Chimaltenango. On November 21, 1980, Felipe Álvarez, the Mayor of that municipality, became a victim of forced disappearance 26 at the hands of a group of military personnel and civilians, a disappearance that Guatemalan justice failed to investigate. On January 6, 1981, Mario Augusto García Roca, Second Councilman of the municipality of San Martín Jilotepeque, also became a victim of forced disappearance. 53. In this context, Florencio Chitay left San Martín Jilotepeque to seek refuge in Guatemala City, where he became a victim of forced disappearance on April 1, 1981. Because of these events the remaining members of the municipal council resigned in a body. 27 54. Other victims of forced disappearance were, similarly, three children of Mr. Felipe Álvarez: Jorge Álvarez on April 27, 1981, Mario Álvarez on November 13, 1981, and Mateo Álvarez on December 13, 1981. 28 55. These events took place during the internal armed conflict in Guatemala (1962-1996) of which the most violent period was 1978-1983, under the de facto regimes of generals Romeo Lucas García (1978-1982) and Efraín Ríos Montt (1982-1983). 29 Military operations at the time focused on Quiché, Huehuetenango, Chimaltenango, Alta and Baja Verapaz, the Southern coast, and Guatemala City, accounting for 91% of the violence recorded by the Historical Truth Commission. 56. The petitioners have argued that fear of reprisals kept Mr. Chitay's family from inquiring bout the status of the investigation, because forced disappearances were common in Guatemala at the time, as were threats against those reporting them. It is a reasonable surmise that the situation in Guatemala 30 at the time of Mr. Chitay's disappearance and, in particular, what happened to the family of the above-mentioned Mayor of San Martín Jilotepeque and to the Chitay family itself, made the family justifiably afraid of inquiring with the authorities about the investigation into Mr. Chitay's whereabouts and the punishment of his kidnappers. 57. The record shows, however, that Mr. Chitay's wife reported the disappearance to the National Police the day it happened, and that in 2004 his son filed a habeas corpus application. To this day, however, the Guatemalan judiciary has not investigated the matter. 58. The reasonableness of the deadline set for filing petitions in the inter-American human rights system must be weighed in each case against the procedural activity of the alleged victim's family, the behavior of the State, and the situation and context in which the alleged violation occurred. 59. Considering that Florencio Chitay Nech is the alleged victim of forced disappearance, a crime that is ongoing in nature and not subject to the statute of limitations, and that there has 26 See IACHR, Resolution No. 15-82, Case 7777, Guatemala, March 9, 1982. See note 6 above. 28 On November 21, 1980, in the seat of the municipality of San Martín Jilotepeque, department of Chimaltenango, the municipal mayor, Mr. Felipe Álvarez, was kidnapped. A contingent of 15 men made up of members of the G-2 and civilians from San Martín Jilotepeque, went into the home of the Álvarez family, wounding Mr. Álvarez in the back and repeatedly beating him and his daughters Ester and Antonia. Subsequently, Mr. Álvarez was dragged into a car and his son into another, and they were taken in the direction of Chimaltenango. The family reported the attack to the National Police, which did not investigate. The Lower Court of Chimaltenango opened case file No. 1482/80 but did not investigate. Later, the family of Felipe Álvarez suffered several attacks culminating in the forced disappearance of Felipe Álvarez's three sons: Jorge Álvarez on April 27, 1981, Mario Álvarez on November 13, 1981, and Mateo Álvarez on December 13, 1981. Finally, a witness who was part of the group responsible for the forced disappearance, told one of Felipe Álvarez's. sons that his father had been burnt [sic] at Roosevelt Street and 23rd Ave., in the Zone 7 section of the capital, and that his remains had been thrown into the Pino Lagoon, in the department of Santa Rosa, something that has not been verified. Historical Truth Commission, Guatemala, Memory of Silence, Volume VIII, cases presented, Annex II, case 707 (1999) 29 It has been estimated that there were more than two hundred thousand victims of arbitrary executions and forced disappearance during the political violence in this period. In ethnic terms, members of the Maya indigenous people accounted for 83% of these victims. Historical Truth Commission, Memory of Silence, Volume V, Conclusions and Recommendations, p. 21. 30 IACHR, Fifth Report on the Human Rights Situation in Guatemala, April 6, 2001. 27 9