44 . Metropolitan Area of Caracas, because the criminal action had expired. 122 This Tribunal observes that the State did not justify the procedural inactivity in this investigation for more than three years and a half (infra para. 318). 159. The Court considers that based on the body of evidence available is it not possible to deem as proven that Mrs. Ríos was assaulted during the events of that day or other elements of conviction to verify the statement of the alleged victim. * * * 160. The Commission argued that on January 20, 2002 the journalist Luisiana Ríos, the cameraman Luis Augusto Contreras, and the camera assistant Armando Amaya were hindered in their tasks by individuals “supporters of the ruling party” at the Cajigal Observatorium, reason for which they could not cover the presidential program since they had to leave the place assisted by officials of the Military House of Miraflores. 123 The representatives argued this fact as one of the ones that “prevent[ed] or made impossible the access to information or opinions by the journalists” (infra paras. 342 through 351) (p. 90) In its final arguments the State only referred to this fact in the sense of the actions carried our by the public prosecutors’ office responsible for the case and it informed that on January 24, 2007 the dismissal of the complaint was ordered. 161. The Court verified that the statements of Mrs. Ríos, offered by the representatives and given through an affidavit, coincide with that argued by the Commission. In one of those statement Mrs. Ríos mentioned that the person that identified her as a journalist of RCTV and did not let her in is a representative of the so-called “Coordinadora Simón Bolívar de Catia” and that the other attackers were supporters of the Bolivarian Circles.124 162. The Commission offered as evidence a testimonial statement given by Mrs. Ríos before the Inter-American Court during a public hearing celebrated within the framework of the provisional measures (supra para. 21). In her statement before the Court, Mrs. Ríos said that upon arriving there she was recognized by the people there, they started screaming at her and her team, they started hitting the window and insulting them. She stated that she tried “to ask the guards for help and they did not let [her] in, while people shouted at her, they hit [her], there were like 50 people.” She added that she “begged to the official of the Honor Guard to let her in because if not they were going to kill her there.” He then let her in, but the person in charge of security and the guard himself told her that the President was going to be walking by that area and they recommended she leave 122 Cf. Order of discontinuance of the 50° First Instance Criminal Court in Duty Controls of the Criminal Judicial Circuit of the Judicial District of the Metropolitan Area of Caracas on February 21, 2006 (dossier of evidence, volume XXVII, folios 9470-9476). 123 The Commission argued that “[o]n January 20, 2002 the reporter Luisiana Ríos, the cameraman Luis Augusto Contreras, and the camera assistant Armando Amaya were assigned coverage of the Program “Aló Presidente” from the Cajigal Observatory. On that occasion their work was hindered by a group of supporters of the ruling party, who threw themselves on the unit of the program El Observador and, while hurling insults at them, prevented the journalist’s entrance to the place where the President of the Republic was going to record the radio program. RCTV’s reporter, Luisiana Ríos, had to take off the microphone and the station’s identification logo, as well as hide the camera “so she was not identified and could go” through the crowd toward the Observatory. One of the people leading the crowd, upon recognizing Luisiana Ríos as a journalist of RCTV, told her she would not be able to enter the location since she was “a palangrista who did not speak the trust,” urging people to scream at them and push them. Subsequently, in response to the pressure exercised by those people, the officials of the Military House of Miraflores helped the team leave. Luisiana Ríos, Augusto Contreras, and Armando Amaya could not comply with the coverage assigned by their superiors due to the risk of the possibility that something happen to them.” 124 Statement offered before a notary public (affidavit) by Luisiana Rios Paiva on June 25, 2007 (dossier of evidence, volume XVIII, folios 5598-5602).