2 in Article 1(1) (Obligation to Respect Rights) of said Treaty, and in Articles 1, 2, 6 and 7 of the Inter-American Convention to Prevent and Punish Torture, to the detriment of Oscar José Blanco-Romero, Roberto Javier Hernández-Paz and José Francisco Rivas-Fernández. It also requested the Court to determine whether the State had violated the rights in Articles 5 (Right to Humane Treatment); 8(1) (Right to a Fair Trial) and 25 (Right to Judicial Protection) of the American Convention in relation to the obligation set forth in Article 1(1) (Obligation to Respect Rights) of said Treaty, to the detriment of the victims’ next of kin. 3. In its application, the Commission alleged that on December 15, 16 and 17 of the year 1999, a heavy rain washed Vargas State in Venezuela causing landslides at the Ávila foothills. In complying with the measures ordered with the purpose of restoring public order, is alleged that some human rights violations took place, the perpetrators of which were certain members of the national Army and of the Dirección General Sectorial de los Servicios de Inteligencia y Prevención (Intelligence and Preventive Services Sector Bureau) (hereinafter “DISIP”). Under these circumstances, Messrs. Oscar José Blanco-Romero, Roberto Javier Hernández-Paz and José Francisco Rivas-Fernández were detained and later disappeared. 4. In particular, the Commission alleged that on December 21, 1999, Army agents entered by force in Mr. Oscar José Blanco-Romero’s house, detained and hit him, and up to date his next of kin have obtained no information on his whereabouts. Moreover, on December 23, 1999, while Mr. Roberto Javier Hernández-Paz was at his uncle’s house, some individuals who supposedly were DISIP officers entered the house without an entry warrant and detained Mr. Roberto Javier Hernández-Paz, who was violently obliged to leave the premises. Mr. Roberto Javier Hernández-Paz was allegedly hurt with a firearm by DISIP agents, who put him inside a car and drove him away to an unknown destination. Since that date, the whereabouts of Mr. Roberto Javier Hernández-Paz are unknown. Lastly, the Commission alleged that on December 21, 1999, Mr. José Francisco RivasFernández, while staying at a shelter for victims of the floods in Vargas State, was detained and hit by military agents. Since then, the whereabouts of Mr. José Francisco Rivas-Fernández remain unknown. 5. In this respect, the Commission upheld that “there are sufficient elements to conclude […] that [the alleged victims] were killed by Venezuelan State agents because no information on [their] whereabouts has been obtained for more than four years […] and because the location of their remains is unknown.” 6. The Commission further stated that the fact that the alleged victims were supposedly held incommunicado in isolated, and clandestine detention “are strong indications that Venezuelan authorities tortured them.” Moreover, it pointed out that the next of kin “may be considered victims of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment,” because the authorities allegedly “concealed information about the victim’s whereabouts from their beloved ones and due to the [alleged] beatings and excessive violence displayed by State agents to the detriment of the detainees and in the presence of their next of kin.” It also pointed out that Venezuela was responsible for the alleged “ineffectiveness of the writ of habeas corpus aimed at determining the whereabouts of the [alleged] victims and the [allegedly] erroneous interpretation by judicial authorities of the object and purpose of said guarantee remedy.” The Commission affirmed that the State was responsible for “obstruction of justice and lack of diligence in the investigation of the events [allegedly] by the Dirección de los Servicios de Inteligencia y Prevención (Intelligence and Preventive Services Bureau),