effective remedy to protect them from the alleged violations of their rights. Specifically, they hold that there were a number of different irregularities in the investigation in this case, such as: (a) the lack of response by the Police Department to requests for information from the Public Prosecution Service (Ministerio Público); (b) the absence from the record of important investigative procedures, such as the forensic anthropology report by the Guatemalan Forensic Anthropology Unit (EAFG) and a ballistic analysis of the fragments if the fire weapon that were found in the corpses; and (c) shortcomings in the visual inspection in 1997. They also report that progress in the framework of this process has been minimal and in that regard they note the following proceedings: (a) disinterment of corpses by the Guatemalan Forensic Anthropology Unit (EAFG), March 1996; (b) opening of the criminal investigation at the Public Prosecution Service's District Prosecutor's Office (Fiscalía Distrital del Ministerio Público), April 1996; (c) deposition of the then-Deputy Mayor of Los Josefinos and Commander of Military Zone No. 23; (d) visual inspection, March 1997; and (e) photographic record of the clandestine grave site, October 2007. 11. As regards the rights of the child, the petitioners allege that the State breached its obligation to provide the children with the special protection warranted by their status as such, not only because of the arbitrary executions, but also because the State failed to adopt any measures to provide assistance to the children who were left abandoned. As regards the rights of the family, they say that the actions of the Guatemalan military forces destroyed the fabric of the families that lived in Los Josefinos. As to the right to property, the petitioners point out that this was violated by the Army's destruction of the property and belongings of the inhabitants of los Josefinos. They also say that the State failed to protect the property of the survivors of the massacre from looting. 12. With respect to exhaustion of domestic remedies, the petitioners say that owing to the fact that in Guatemala terror became an official policy of control from 1978 to 1985, neither the survivors nor the relatives of the alleged victims had dared to report the massacre. As a result, it was only in January 1996—the year the peace accords were signed—that FAMDEGUA requested a preliminary evidentiary hearing before the Court of First Instance of the Department of Petén with a view to the exhumation of the corpses found in the clandestine grave site at Los Josefinos as an advance offering of evidence. In addition, the petitioners say that more than 30 years after the massacre at Los Josefinos and 18 years since the investigation began, little significant progress has been made in the latter and the alleged victims and their relatives have still not received a satisfactory and effective response. In light of the alleged unwarranted delay on the part of the Guatemalan State, the petitioners consider that the exception to the requirement of exhaustion of domestic remedies contained in Article 46(2)(c) of the Convention applies. B. The State 13. The Guatemalan State acknowledges international responsibility for the events that occurred during the massacre of Los Josefinos. In that regard, it indicates that at approximately 5:00 p.m. on April 29, 1982, the department’s military unit had reached the village, surrounded it, and prevented anyone from leaving. At some time before 7:00 p.m., according to the State, the military unit killed the members of the patrol on watch at Los Josefinos and then set fire to the homes and killed the villagers by shooting or beating them to death. The Guatemalan State establishes that the survivors hid in the mountains and that the village was abandoned. 14. With respect to the institution of judicial proceeding in connection with the events in this case, the State agrees with the petitioners that it commenced on January 16, 1996, when FAMDEGUA reported the existence of a grave where the alleged victims of the massacre of Los Josefinos were reputedly buried. The State also concurs with what the petitioners have said with regard to the steps taken in the context of the proceedings. 15. In relation to the alleged victims, the State notes that, before the eventual determination of admissibility and subsequent merits decision, it requests the Commission to acknowledge as "adequate and effective” the economic reparation the State provided to 251 groups of relatives of alleged victims, in the context of the process towards a possible friendly settlement in the present case. 3