3 4. On January 10, 2000 the representatives of the victims and of the next of kin requested that the Court extend the term set by this Court for submitting their arguments and evidence another thirty days. The following day, the Secretariat of the Court (hereinafter “the Secretariat”), under instructions by the President, extended the term to February 12, 2000. 5. On February 12, 2000 the representatives of the victims and of the next of kin filed their brief with arguments and evidence on reparations and its appendices, and it was forwarded to the Commission and to the State on March 6, 2000. Said brief included a list of witnesses. 6. On May 1, 2000 the Inter-American Commission filed its written arguments and evidence on reparations and legal costs. 7. On July 7, 2000, the term to file its written observations on reparations and legal costs having expired on the 3d of that month and year, the State requested a sixty-day extension for said filing. That same day the Secretariat, under instructions from the President, granted the State an extension until August 18, 2000 to submit said brief. On August 1, 2000 the State once again requested a thirty day extension to send that brief. On the 9th of that month and year the Secretariat, under instructions from the Court, granted Venezuela an extension until September 18, 2000 to send the aforementioned brief. 8. On September 18, 2000 the State filed the brief with observations on reparations and legal costs and its appendices. 9. On November 21, 2000 the Court decided to order the State to submit all information it had regarding the next of kin of the following victims in the instant case: Héctor Daniel Ortega Zapata, Abelardo Antonio Pérez, Boris Eduardo Bolívar Marcano, Jesús Alberto Cartaya, Héctor José Lugo Cabriles, Elsa Teotiste Ramírez Caminero, Sabas Reyes Gómez, Jesús Rafael Villalobos, and Alís Guillermo Torres Flores. It also ordered the State to inform the next of kin, through several publications in the media (press, radio and television), that a judgment had been rendered on the merits in this case and that it was necessary for them to communicate with the Court for the reparations stage. 10. On January 18, 2001, Mrs. Nelly Marcano, the mother of victim Boris Eduardo Bolívar Marcano, contacted the Secretariat in view of a notice published in a Venezuelan daily. On the 24th of that month and year, the Secretariat sent that lady a note with information and documentation pertaining to the case. 11. On February 28 and March 5, 2001 the State sent a copy of the notices it published in the Venezuelan written press pursuant to the November 21, 2000 Order (supra para. 9), and it stated that its understanding of that Order was that the summons could be published in any media, so it ordered publication in the written press. 12. On March 6, 2001 the Secretariat, under instructions from the President, taking into consideration the November 21, 2000 Order of the Court, informed the State that it should publish the notice through other media (radio and television) and send the Court copies of the audio cassette with the radio broadcast and the video cassette with the television broadcast. On June 19, 2001 and February 28, 2002 the Secretariat reiterated to the State the order to submit the aforementioned audio and