11. Final written arguments and observations. On July 12, 2021, the representatives and the State forwarded their final written arguments, with various attached documents, and the Commission presented its final written observations. 12. Observations of the parties and the Commission. On July 26, 2021, the representatives presented their observations on the annexes to the final written arguments forwarded by the State. On August 6, 2021, the State presented its observations on the annexes to the final arguments of the representatives, and the Commission, submitted its observations regarding the annexes to the final arguments of the State and indicated that it had no observations to make on the annexes of the representatives. 13. Deliberation of the case. The Court deliberated this judgment in a virtual session held on October 4, 5 and 6, 2021. 14 III JURISDICTION 14. The Inter-American Court has jurisdiction to hear this case, pursuant to Article 62(3) of the American Convention, given that Guatemala has been a State Party to this instrument since May 25, 1978, and accepted the Court’s contentious jurisdiction on March 9, 1987. IV PRIOR CONSIDERATION 15. In the case sub judice the State presented as a preliminary objection the “identification of the alleged victims.” The Court notes that, pursuant to its constant case law, this argument does not constitute a preliminary objection, since its analysis cannot result in the inadmissibility of the case or in the Court’s lack of jurisdiction to hear it. Therefore, the Court will examine this issue as a prior consideration. 15 A. Arguments of the parties and of the Commission 16. The State argued that although the Commission had named four indigenous communities as victims, the representatives, in their pleadings and motions brief, had identified eight community radios and one indigenous community without a radio station. Thus, the State asserted that, since they were legal entities, their admission as alleged victims would not be possible under Article 1 of the American Convention. It also argued that “the radio [stations] specified [in the aforementioned brief of the representatives] were not part of the initial petition, and that the Commission did not make any pronouncement with respect to them in the Merits Report.” 17. The Commission considered that Guatemala’s arguments correspond to the analysis of the merits of the case and, therefore, should be dismissed as a preliminary objection. It added that, in its Merits Report, it did not identify legal entities as victims in the case, but rather four indigenous communities located in four different regions of Guatemala, who operated four This judgment was deliberated and approved during the Court’s 144th regular session which, owing to the exceptional circumstances created by the COVID-19 pandemic, was held virtually in accordance with the provisions of the Court’s Rules of Procedure. 15 Cf. Case of Rodríguez Revolorio et al. v. Guatemala. Preliminary objection, merits, reparations and costs. Judgment of October 14, 2019. Series C No. 387, para. 18, and Case of the Workers of the Fireworks Factory in Santo Antônio de Jesus and their families v. Brazil. Preliminary objections, merits, reparations and costs. Judgment of July 15, 2020. Series C No. 407, para. 16. 14 -6-