24 Heliodoro Portugal’s daughter, went to the offices of the Panamanian National Human Rights Committee to submit a claim reporting the disappearance of her father. 92. Regarding this first period from 1968 to 1972, it is worth noting that, as the Supreme Court of Justice of Panama has acknowledged, “at the date of the forced disappearance of Heliodoro Portugal the country was governed by a regime that prevented free access to justice.”51 Furthermore, in a statement made during the public hearing before the Court, the Prosecutor General, Ana Matilde Gómez, stated that during this period “it was evident that there was no access to justice, because the population was afraid to have recourse to the courts and the prosecutors’ offices to testify.”52 b) Period from 1990 to 1999 93. When Panama returned to a democratic regime, the State accepted the InterAmerican Court’s competence as binding on May 9, 1990. 94. On May 10, 1990, Patria Portugal filed a complaint before the Office of the First Superior Prosecutor of the First Judicial District of Panama indicating that on May 14, 1970, her father had been detained and disappeared, and that it had not been possible to file a complaint before the Attorney General’s Office at the time, owing to the reigning political situation.53 c) Period from 1999 to the present 95. On September 21, 1999, the Attorney General’s Office issued a resolution ordering excavations to be conducted in the former “Los Pumas” Barracks in Tocumen, as a result of information received from the Metropolitan Archbishop of Panama City to the effect that he had been informed that the mortal remains presumably belonging to the priest, Héctor Gallegos, who had allegedly disappeared 20 years previously, were to be found there.54 As a result of these excavations, human remains were found,55 and submitted to DNA testing, which, on October 27, 1999, revealed that the remains did not belong to the priest, Héctor Gallegos.56 Owing to this negative result and, as a result of a private initiative, the remains found were submitted to additional DNA testing, using samples from the next of kin of Heliodoro Portugal and the next of kin of other disappeared persons. In the August 22, 2000, report on the genetic testing conducted by Reliagene Technologies and Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratories (AFDIL), it was determined that the remains found in the former “Los Pumas” Barracks belonged to Heliodoro Portugal, and the Prosecutor General 51 Judgment of the Second Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice of March 2, 2004, supra note 38, f. 295. 52 Testimony given during the public hearing held on January 29, 2008, at the seat of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights by the current Prosecutor General, Ana Matilde Gómez. 53 Cf. Complaint filed by Patria Portugal before the Office of the First Superior Prosecutor of the First Judicial District of Panama on May 10, 1990 (file of appendixes to the application, appendixes 1 and 2, appendix 1, fs. 48 and 49), and testimony given by Patria Portugal before the Inter-American Court, supra note 44. 54 Cf. transcript of the record of the exhumation of the corpse in the “Los Pumas” Barracks, Tocumen of September 22, 1999 (file of appendixes to the application, appendixes 1 and 2, appendix 22, fs. 151 and 152). 55 Transcript of the record of the inspection at the “Los Pumas” Barracks, Tocumen, of September 22, 1999 (file of appendixes to the application, appendixes 1 and 2, appendix 21, fs. 148 and 149); and transcript of the record of the exhumation procedure, supra note 54. 56 Cf. Forensic pathology report of the Institute of Forensic Medicine, supra note 14.