38. The petitioners note that on October 27, 2004, the Criminal Court for Drug-trafficking and Crimes against the Environment of the Department of Baja Verapaz, in case number 28-2003, oponed the case, and began the proceeding, which was suspended due to the filing of some motions. Specifically, the petitioners allege that on October 28, 2004, the oral and public debate was suspended by the filing of an amparo action, which was found inadmissible and subsequently confirmed on appeal. 39. Nonetheless, the petitioners note that the defense counsel of the accused filed a constitutional motion, arguing that Article 234 of the Code of Criminal Procedure is partially unconstitutional. The petitioners indicate that one year and seven months later, there has been no ruling on that motion. 40. As regards the exhumation of the bodies buried at clandestine cemeteries, the petitioners report that in 1994, at the initiative of the survivors, the courts ordered the exhumation of remains of the victims of the March 13, 1982 massacre. According to the forensic anthropology report, the human remains found were of at least 143 persons, including women and children, who were killed violently; it was only possible to identify three persons. The petitioners state that of this large number of persons, some more remains have yet to be recovered, and that they may have been carried away by the water current that formed in the place where the victims were left, others due to erosion (mainly babies and small children) were lost after more than 10 years of having been exposed to the elements. 26 41. Finally, the petitioners note, as a way to explain the continuation of the conflicts, that in 2004 the community of Pacux, one of the communities resettled from the Community of Río Negro, after suffering more than four months without electricity and without drinking water, decided to convene the communities affected by the construction of the Chixoy hydroelectric dam to demonstrate peacefully. They allege that as a result of the demonstration held September 7, 2004, nine persons as representatives of that community, were accused of crimes such as “attack on the internal security of the nation and the security of the Public Services, alleging that the intention of the demonstration was to destroy the dam; they also accuse them of the crime of unlawful entry; the State forgets that the land is still registered in the name of the communities.” 27 They indicate that at present nine persons who participated in that demonstration are facing criminal charges. 28 B. The State’s position 42. The State, in answering the complaint, noted as follows as regards the events in the community of Río Negro on March 13, 1982: “Based on the information from the Public Ministry, it was established that: ‘on March 13, 1982, at approximately six o’clock in the morning, Messrs. Macario Alvarado Toj, Francisco Alvarado Lajuj, Tomas Vino Alvarado, Pablo Ruiz Alvarado, Bonifacio Cuxun López, Lucas Lajuj Alvarado, Pedro González Gómez, Fermín Lajuj Xitumul, Miguel Alvarado Sic, and Víctor González, accompanied by First Captain of the National Army José Antonio Solares González, along with other residents of the village of Xococ, who it has not been possible to individually identify, went to village of Xococ [sic village of Río Negro] of the municipality of Rabinal, department of Baja Verapaz bearing machetes, rope, sticks, and firearms for the purpose of executing the residents of that village, to which end they ousted them from their homes, gathered them together, and violently along a mountainous road took them to the place known as Pokoson situated in Cerro Portozuelo, which is located approximately two kilometers from the village of Río Negro where, as of 11 a.m., they began to interrogate them for the purpose of finding out where the guerrillas were and subsequently they executed the women and children using the sticks and rope as tourniquets around the victims’ throats, strangling them and crashing the children against the rocks and trees, beating the women’s faces with sticks until they died, as occurred when Macario Alvarado Toj shot Juana Tum Sánchez, who did not die from the impact of the bullet rather the accused Alvarado Toj and other companions beat her with sticks to the head until they killed her, 26 27 28 See petitioners’ brief of July 19, 2005, p. 7. See petitioners’ brief of July 19, 2005, p. 7. See petitioners’ brief of July 19, 2005, p. 8. 7