12 "The paramilitary remained in Mapiripán from July 15 to 21, 1997, during which time they impeded free movement of the inhabitants of said municipality, and they tortured, dismembered, eviscerated and decapitated approximately 49 individuals and threw their remains into the Guaviare river (...); furthermore, once the operation was completed, the AUC destroyed a major part of the physical evidence with the aim of obstructing the gathering of evidence” (para. 96(39)). 36. The “terror sown amongst the surviving inhabitants of Mapiripán" caused their forced displacement.16 Estimates are that today, due to the country’s social upheaval, there are – according to various sources- between 1.5 million and 3 million displaced persons in Colombia.17 The forced displacement crisis, in turn, has led to a human security crisis, "because the groups of internally displaced persons become a new focus or resource for recruitment by the paramilitary groups themselves, by drug traffickers, and by the guerrilla forces” (para. 96(59)). The Court added that, despite the initiatives of State bodies to attenuate the problems of displaced persons, and the “important progress” attained, their rights have not been comprehensively protected, especially given the “precarious institutional capacity to implement State policies and the insufficient allocation of resources.”18 37. In the instant Judgment in the case of the Mapiripán Massacre, the Inter-American Court has established that there were a number of aggravating circumstances, such as the fact that the victims were arbitrarily deprived of their liberty and subjected to torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, before they were executed (para. 135); the fear to which they were subjected, followed by forced displacement of the survivors (paras. 141142, 160 and 175); abridgment of their right to humane treatment and violation of their family life, as the survivors were not even able to honor their dead, and the fact that most of the victims are still missing (para. 143); the presence of boys and girls among the displaced persons as well as among those executed (two of them) and the eyewitnesses of the massacre (paras. 150-151 and 154); the “grave deterioration” of the vulnerability of the living conditions of the displaced persons (para. 181), most of whom have not returned to their homes (para. 160); the cover-up of the facts and partial persistence of the impunity of those responsible for the violations that were committed (para. 234). 38. The Court has assessed said aggravating circumstances, and it has found that the violations of human rights in the case of the Mapiripán Massacre "are aggravated as a consequence of non-fulfillment of the duty to provide protection and of the duty to investigate the facts, as a consequence of the lack of effective judicial mechanisms to this end and to punish all those responsible for the Mapiripán Massacre" (para. 241). 16 . 17 . Para. 96(47). Para. 96(57). . Para. 96(62); see also para. 181. And, regarding the vulnerability of the next of kin of the victims of the Mapiripán massacre and the persistent “partial impunity” since the acts of terror that took place between July 15 and 20, 1997, see para. 96(174). 18