3 6. On April 2, 1997, Guatemala presented a brief in which it raised four preliminary objections and requested the Court "to extend the term for responding to the petition until [the preliminary objection had been] resolved." 7. By Order of April 16, 1997, the Court declared "inadmissible the request by the State of Guatemala for an extension of the period for presenting its answer to the application" in the instant Case, and decided to "continue to process it in its respective procedural stages." 8. On April 18, 1997, the State informed the Court of an "error of substance in the brief on preliminary objections" and requested that the Court deem it "not to have been presented [and], therefore, to abrogate the Order of this Court of April 16, 1997." 9. By Order of April 18, 1997, the President decided "to deem the brief on preliminary objections of April 2, 1997, not to have been presented." 10. On May 6, 1997, pursuant to Article 36 of the Rules of Procedure, the State submitted, within the established term, a brief in which it raised preliminary objections (supra, para. 4). 11. On the following day the Secretariat transmitted Guatemala's brief to the Commission, which submitted its comments in English on June 6, 1997. The Spanish translation provided by the Commission was received on July 3, 1997, and transmitted to the State the next day. 12. On July 4 of the same year, the State presented its answer to the application. II 13. The Court summarizes the facts of the instant Case in the following paragraphs, in accordance with the application of the Inter-American Commission: a. On the afternoon of June 15, 1990, in the area known as "Las Casetas" in Guatemala City, a pickup truck approached Henry Giovani Contreras, 18 years of age; Federico Clemente Figueroa-Túnchez, 20 years of age; Julio Roberto CaalSandoval, aged 15, and Jovito Josué Juárez-Cifuentes, aged 17. Armed men got out of the vehicle and kidnapped the four young men, forcing them into the truck. b. The bodies of young Juárez-Cifuentes and Figueroa-Túnchez were found in the San Nicolás Woods on June 16, 1990, and the corpses of young Contreras and Caal were discovered in the same place on the following day. The corpses showed signs of torture and the official cause of death in each case was gunshot wounds. c. At about midnight on June 25, 1990, Anstraum Villagrán, aged 17, was shot dead in "Las Casetas". Eye-witnesses saw the victim enter a lane followed by two men. They spoke and minutes later when young Villagrán turned around to make his escape, one of the men shot him in the back, killing him. d. Moments after the murder of Mr. Villagrán, the two murderers went to kiosk Nº 29 and asked for two beers. Some street children approached the men and accused them of killing young Villagrán. The two men told them, "If you do not keep quiet, you will suffer the consequences." e. The Commission maintains that "Las Casetas", and specifically the area near