testimony of Wilson Minchala 196 and Jenny Bohórquez 197 during the domestic criminal proceedings (supra paras. 48 and 56), in which it stands out that, when the doctor under contract was Emilio Guerrero, and “in order to legalize his presence,” the surgical procedures were assumed by Jenny Bohórquez and “he became her assistant, because, at that time, he was accrediting his qualifications.” 147. In addition, the Court takes into account that, although, during the domestic criminal proceedings, in the court order to investigate the alleged offense issued on August 16, 2000, the Criminal Judge ordered that: “a note be sent to the Director of Health and the Commissioner for Health asking that [they indicate] whether the Minchala Clinic had the necessary operating permits and whether it offered the guarantees necessary for this,” 198 these proceedings were not provided with any response to this request for information, even though it would appear that an answer existed, based on the observations of the Public Prosecution Service in its report of May 29, 2001 (supra para. 52). However, there is no evidence that the said health authority opened an administrative investigation into this fact under the provisions of article 213 of the Health Code. 199 Furthermore the Court observes that, in a brief submitted on June 7, 2001, Melba Peralta Mendoza asked the Criminal Judge to “proceed to close the Minchala Clinic.” 200 The case file does not contain an answer to this request. Lastly, in August 2001, the site of the facts was inspected. However, the criminal case file provided to the proceedings before this Court does not contain the results of this inspection. 148. In this regard, it should be added that the Court asked the State, as helpful evidence, to provide the documentation proving that, at the time of the facts, the Minchala Clinic was authorized by the competent authority, and also that the Clinic had been subject to some form of supervision. 201 In this regard, the State provided information relating to the procedures implemented in Ecuador to monitor health care facilities, and also with regard to other cases of medical malpractice; however, it did not provide the information that had been requested. 202 In addition, the Court observes that the State’s monitoring and control of the Minchala Clinic was only carried out by the competent authorities years after the facts of this case had been verified, owing to other specific cases, resulting in the closure of the said clinic in May 2002 and October 2007 (supra para. 73). Nevertheless, the evidence provided reveals that these inspections and subsequent sanctions were not related to the facts that occurred in this case. 196 Wilson Minchala testified that he: “hired out the operating theater of the Minchala Clinic, of which [he is] the owner manager, to Jenny Bohórquez, for an emergency operation (appendicitis), as can be seen in Medical Record No. 975; thus, he never examined or met the said patient, so that she [was] not [his] patient and, as revealed in this case, the patient was examined in the outpatients department of the Polyclinic of the Guayas Traffic Commission.” In addition, he also testified that Drs. Emilio Guerrero and Jenny Bohórquez lived together at the same address and that he did “not know whether [Emilio Guerrero was] authorized to exercise the medical profession in our country; however, in [his] clinic, [Guerrero was] not registered as a principal surgeon to perform operations.” Testimony of Wilson Minchala of October 19, 2001, supra. 197 Testimony of Jenny Bohórquez on November 13, 2001, supra. 198 Court order to investigate the alleged offense of August 13, 2000 (file of annexes to the Merits Report, folios 26 to 28). 199 Article 213 of the 1971 Health Code establishes that: When a claim, report or complaint has been received from which it can be inferred that any violation penalized by this Code has been committed, the Health Commissioner shall issue an initial decision containing […]” (file of annexes to the answering brief, folio 2415). 200 Brief submitted by Melba Peralta on June 7, 2001 (file of annexes to the Merits Report, folio 71). 201 Cf. Request for helpful evidence, supra, folios 771 to 776. 202 Cf. Note MSP-DGS-2013-00418, Information provided by the Health Ministry (file of annexes to the final arguments, folios 3182 to 3205). 44