73 (a) More than 27 years have elapsed without the lawsuits having concluded or the next of kin of the said persons knowing, through final judgments that are res judicata and encompass all the masterminds, perpetrators and accessories after the fact, what happened to these persons, where their remains are, who was responsible for their forced disappearance, what punishment was imposed, and what reparation is legally due to them. This is a result of the situation of impunity that affects the rights of the next of kin of Agustín Goiburú Giménez, Carlos José Mancuello Bareiro and the brothers Benjamín and Rodolfo Ramírez Villalba; (b) The obligation to investigate and punish any act that involves the violation of rights protected by the Convention requires that not only the perpetrators should be punished but also the masterminds and the accessories after the fact; (c) The State incurred international responsibility when its judicial bodies did not carry out a serious investigation or punish those responsible; (d) The State has the obligation to advance the domestic proceedings until they reach a conclusion, acting de oficio and not based on the initiative of the next of kin. In the instant case, the State has not alleged any convincing reason to justify its delay, because, although a few of the lawsuits have ended with regard to some of those responsible, they continue open regarding other individuals. Moreover, some of those accused originally are now deceased. The State is responsible for the partial impunity in these cases; (e) Regarding Alfredo Stroessner and Sabino Augusto Montanaro, it was only on December 7, 2000, that orders of preventive detention for the purpose of extradition were issued against them. The delay in issuing the preventive detention orders reveals the State’s failure to adopt genuine measures to comply with its international obligations. Even though the judge in the case called upon the Government to request Stroessner’s extradition, the State never made that request nor has it provided information on any steps it took to promote this extradition request; (f) The State has alleged that the appeals filed by the accused have delayed the proceedings, but has not specified the dates and provided details of these appeals. The State has not provided any convincing reason to justify that, more than 27 years after the facts occurred, the investigation and the respective judicial proceedings have not produced any effective results and the extradition of Alfredo Stroessner ordered during the proceedings has not been executed; (g) The delay in initiating the investigations and the failure to initiate them de oficio, as well as the difficulties that the Paraguayan judicial system purportedly faces can be attributed to the State itself, and therefore do not excuse the latter from complying with the obligations it assumed on ratifying the American Convention; and