22 51.5 On December 23, 1999, Alejandra Josefina Iriarte de Blanco, Oscar José Blanco-Romero’s wife, accompanied by his mother, Gisela Romero, and children, began searching for the victim in different government agencies and offices, such as garrison 58 of the National Guard, the DISIP operations center, located in the Caraballeda golf course, the paratrooper operations centers stationed in said state, Maiquetía International Airport, and the “Helicoide”, and the DISIP operations base in Caracas. In order to get to said international airport they had to walk, for several hours, a long way where they saw the corpses of the people who had died as a result of the natural disaster, which made the search even more distressing. However, they did not find the name of their relative in the official lists or records of persons held in custody in any of the aforementioned places. 51.6 On January 29, 2000, Major General Lucas Enrique Rincón-Romero, General Commander of the Army, by means of the official letter sent to the Tribunal Quinto de Control del Circuito Judicial Penal del Estado Vargas (Fifth Control Court of the Criminal Judicial Circuit for Vargas State), acknowledged that Mr. Oscar José BlancoRomero had been arrested on December 21, 1999 by members of the Infantry Battalion “Colonel Antonio Nicolás Briceño” and immediately handed over to a unit of the DISIP (supra paras. 51(3) and 51(4)). However, on February 18, 2000, DISIP General Director Captain Eliezer Reinaldo Otaiza-Castillo, informed that the arrest of Mr. Oscar José Blanco-Romero was not registered neither “on the records nor in the report book” of the aforesaid agency. ii) Domestic proceedings 51.7 Due to the disappearance of Oscar José Blanco-Romero, Mrs. Gisela Romero and Mrs. Alejandra Josefina Iriarte de Blanco filed the relevant complaint with the Fiscalía Superior del Estado Vargas (Office of the Senior Prosecutor for Vargas State) and with the Cuerpo Técnico de Policía Judicial (Judicial Police Technical Division), which was later reaffirmed on January 24, 2000 with the Ministerio Público (Office of the Public Prosecutor) by Mrs. Iriarte de Blanco. 51.8 On January 28, 2000,Mrs.Iriarte de Blanco filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus regarding her husband with the Tribunal Quinto de Control del Circuito Judicial Penal del Estado Vargas (Fifth Control Court of the Criminal Judicial Circuit for Vargas State). On February 1, 2000, said Court dismissed the habeas corpus petition as “there [was] no subject-matter for the Court to determine,” given that Oscar José Blanco-Romero “[was] neither legally nor illegally deprived [of liberty] by order” of the DISIP. In addition, the Court forwarded its decision to the Fiscalía Superior del Estado Vargas (Office of the Senior Prosecutor for Vargas State) so that the prosecutor might “order[ed] the measures leading” to elucidating the reported events. 51.9 On February 7, 2000, the record of the case was forwarded to the Corte de Apelaciones del Circuito Judicial Penal del Estado Vargas (Court of Appeals of the Criminal Judicial Circuit for Vargas State) (hereinafter “the Court of Appeals”) to review “through the consultation mechanism” the decision handed down by the Tribunal Quinto de Control (Fifth Control Court) on the habeas corpus petition. On February 10, 2000, the Court of Appeals affirmed the aforesaid decision. 51.10 On May 15, 2001, the National Attorney General, Mr. Julián Isaías Rodríguez filed an action for review of the decision rendered by the Tribunal Quinto de Control del Circuito Judicial Penal del Estado Vargas (Fifth Control Court of the Criminal