6. According to the information provided by the petitioners, in February 1984, Edgar Fernando García was 26 years old, was married to Nineth Montenegro, and had a 3-year-old daughter, Alejandra. They add that Edgar Fernando was an urban primary school teacher, a student at the school of engineering of the University of San Carlos, and an administrative worker at the company Centroamérica de Vidrios S.A. (CAVISA), where he was a member of the union, with the position of recording secretary. 7. The petitioners state that on Saturday, February 18, 1984, the alleged victim left his home, located in Zone 7 of Guatemala City, early, to walk to work. They report that at approximately 10 a.m., he encountered Danilo Chinchilla, and that a checkpoint of the Special Operations Brigade (Brigada de Operaciones Especiales, BROE) and the National Police (PN) had been set up by the market known as El Guarda. The security agents are said to have demanded to see their documents, and subsequently shot both of them, as a result of which both were wounded, and then violently placed them in a vehicle of the security forces. Subsequently, Mr. Danilo Chinchilla was taken to the Hospital Roosevelt while the alleged victim was taken to the Fifth Corps of the National Police, located on the street known as calzada San Juan. 8. According to the petitioners, that same day, men in civilian dress who were driving vehicles without tags searched the alleged victim’s home, took his belongings, and told his mother and wife that Edgar Fernando García would return the following Tuesday. 9. The petitioners argue that from the very day of Edgar Fernando’s detention, his family took many initiatives, before the judicial authorities and the authorities of the Executive branch, to determine his whereabouts; they even looked for him in detention centers, hospitals, and morgues, and took out paid ads in different press outlets. Mr. García’s family reported the illegal detention to the courts, and filed writs of habeas corpus (recursos de exhibición personal). In addition, they met with the de facto president of Guatemala at that time, General Oscar Humberto Mejía Víctores, the Minister of Defense, the Director of the National Police, and personnel from the Army High Command, yet all these efforts were for naught. According to information that Mr. García’s family received extra-officially, he was alive as of December 1984. 10. The petitioners add that on June 23, September 10, and October 15, 1997, theGrupo de Apoyo Mutuo (GAM) filed writs of habeas corpus before the Supreme Court on behalf of the alleged victim, which were declared inadmissible in 1998. 11. They further argue that on November 25, 1997, the Supreme Court of Justice was asked to initiate a Special Inquiry Procedure, which was admitted on December 4, 1997, thereby giving a legal mandate to the Office of the Human Rights Ombudsperson (Procuraduría de los Derechos Humanos) of Guatemala to undertake the investigation, pursuant to Article 467 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. That mandate expires every three months; accordingly, the Office of the Ombudsman must constantly seek extensions from the Supreme Court of Justice, the last extension known of having been granted on December 7, 2005. The investigation into the illegal detention and forced disappearance of Edgar Fernando García continues to be in the “Special Inquiry Procedure” under the Human Rights Ombudsman of Guatemala. 12. The petitioners report that a series of steps have been taken through the Grupo Justicia of Guatemala, and with other civil society organizations, resulting in meetings with the Attorney General and the President of the Supreme Court, who apparently showed interest in supporting the creation of a National Commission to Search for the Disappeared. Finally, the petitioners note that due to the appearance of the files of the former National Police, one of the largest in Latin America, work was proceeding in conjunction with the Human Rights Ombudsman of Guatemala to search for information on the forced disappearance of the alleged victim. B. The State 2