Criminal Procedure.”87 The civil action filed by Perfelita Mendoza Aguallo “was admitted to the proceedings only against [the defendants who have just been named,] owing to the discontinuance with regard to the other defendants.” 88 55. Perfelita Mendoza Aguallo’s lawyer filed an appeal for the revocation of this decision, before the XIth Judge of Manabí on May 26, 2000, indicating that, “literally, the law establishes the prohibition to accept a new action only when the victim has desisted, and not when it is his next of kin who have desisted, as in the instant case.” 89 On July 3, 2000, Perfelita Mendoza presented another brief in which she asked the XIth Judge of Manabí to process her petition of May 26, 2000; there is no record in the case file that this petition was answered. On August 21, 2000, Perfelita Mendoza Aguallo appeared before the XIth Judge of Manabí to give her preliminary testimony and ratified her accusation 90 and, on November 9 that year “she officialized it.”91 56. On December 26, 2000, the XIth Criminal Prosecutor of Manabí issued an indictment against Lenin Ordoñez, Freddy Contreras and Vicente Domínguez, concluding that there were “serious indications and presumptions of the criminal responsibility of the accused,” as revealed by the proceedings in the case file and, in particular, by “the statement of the accused Lenin Oswaldo Ordoñez Ortiz in both his pre-trial statement and in his preliminary statement.”92 57. With regard to Medardo Cevallos Balda, Alberto Cevallos Gómez-Piñán, Medardo Cevallos Gómez-Piñán, David Cevallos Gómez-Piñán, Ramón Bravo Mera, Carlos Cevallos, Marcelino Gómez Ponce, Carlos Cedeño, Jhonny Menéndez, Ignacio Reyes Cárdenas and Isabel Montaño de Mera, the XIth Prosecutor of Manabí did not file any charges, considering, based on the available evidence,93 that “their material or intellectual responsibility had not been proved in relation to the crime that is the subject of [the] procedural investigation.” 94 87 Article 48 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, in force at the time, established: “[t]he victim, or his representative, may waive the right to bring a civil action. If the victim shall have waived the right to lay charges, or has discontinued from the action already filed, or has abandoned it, no one may file another action.” 88 Cf. Order to open the plenary proceedings of January 22, 2001, folios 1698 to 1707). 89 Cf. Brief of May 26, 2000, signed by the lawyer María Bescy Mendoza Bravo, addressed to the XIth Judge of Manabí (file of appendices to the Admissibility and Merits Report, appendix 36, folio 147). 90 Cf. Preliminary testimony of August 21, 2000, of Perfelita Mendoza Aguallo before the XIth Judge of Manabí (file of attachments to the pleadings and motions brief, attachment 46, folios 1675 and 1676). (In the document, the first person has the surname “de Mendoza Aguallo.”) 91 Cf. Brief of November 9, 2000, of Perfelita Mendoza Aguallo ratifying the civil action, authenticated by her fingerprint and signed by her lawyer, addressed to the XIth Judge of Manabí (file of attachments to the pleadings and motions brief, attachment 47, folios 1678 and 1679). 92 Cf. Prosecutor’s partial indictment of December 26, 2000, folios 1686 to 1696. 93 The report reveals that the following pieces of evidence were considered with regard to the authorship of the facts: Preliminary testimony of Rosalía Palma Bravo; testimony of Lidia Bravo, Luis Miguel Palma Bravo, Pablo Palma Pico, Freddy Palma Moreira, Rommel Edwin Coronel Miñan, Wilder Joel Cevallos Castro, Julio Amador Becerra Campoverde, Paulino Antonio de la Cruz Berú, Víctor Hugo Burgos Arteaga, Leonor Liduvida Cedeño Paz, Perfelita Mendoza Aguallo, Lufinia Estrella Roldán Espinales and Segundo Gumerindo Arteaga Márquez; statement of Lenin Ordóñez (before the police, and unsworn statement before the XIth Judge of Manabí; unsworn statements of Freddy Simón Contreras Luna, Vicente Domínguez, Ignacio Buenaventura, Ramón Aníbal Bravo Mera, Marcelino Gómez Ponce, and testimony of police agent Carmelo Aladino Zambrano Acosta (ratifying a police report) and of former police agent Bonifacio Artemio Lino Caicedo. In addition, the document indicates that “[t]he testimony of several persons exists that vouches for the good conduct and behavior of Ramón Bravo Mera, Marcelino Gómez-Piñan, Carlos Vite Cedeño, Vicente Domínguez Avilés and Freddy Contreras Luna, without providing further information on the fact under investigation; consequently they do not merit any further observations.” 94 Cf. The prosecutor’s partial indictment of December 26, 2000, folios 1686 to 1696. In this report he indicated “that he was unable to determine the participation or responsibility of the Cevallos family in the fact investigated, because none of its members was detained in order to establish the truth.” 20