10. The petitioners specified that it is difficult to exercise effective control over security forces in the rural village of Guanayen, in the municipality Urdaneta, south of the Aragua State, because of the geographical location. According to the petitioners, this situation has favored the development of a systematic practice of extrajudicial executions in the region, the excessive and arbitrary use of force, and mechanisms of impunity surrounding these situations. 11. The petitioners indicated that on August 28, 1998, at three o’clock in the morning, seven uniformed officers from the police stations in the towns of Barbacoa and Guanayen came to the house of worker Benito Barrios8 (age 28), carrying firearms and lacking an arrest warrant. According to the petitioners, two of the police shot several times at Benito’s brother Luis Alberto, without wounding him. 12. They alleged that four policemen threw Benito Barrios face down on the floor although he had not resisted, and in the presence of his sons Jorge Antonio (9) and Carlos Alberto (4), they hit him on the head with the butt of the weapons, causing Jorge Antonio to go off running to his paternal grandmother’s house to tell her what was happening. The petitioners indicated that when Benito Barrios’ nephew Victor learned of the situation, he went to his uncle’s house and saw CSOP officers “mount” him and carry off Benito Barrios in a pick-up with cabins, which belonged to that police force. 13. They alleged that at 9:00 a.m. the next day, a man named Wilmer-–representative of a funeral home—asked where some Barrios family representative lived, and was given the address of Ms. Oneida Barrios, a sister of Benito Barrios. According to the petitioners, this man went immediately to that home, and informed that at 6:00 a.m. that same day, August 29, 1998, Benito Barrios had been admitted at the Barbacoa hospital with two gunshot wounds and no vital signs. They indicated that according to the official death certificate, Benito Barrios died as a result of “acute anemia, thorax hemorrhaging, and a gunshot wound.”9 According to the petitioners, in the morning Benito’s sisters, Oneida and Maritza Barrios, went to the Barbacoa hospital to identify their brother’s body and were told that the police had reported the incident as an armed confrontation. They alleged the next day the body was turned over to the family for burial. 14. Concerning the exhaustion of domestic remedies regarding the death of Benito Barrios the petitioners indicated that the Technical Judicial Police, Villa de Cura station in Aragua State, began its investigation, the findings of which were submitted on June 18, 1999 to the Urdaneta Municipal Court and on July 28, 1999, to the Tribunal Segundo de Transición[Second Transition Court] of the State of Aragua. They reported that case was later submitted to the Superior Prosecutor’s Office of Aragua and that it was still in the preparatory stage when the petition was lodged. 15. They alleged that the four of the policemen who took part in the arrest that preceded the execution of Benito Barrios were identified in the administrative file that was opened as a result of the incidents. They added that this administrative investigation remained open pending the results of the criminal investigation. 16. They indicated that on June 18, 2004, Eloisa Barrios filed a motion for amparo[constitutional injunction] against the Public Prosecutor’s Office of the Aragua State District for denial of justice, procedural delay, and violation of due process. They alleged that on June 22, 2005, the Tribunal Quinto de Juicio [Fifth Law Court] rejected the amparo, finding the facts unclear. 17. The petitioners indicated that on June 29, 2005, Eloisa Barrios filed a complaint with the Public Ombudsman regarding the assassination of Benito Barrios, calling for an administrative 8 Benito Antonio Barrios lived with Dalila Ordalys Ortuño, with whom he had two sons, Jorge Antonio and Carlos Alberto. Communication of the petitioners dated September 19, 2007, p. 3. 9 Civil death certificate of Benito Antonio Barrios, annex of original petition received on December 30, 2005, p. 7. 3