2 prevent future crimes of this nature, and ensure the security of human rights monitors and their relatives. 4. The Commission's request follows upon a petition brought on April 4 and 18 and May 2, 1991, by Americas Watch and the Center of Justice and International Law (CEJIL), which led to the opening of case Nº 10.674 by the Commission. That petition included a special request to the Court for the adoption of provisional measures. A. The petition is based on the following facts: a. That on October 6, 1990, Sebastián Velásquez-Mejía, a human rights activist associated with the Mutual Support Group (GAM) and the Council of Ethnic Communities "We Are All Equal" (CERJ), was abducted by five plainclothesmen driving a blue pickup truck known to belong to the army. The men abducted Sebastián Velásquez after the local civil patrol chief, Manuel Perebal-Ajtzalam III, showed them where the victim was waiting for a bus on the highway near his village of Chunimá in the department of El Quiché. Manuel Perebal-Ajtzalam III had previously threatened Sebastián Velásquez' life. b. That on October 8, 1990, the body of Sebastián Velásquez was found in Guatemala City. The autopsy stated that the victim died of blows to the thorax and abdomen. c. That on December 10, 1990, a second human rights activist from Chunimá, GAM member Diego Ic-Suy, was shot dead in the Guatemala City bus terminal by two masked gunmen. Ic-Suy had been under surveillance by the civil patrols commanded by Manuel Perebal-Ajtzalam III before his murder. d. That on January 21, 1991, a district court judge in Santa Cruz del Quiché issued a warrant for the arrest of Chunimá patrol chief Manuel Perebal-Ajtzalam III for the abduction and murder of Sebastián Velásquez. The police failed to carry out the order. e. That on February 17, 1991, Manuel Perebal-Ajtzalam III and another civil patrol leader from Chunimá, Manuel León-Lares, accompanied by four unidentified men, shot three more human rights activists from Chunimá, killing CERJ members Manuel Perebal-Morales and his father Juan PerebalXirúm, and leaving seriously injured his half brother, Diego Perebal-León, also a member of the CERJ. Manuel Perebal-Morales and Diego Perebal-León were witnesses to the abduction of Sebastián Velásquez. Their testimony before the district court judge in Santa Cruz del Quiché had prompted that court to order the arrest of Manuel Perebal-Ajtzalam III. In addition, Perebal-Ajtzalam III had threatened to kill the victims on several occasions before this incident. f. That on February 18, 1991, the justice of the peace in Chichicastenango ordered the arrest of Manuel Perebal-Ajtzalam and Manuel León-Lares for the murder of Manuel Perebal-Morales and Juan PerebalXirúm, as well as the serious wounding of Diego Perebal-León. The police failed to carry out this order as well.