5 18. On May 4, 1995, the Commission transmitted Report 5/95 to the Government of Guatemala, informing it that if it failed to implement the recommendations contained therein, the Commission would submit the case for the consideration of the Inter-American Court as provided in Article 51 of the Convention. 19. On July 5, 1995, the Government transmitted its reply to the Commission, declaring that: [t]he proceedings on the merits are currently at the investigation stage, the last procedural steps being the statements by witnesses in the instant case before the District Prosecutor of the Ministry of the Interior [“Ministerio Público”] of Huehuetenango ... As indicated by the statements made by the aforementioned persons, it is evident that the case is progressing. 20. On August 3, 1995, having not reached an agreement with the Government, the Commission submitted the case for the consideration and decision of the Court. III 21. The Court is competent to hear the instant case. Guatemala has been a State Party to the American Convention since May 25, 1978, and accepted the contentious jurisdiction of the Court on March 9, 1987. IV 22. The Government filed three preliminary objections, summarized as follows: First. Incompetence of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights to try this case, inasmuch as recognition of the compulsory competence of the Court applies exclusively to cases that occurred after the date on which the declaration was deposited with the Secretariat of the Organization of American States. Second. subject. Incompetence of the Court to deal with this application by reason of its Third. Violation by the Commission of the American Convention by virtue of the restriction regarding interpretation contained in Article 29(d). V 23. The first objection is that of “[i]ncompetence of the Court to hear this case” which the Government based on the fact that Guatemala accepted the jurisdiction of the Court on March 9, 1987, “with the reservation that cases in which the Court's competence is accepted relate exclusively to events that occurred after the date on which the declaration is presented to the Secretariat of the Organization of American States” and that the acts to which the application refers occurred in March 1985, prior to Guatemala's acceptance, so that the Court lacked competence to try the case. The Government maintains that despite the fact that the Commission “[a]ccuses it ... of arbitrary and unlawful abduction of Mr. Nicholas Chapman Blake, of causing his forced disappearance and taking his life,” those events clearly occurred in March 1985. 24. The Inter-American Commission requested that this objection be dismissed because the application in the instant case “refers to events that took place after that date.” In support of its request, the Commission contends that lack of competence ratione temporis