2 5. To submit this Order for the Court’s consideration and pertinent effects during its next session. 3. The November 12, 1996 brief presented by Sister Noemy Palencia and Islena Rey Rodríguez in which they expressed that the measures taken by the Government put them in a situation of higher risk because it consists of placing “within their places of work and home armed men that belong to the local and regional security organizations of the State...on [which] lie the strongest suspicions of brokering the persecution against members of the Committee” 4. The first report of the Government of November 13, 1996, in which it enumerated the urgent measures taken in accordance with the Order of the President of October 28 of the same, and it declared that it had “reassumed” the work of protecting the indicated persons. It also indicated that on November 7, 1996, in the city of Villavicencio, the National Police conducted an investigation in which it included the personal interview of Sister Noemy Palencia, Islena Rey Rodríguez, and Mariela de Giraldo. It stated that it was not possible to locate Gonzalo Zárate because he left the city after the murder of Josué Giraldo Cardona. It stated that it had installed a guard service in the residence and place of the work of Islena Rey Rodríguez, but that Sister Palencia accepted the guard service only in her place of work. The Government indicated that Mariela de Giraldo accepted the service and that it had begun watching over her and two young daughters with the Administrative Department of Security (DAS). Similarly, it declared that it issued orders to conduct security studies of the mentioned persons. Finally, the report stated that the Attorney General of the Nation ordered the Office of Victims and Witness Protection to forward the corresponding security studies. In regards to the investigations, it states that the Regional Prosecutor of the East moves forward with the investigation to find those responsible for the threats to the members of the Meta Committee of Human Rights. 5. The observations of the Commission of November 29, 1996, to the first report of the Government, in which it states that the most effective measure the Government can take is to act against its own security members and dismantle the criminal structure that exists in The Meta. It also commented that it could not protect the threatened persons with members of the institutions from where the threats originate and that it has pressured the protected persons to accept the service of armed body guards or that, in the alternative, they sign a document renouncing the protection of the State. The Commission considers that this pressure is not acceptable and that the State should search for the most effective measures of protection, always in consideration of the needs of the protected. It also stated that the type of protection could be offered by the Office of Victim Protection “also does not constitute a lone solution, given that said protection consists of removing the persons at risk from their place of work and residence.” In regards to the actual situation of the protected persons, it indicated that Mrs. Mariela Duarte de Giraldo and her daughters had opted, after signing a document renouncing the protection of the State, to hide themselves in the homes of family members and friends instead of accepting an armed escort. It reported that Dr. Gonzalo Zárate felt obligated to leave Villavicencio when he discovered recognized hired assassins had been asking for him at his work. 6. The second report of the Government of December 17, 1996, in which it stated it had adopted the “suitable measures,” which have consisted of the immediate initiation of a protection plan and in conducting new security studies. It stated that the protection plan for Noemy Palencia and Islena Rey Rodríguez consisted of nighttime surveillance and sporadic patrols by the national police in the area of their homes, of daytime surveillance of