he kept a grip on her] so [she] couldn’t make a move, when we got the elevator, a woman saw us and he said I was his girlfriend, I was crying, we got to his house and he got his things [... later they returned to Hotel Aventura] we got to the room, he hit me, he lock me in, he threw me to the floor, he made me eat soap, he violently beat me, he got a phone call from his father inviting him to [the Teresa Carreño Theater], he said he could not miss that invitation, that he had to attend [...] he received phone calls from his father and when the time came he hit me again, he put dark glasses on me [...] he threatened me again with his pistol [...] when we got to the lobby, the father was just getting there, that chauffeur was driving, he introduced me as his girlfriend and said I was from Maracaibo and that I was loud and mean but I’m from Merida, the father and the chauffeur were up front and I was in back next to him, we got to the Teresa Carreño and he introduced me to ELIO GÓMEZ GRILLO [...] I don’t drink and he wanted to force me to drink, he made me have two drinks [...] then we went to a restaurant... I was crying, I tried to make a sign, when his father went to the bathroom, he kicked me under the table, he pinched me, we went back to the hotel [...] he told me that he didn’t want those people to know what was happening, that all the crying in the street was hurting him, he hit me, he turned on the TV at a high volume, he took me to the bed and raped me, he put a sleeping mask on me, he turned on pornographic movies, [...] he hit me really hard, he took drugs [...] after raping me repeatedly he gagged me with his Tshirts, he handcuffed me to him when he got tired, the door was chained and dead-bolted [...] he put [the key] under the mattress he was sleeping on, to make sure I couldn’t leave [...] the whole time he forced me, he raped me while I was tied up, I went to the bathroom while handcuffed [...] every day I was there he raped me, he always had the pistol he threatened me with [...]20 54. Linda Loaiza López stated to the IACHR that: A week later [March 27, 2001], I was taken in the early morning hours to the state of Sucre [in the eastern part of the country], where the violence continued [...] I was sexually abused, beaten, tied up, handcuffed, and once he tried to drown me on a beach near the house, I was put in a stress position on bottle caps, objects were broken off inside me, I was threatened by my attacker with his firearm, he penetrated my vagina with objects, he penetrated me with his hand and my vagina was torn [...]21 55. According to her statement, while she was deprived of liberty she was not able to communicate with her family, but her attacker took her address book and started to call her family and one time forced her to call her sister and “insult her with obscenities.” She also stated during the domestic criminal proceeding that her attacker made a deposit money for her father, Nelson López, telling her that that way, “there was evidence and nobody could hold them responsible for what he had done.” She stated that he 20 Annex 4. Decision of the Twentieth First Instance Trial Tribunal of the Caracas Metropolitan Area. Case No. 20.-253. November 5, 2004. Statement of Linda Loaiza López Soto, pgs. 112-113, 117, 299. Annex D of the brief from the petitioners, July 14, 2009. 21 Hearing on the Merits No. 17, Case of Linda Loaiza López Soto and relatives (Venezuela), 154th Period of Sessions, March 2015. Statement of Linda Loaiza López Soto. Available at: http://www.oas.org/es/cidh/multimedia/sesiones/154/default.asp