2 FACTS SET OUT IN THE APPLICATION 2. In the application, the Inter-American Commission stated that the alleged “capture, abduction and forced disappearance of the children, Ernestina and Erlinda Serrano Cruz” (hereinafter “Ernestina and Erlinda Serrano Cruz,” “the Serrano Cruz sisters,” “the alleged victims” or “the girls”) took place on and after June 2, 1982. They were “7 and 3 years of age, respectively[, … when] they were [allegedly] captured […] by soldiers from the Atlacatl Battalion of the Salvadoran Army during a [military] operation” known as “Operación Limpieza” [Cleansing Operation] or “la guinda de mayo,” carried out in the municipality of San Antonio de la Cruz, Department of Chalatenango among other places, from May 27 to June 9, 1982. “Around fourteen thousand soldiers” allegedly took part in this operation. According to the Commission, during this operation, the Serrano Cruz left their home in order to safeguard their lives. However, only María Victoria Cruz Franco, mother of Ernestina and Erlinda, and one of her sons were able to cross “the military barrier on the way to the village of Manaquil.” Dionisio Serrano, father of Ernestina and Erlinda, and his children Enrique, Suyapa (who was carrying her 6-month old baby), Ernestina and Erlinda Serrano Cruz went with a group of villagers across the mountains, towards the settlement of “Los Alvarenga,” which they reached after walking for three days; there they hid for another three days, despite the lack of food and water. Suyapa Serrano Cruz decided to hide with her baby near the place where her father and siblings were, in order not to endanger them because her baby cried. Dionisio Serrano and his son, Enrique, went to fetch water from a nearby river “at the insistence of his daughters.” Finding themselves alone, the children Ernestina and Erlinda began to cry and were discovered by “the military patrols.” The Commission stated that Suyapa Serrano Cruz was sure that the soldiers took her sisters, because she heard a soldier ask the others if they should take the girls or kill them, to which another soldier replied that they should take them. When she no longer heard any noise, Suyapa began to look for her two sisters; then her father returned and he also searched around the place where he had left them. The Commission indicated that Ernestina and Erlinda Serrano Cruz “were last seen 21 years ago, when a Salvadoran Armed Forces helicopter took them” from the site of these events to a place known as “La Sierpe” in the city of Chalatenango. The Commission stated that there is no evidence to prove reliably whether the soldiers who captured the girls handed them over to the International Committee of the Red Cross or to the Salvadoran Red Cross. The Commission also indicated that these facts form part of a pattern of forced disappearances in the context of the armed conflict, allegedly “perpetrated or tolerated by the State.” The Commission stated that Mrs. Cruz Franco was in Honduras “as a refugee in a camp,” with her daughter, Suyapa. It also indicated that, because “the facts occurred at a time when domestic legal remedies were inoperative,” it was only on April 30, 1993, that María Victoria Cruz Franco, mother of the alleged victims, filed a complaint before the Chalatenango Court of First Instance for the alleged disappearance of Ernestina and Erlinda. The girls’ mother filed the complaint “a month and a half after the Salvadoran population recovered its faith in its Judiciary,” following publication of the report of the United Nations Truth Commission on March 15, 1993. On November 13, 1995, Mrs. Cruz Franco filed a petition for habeas corpus before the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice. The Chamber rejected it, considering that this remedy was not appropriate for investigating the whereabouts of the sisters. In this regard, the Commission indicated that “the