4
conduct the respective risk and threat assessment studies in order to determine the
contours of their situation. The State also reported that during the monitoring and
coordination meeting held on April 8, 2010, the petitioners reported that the
beneficiaries had stated they did not wish to provide the State with their location,
taking into account that “on those occasions when this information has been
provided, the beneficiaries have received new threats against them.” The State
stressed that the representatives “did not have any request for measures in favor of
the beneficiaries.” In its last brief, the State remarked that there is no real
possibility of implementing provisional measures in their favor and that “it is not
obligated to [carry out what is] impossible, bearing in mind that the petitioners have
not even provided the minimum information required.” For this reason, the State
moved for rescission of provisional measures.
6.
After the hearing, the representatives reported to have reestablished contact
with the beneficiaries, although they did not specify with whom. They also indicated
certain general and permanent risk facts, such as:
a) The troubling security situation in the municipality of Mapiripán, where the
presence of armed individuals and groups of paramilitaries who continue to
commit criminal acts in the Department of Meta persists. They also added
that family members of the victims refuse to return for safety reasons and
wish to be relocated to another part of the country;
b) The persistence of impunity in the face of the facts giving rise to the request
for protection, of particular note: the lack of progress in the investigations
which are the State’s duty and not that of the beneficiaries; the forced
displacement of families; the lack of disciplinary actions regarding the alleged
statements of the Mayor of Mapiripán; and the surveillance on the part of the
Administrative Department of Security (DAS) at the time of taking the
victims’ statements;
c) The persistence of impunity concerning the Mapiripán massacre, the
characteristics of which allow one to infer the existence of “structural (risk)
factors” in this case; further, certain results from the criminal process could
give rise to “new instances of intimidation and harassment against those who
have insisted that justice be done in this case”;
d) The special conditions of vulnerability in which the beneficiaries find
themselves because, due to the dynamic of the facts, “they live in reasonable
fear.” Also, due to their having been displaced and victimized again in
various ways, they require special protection;
e) Regarding Ms. Nory Giraldo and her daughter, Carmen Johana Giraldo, the
representatives indicated that they were the victims of acts of harassment
that forced them to be displaced several times to Villavicencio, Cali, and
Bogota as a result of the threats they received after having testified before
the Inter-American Court and after issuance of the Judgment in the Case of
the Mapiripán Massacre. It was also reported that one of Ms. Nory Giraldo’s
sons was killed during this same time period, seemingly by paramilitary
agents, although the case was not investigated;
f) Regarding the Sanmiguel family, the representatives reported that they are
presently in the city of Villavicencio and that “no particular risks have arisen,”
although they did stress their “continued lack of peace of mind over safety in
the municipality”; and