-57the alleged inappropriateness of the remedy did not necessarily stem from the time that had elapsed from the moment when the alleged event took place, but from the lack of an effective and appropriate investigation. 85. The Court has noted that during the investigation, the head of the Salvadoran Red Cross Tracing Office showed the executing officer a document with important information on the places where the Red Cross took 52 children, aged from new-born to 12 years old, found in Chalatenango in June 1982 (supra para. 48(18)). The file of the habeas corpus procedure does not contain a copy of this document, because the executing officer merely drew up a record of this action and recorded part of the contents of the document. The executing officer conducted an incomplete investigation, because she did not visit the centers indicated in the document, and Ernestina and Erlinda could have been taken to one of them. In the official record of this action, the executing officer concluded that “the whereabouts of the children, Ernestina Serrano Cruz and Erlinda Serrano Cruz, [were] not mentioned in those documents, since [the Salvadoran Red Cross] d[id] not conduct investigations […] and only provided assistance to those who needed it; consequently, no type of official document that […] [might] indicate the whereabouts of the children [was] to be found in [that] office.” During the habeas corpus procedure no effort was made to locate the soldiers who, according to the alleged victims’ mother, could have been asked to provide information (supra para. 48(15) and 48(17)). 86. The Court considers that, despite the time that had elapsed since the alleged disappearance of Ernestina and Erlinda, the remedy of habeas corpus could have been effective to determine the whereabouts of the alleged victims or to make significant progress in this regard, if the relevant procedural actions had been carried out diligently, given the extensive powers of the executing officer and the obligation of the State authorities to provide the latter with any information she requested. Moreover, the information provided by the Red Cross and by Ernestina and Erlinda’s mother could have been investigated. To the contrary, this proceeding was dismissed once the executing officer had conducted a few, insufficient actions regarding two of the requests to seek information indicated by the alleged victims’ mother and she did not even manage to summon the two soldiers named by the latter (supra para. 48(15) and 48(19)). The executing officer did not take the initiative to take any measure or make any request for information, over and above the actions requested by the alleged victims’ mother. 87. Having established that the remedy of habeas corpus could have been effective in determining the whereabouts of the alleged victims in this case, or have contributed to significant progress in this regard (supra para. 86), the Court will examine the effectiveness of the remedy of habeas corpus and of the criminal proceedings before the Chalatenango Trial Court. To this end, it will examine the diligence with which the judges conducted these proceedings, and also the diligence with which the prosecutor requested and the judges ordered the probative actions needed to determine what happened to Ernestina and Erlinda, trace their whereabouts, and investigate and punish those responsible. 88. This Court has establishes that, as the competent authority to lead the process, the judge has the obligation to conduct it35 in a manner that took into account the reported facts and their context so as to manage the proceedings as 35 Cf. Case of Myrna Mack Chang, supra note 8, para. 207.

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