ORDER OF THE INTER-AMERICAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS OF FEBRUARY 20, 2003∗ PROVISIONAL MEASURES LUISIANA RÍOS ET AL. V. VENEZUELA HAVING SEEN: 1. The Order of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (hereinafter “the Inter-American Court” or “the Court”) of November 27, 2002, regarding the provisional measures requested by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (hereinafter “the Inter-American Commission” or “the Commission”) in favor of Luisiana Ríos, Armando Amaya, Antonio José Monroy, Laura Castellanos and Argenis Uribe, by which it decided: 1. To call on the State to adopt forthwith all necessary measures to protect the life and safety of Luisiana Ríos, Armando Amaya, Antonio José Monroy, Laura Castellanos and Argenis Uribe, employees of Radio Caracas Televisión (RCTV). 2. To call on the State to allow the petitioners to participate in the planning and implementation of the protection measures and, in general, to inform them of progress regarding the measures ordered by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. 3. To call on the State to investigate the facts stated in the complaint that gave rise to these measures in order to discover and punish those responsible. […] 2. The communication of the State of Venezuela (hereinafter “the State” or “Venezuela”) of December 12, 2002, in which it presented its first report on “compliance with the Order of November 27 [2002], delivered by [the] Court” in favor of Luisiana Ríos et al. and advised that it had sent communications to the Ministry of the Interior and Justice, and to the Offices of the Public Prosecutor and the Ombudsman, requesting them to “order all necessary measures to comply with the provisional measures” and that the “Prosecutor General […] had advise[d] that the Second and Seventy-fourth Prosecutors of the Office of the Public Prosecutor, both from the Judicial District of the Metropolitan area of Caracas, had been empowered” to carry out the measure contained in the third operative paragraph of the Order delivered by the Court in the instant case (supra first having seen paragraph). 3. The comments of the Inter-American Commission of December 20, 2002, on the State’s first report on the provisional measures, in which the Commission indicated that “it considered it essential to expedite all necessary measures for the full protection of the persons specified by the Inter-American Court in the Order of November 27, 2002”, because the State had not taken any official measure to comply fully with the provisional measures. ∗ Judges Máximo Pacheco Gómez and Carlos Vicente de Roux Rengifo advised the Court that, owing to circumstances beyond their control, they would be unable to attend the public hearing on February 17, 2003, and would therefore not take part in the deliberation and signature of this order.