3 8. The January 6, 2004 report by the State of Guatemala (hereinafter “the State” or “Guatemala”), in which it pointed out that due to the complaint filed on September 4, 2004 by Víctor Hansel Morales-López, stating that he was “under surveillance from and threatened [by] groups called ‘maras’,” it decided to “extend the security measures in his favor for a substantial time,” but that on September 18, 2003 Mr. Morales-López had traveled to Houston, United States, to live and work in that city. For this reason, the State asserted that to date it had received no other reports of incidents suffered by the family of Justo Victoriano Martínez-Morales and it requested the total lifting of the provisional measures, “as there [we]re no longer reasons” to continue providing them. 9. The February 9, 2004 brief with comments by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (hereinafter “the Commission” or “the Inter-American Commission”), in which it pointed out that, according to information supplied by Floridalma López-Molina, her son Víctor Hansel Morales-López had returned to Guatemala on December 5, 2003. On the other hand, with respect to the State’s request to lift the provisional measures, the Commission endorsed the concern expressed by the beneficiaries of those measures, who stated that they felt a “wellfounded fear for their security due to completion of the prison sentence of Vicente Cifuentes-López, who was convicted by the Guatemalan judicial authorities as one of the persons responsible for the murder of Nicholas Chapman Blake in the trial during which Justo Victoriano Martínez-Morales rendered testimony and due to which he and his family received serious death threats. In this regard, the Commission asked the Court to extend the provisional measures for six months, during which the State must supply information on the legal situation of Vicente Cifuentes-López, so as to assess whether the conditions that gave rise to those measures still exist. 10. The April 26, 2004 report by the State, in which it asserted that the protection measures ordered by the Court in this case had not been interrupted. Also, regarding the legal situation of Vicente Cifuentes-López, the State reported that he was an inmate at the Granja Modelo de Rehabilitación Cantel penitentiary in Quetzaltenango, serving the incommutable 28 year prison term to which he was sentenced for the murder of Nicholas Chapman Blake, and that he must continue serving this prison sentence until March 11, 2025. 11. The July 1, 2004 brief with observations by the Inter-American Commission, in which it reported that Floridalma López and her children were in good conditions regarding security and were in agreement with the protection measures adopted by the State through the National Civil Police. In this regard, the Commission pointed out that given the effectiveness of said measures, it would be prudent for the State to continue them six months more. 12. The July 20, 2004 report by the State, in which it reported that on June 11, 2004 it summoned Víctor Hansel Morales-López, beneficiary of the provisional measures, to the seat of the Comisión Presidencial Coordinadora de la Política del Ejecutivo en Materia de Derechos Humanos (COPREDEH) in the Department of Huehuetenango, to verify compliance with said measures, and he stated that the members of his family had suffered no personal security problems, threats or intimidation, and that the National Police continued to provide them with security measures, through the presence of “a member of this institution” twenty-four hours a day and by regular patrols in the vicinity of their house. In this regard, the State pointed out that the next of kin of Justo Victoriano Martínez, beneficiaries of the

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