56. On November 23, 2001, the Asociación Coordinadora de Sectores de Lucha contra el SIDA (hereinafter also “ACSLCS”) sent a letter to the Minister of Health requesting a meeting to discuss: (i) the Regulations to the HIV/AIDS Law; (ii) the HIV/AIDS comprehensive care unit, and (iii) the short-, medium- and long-term situation of antiretroviral treatment.43 On May 27, 2002, ACSLCS and other organizations representing people living with HIV/AIDS in Guatemala sent a letter to the President of the Republic.44 In this letter, they indicated that the State only provided antiretroviral treatment with brandname drugs to 27 individuals, when it could provide treatment to 300 people by using generic drugs, and that this was a violation of article 4 of the Constitution. On June 10, 2002, the Ombudsman sent a letter to the President of the Republic indicating his unconditional support for the letter of May 27, 2002. He indicated that only a limited number of people were receiving antiretroviral treatment through an international agency – and this for only three years. He also asserted that, according to estimates, 4,000 people required this treatment.45 Neither of the two letters received a reply. 46 C.2. Application for amparo before the Constitutional Court 57. Owing to the lack of a response to the said letters by the President and the Ministry of Health, on July 26, 2002, 22 people, including 13 of the presumed victims47 and civil society organizations, filed an appeal before the Constitutional Court. In this appeal they asserted the following: The negative and omissive reaction of the President to the letter dated May 27 this year, in which his immediate intervention was clearly and forcefully requested in order to ensure compliance with the constitutional obligation of the State of Guatemala, and the failure to comply with the provisions of the Constitution, which was equivalent to non-compliance with a constitutional mandate, mean that the action requested, in addition to being legitimate, should entail the obligation of the responsible authority to respect the neglected constitutional guarantee by granting a provisional amparo and, following exhaustion of the respective instances, the final amparo.48 58. The applicants argued that the said refusal or omission by the President violated the right to protection, the right to life, the right of petition, the rights inherent to the individual, and the right to health. They also argued that the violations of these rights arose because the State had not provided any type of social assistance to counteract the gravity of their situation as people living with HIV/AIDS; that, in Guatemala, at least 4,000 people had been diagnosed with AIDS and urgently required treatment, which would not only help them to survive, but also improve their quality of life; that, since 1996, the so called “highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART), which consisted in the combination of at least three Cf. Letter of the Asociación Coordinadora de Sectores de Lucha contra el SIDA of November 23, 2001 (evidence file, folio 8). 43 44 Cf. Letter of the Ombudsman of June 10, 2002 (evidence file, folios 10 and 11). 45 Cf. Letter of the Ombudsman of June 10, 2002 (evidence file, folios 10 and 11). Cf. Initial petition lodged before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights by the Center for Justice and International Law on August 25, 2003 (evidence file, folio 469). 46 The appeal was filed, inter alia, by the following presumed victims in this case: Luis Rolando Cuscul Pivaral, Luis Armando Linares Ruano, Facundo Gómez Reyes, Marta Alicia Maldonado Paz, Miguel Lucas Vaíl, Ingrid Barillas Martínez, Jorge Armando Tavares Barreno, Melvin Yovani Ajtun, Mardo Luis Hernández and Hernández, Alberto Quiché Cuxeva, Teresa Magdalena Ramírez Castro, Rita Dubón Orozco and Dora Marina Martínez Sofoifa. Cf. Application for amparo filed before the Constitutional Court on July 26, 2002 (evidence file, folio 13). 47 48 Application for amparo filed before the Constitutional Court on July 26, 2002 (evidence file, folio 29). 19