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vigilance over the civil patrols [actually former members]."
2.
Call upon the State to expand the measures ordered to include the adoption of the
necessary and effective measures to safeguard the lives and physical integrity of the persons not
yet named in the orders of the Court who have been summoned to testify in the domestic trial in
the next few weeks. The Commission is in the process of collecting the names of these persons
and expects to submit them within a few days; it, however, considers time to be a vital factor.
The appropriate authorities are already in possession of the names, addresses and other basic
information for identifying these persons and taking the appropriate measures.
3.
Call upon the State to conduct a thorough investigation, through the National Police and
the Ministry of Public Affairs of Huehuetenango, into the attack on Alberto Godínez, prosecute
those responsible in the appropriate domestic courts and punish them accordingly, and into all the
acts of harassment to which the protected persons have been subjected.
4.
Call upon the State to report to the Honorable Court on the specific measures it adopts
in order to protect the persons involved in the quest for justice in this case, and on the status of
the investigation into the attack and the other threats within a period not exceeding 15 days from
this communication.
5.
That, should the Court consider it useful for additional personal and/or documentary
evidence to be produced, it order a public hearing to be held for this purpose.
The reasons adduced as the basis of those requests concern an attempt on the life of
Alberto Godínez on May 11, 1997, when six former patrolmen allegedly went to his house
and by pretending to be a relative of his got him to open the door, forcibly removed him,
took him away and, finally, "[a]bout three blocks away, attacked him with a chopper,
severing a tendon."
6.
The letter from the Secretariat of the Court (hereinafter "the Secretariat") of May 19,
1997, in which, on the instructions of the President of the Court (hereinafter "the
President"), it requested the Commission "to transmit, as soon as possible, the list of names
of the persons who will be summoned to testify in the domestic trial connected with the
death of Juan Chanay Pablo, on behalf of whom the expansion of the measures is being
sought" and its reiteration of the 29th of the same.
7.
The letter from the Secretariat of the Court of May 19, 1997, in which, following
instructions from the President, it requested the State to send, without delay, its
observations to the request of the Commission.
8.
The letter from the Commission of May 30, 1997, in which it submitted the list of the
persons summoned to testify in the domestic trial in connection with the death of Juan
Chanay Pablo, the following of whom are not protected under the provisional measures in
force in the case:
Andrés Ramos Godínez,
Rafael Vásquez Simón,
Juan Mendoza Sánchez,
Julia Gabriel Simón,
Miguel Morales Mendoza,
Lucía Quila Colo, and
Fermina López Castro.
CONSIDERING:
1.
That Article 63(2) of the American Convention on Human Rights (hereinafter “the