16. As of 2013, the representation of the beneficiaries has indicated that the following incidents have occurred: (a) on February 12, 2013, when the Colonel’s sister returned home she saw blood on the floor and the wall. Immediately, “[Mr.] Meléndez Quijano and security personnel [arrived] and were able to verify that strangers had tried to enter the house. [… T]he protection personnel advised the […] National Civil Police about all this,” and (b) on May 8, 2013 “a suspicious individual tried to open the right front door [of the car that] Gloria de Meléndez was riding in [and …], realizing that he could not open the door, […] he went to the driver’s side and insulted him.” 17. The representation of the beneficiaries, when referring to the “threats, persecution and surveillance,” indicated that Colonel Meléndez “is aware of the message in which the Chief of Staff ordered the military units to report his movements immediately.” He also indicated that there are “people, officials, military leaders […] who are involved in [a ‘plot’ against [Colonel Meléndez]” and that, in this regard, testimonial statements exist that were “made before the detectives of the National Civil Police and the Prosecutor General’s Office.” 22 The representation of the beneficiaries linked the said “plot” to a criminal action against Mr. Meléndez Quijano in which, during the “public hearing […] held on May 20, 2013, his “acquittal” was declared and it was indicated that “there had been a conspiracy against [him].” 23 In addition, the representation advised that, as of December 22, 2011, the Colonel had been classified as a “high-risk person” by the National Civil Police. In this regard, he provided a copy of “decision” No. A-1172-12-2011, which indicates that this classification was made “based on [the] provisional measures that the Inter-American Court had ordered the State to take.” 24 The representation also asserted that “[t]he situation of uncertainty, anxiety and concern, owing to the State’s lack of interest in investigating, maintains the [beneficiaries] in imminent danger.” 18. The Inter-American Commission, in its observations of July 16 and December 6, 2010, and May 17, 2011 (supra having seen paragraph 4), considered that the beneficiaries’ situation of risk had been increased based on the reports of the representation of the beneficiaries of “threats and surveillance” that “Mr. Meléndez Quijano’s mother and daughter had been subject to” in January and March 2010, as the Commission indicated in the first two communications indicated above; as well as based on the acts of “harassment and surveillance” that the representation of the beneficiaries indicated had occurred in January and March 2011 (supra considering paragraph 15). Subsequently, in the observations presented to the Court on December 5, 2011, November 9, 2012, and July 26, 2013, the Commission considered that, in view of the incidents described by the 22 In this regard, he provided the Court with a copy of a “Record of an interview” dated February 9, 2012, conducted by an “investigator” with the statement of an individual who asserted that, in November 2011, he heard a military officer, who he named, tell another military officer, who he also identified, that “we are going to screw this Colonel Meléndez.” 23 The representation of the beneficiaries forwarded articles from the newspapers “Co Latino” and “La Prensa Gráfica”, of June 1 and 14, 2013, respectively, which state, in the case of the former that “[t]he Fourth Sentencing Court of San Salvador decreed a complete acquittal of the criminal charges against Adrián Meléndez Quijano […] having verified at the public hearing that ‘there had been a conspiracy against him” and, in the second case, that “[t]he Fourth Sentencing Court decided that ‘there had been a conspiracy against Colonel Meléndez Quijano […] at the level of the General Staff of the Army.’” 24 Regarding the State’s classification of Mr. Meléndez Quijano as a “high-risk person,” in addition to the preceding observations, it should be noted that the representation of the beneficiaries forwarded the Court a copy of a letter of November 14, 2011, signed by Mr. Meléndez Quijano, and addressed to the “National Director of the National Civil Police,” in which he stated that he had “ask[ed] the Minister of Defense […] to loan him a M16A2 rifle,” and that the Minister of Defense had “recommended that he ask the National Civil Police to classify [him] as a high-risk person in order to provide [him] with this weapon. Hence, [Mr. Meléndez Quijano had] asked the Director of the National Civil Police to classify [him] and [his] family as high-risk persons.” 10