order the appropriate measures for comprehensive and universal health care to be made available to all persons in Guatemala requiring immediate medical attention. The patients signing the letter and the organizations accompanying them demanded that President Portillo comply with their request as soon as possible "since the lives of 4,000 persons, who need care today, depend on your prompt intervention on our behalf." 1 The petitioners state that the President of the Republic ignored that communication. 10. Based on the foregoing, on July 26, 2002, 17 of the petitioners filed an appeal for legal protection (amparo) against the President of the Republic before the Constitutional Court with a view to "restoring the constitutional right to health that is recognized for each and every one of us who lives with HIV/AIDS."2 On August 20, 2002, President Portillo met with the petitioners and informed them that he would order an immediate special transfer of 500,000 quetzales to cover the cost of treating persons with HIV/AIDS through the last quarter of that year. The petition affirms that the transfer was indeed made but that by May 2003, pharmaceuticals had been purchased only for 24 persons being treated at the San Juan de Dios General Hospital and another 47 at Roosevelt Hospital, none of whom were among the presumed victims. 11. On January 29, 2003, the Constitutional Court rejected the appeal (amparo) filed on July 26, 2002, holding that the President’s invitation to meet with the petitioners and the order of a special budget transfer removed the basis for a claim of ongoing injury. In response, the petitioners argue that the Constitutional Court’s ruling never referred to the appeal´s (amparo) true goal which was to bring the President of the Republic, as Head of State, to frame a general and universal health policy guaranteeing the right to health care and therefore to life of persons living with HIV/AIDS. The appeal also aimed to protect the right to life and was filed to ensure observance of the rights enshrined in the Constitution of the Republic as well as in the HIV/AIDS Law. 12. In their complaint, petitioners indicate that as of its writing, and despite the exhaustion of remedies before domestic courts, 12 of the 39 alleged victims were receiving no treatment whatsoever. Nineteen persons receive medical attention and antiretroviral therapy extended by Doctors Without Borders, a nongovernmental organization. Four have not been tested to determine their viral load so have no way of knowing 1 A copy of the letter to the President of the Republic dated May 27, 2002 is included in the file. 2 A copy of the appeal for legal protection (amparo) brought before the Constitutional Court dated July 26, 2002 is included in the file. 4