HAVING SEEN:

The brief of April 2, 1997, containing the preliminary objections filed by the State of Guatemala in the Villagrán Morales et al. Case, in which it requested the Inter-American Court of Human Rights that "[i]nasmuch as the preliminary objection of incompetence had been lodged, the term for answering  the application be extended until the preliminary objection has been disposed of."

CONSIDERING:

That Article 36(4) of the Rules of Procedure of the Court provides that "the presentation of preliminary objections shall not cause the suspension of the proceedings on the merits, nor of the respective time periods or terms."

NOW THEREFORE:

THE INTER-AMERICAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS,

by virtue of the provisions of Article 36(4) of its Rules of Procedure and in exercise of the powers conferred on it by Article 29 of those Rules,

DECIDES:

To declare inadmissible the request by the State of Guatemala for an extension of the period for responding to the petition in the Villagrán Morales et al. Case, and to continue to deal with the case according to the normal procedures.

Done in Spanish and English, the Spanish text being authentic, at the seat of the Court in San Jose, Costa Rica, this sixteenth day of April, 1997.