2 c) On December 8, 2003, the Inter-American Commission granted precautionary measures (MC 705-03) in favor of the members of the CCJ, basing its decision on the fact that these individuals were experiencing a situation of gravity and urgency. The Commission requested that the State take all necessary steps to protect the lives and right to humane treatment of the CCJ’s members so that they could continue their work promoting and defending human rights. The State was also requested to agree upon the measures to be adopted with the beneficiaries as well as to submit reports on progress in their implementation, with the goal of clarifying the basis for the accusations against the beneficiaries; d) After the grant of precautionary measures, the beneficiaries provided information as to the hostile situation faced by human rights defenders in Colombia in general, and the CCJ in particular, as a consequence of acts committed on the part of State agents. Specifically, two members of the CCJ – Ana María Rodríguez and Lina Paola Malagón – received death threats in March 2008 and March 2009, respectively. In December 2008, alleged acts of harassment were committed in Cartagena against members of the CCJ; e) In addition, the beneficiaries reported on allegedly illegal activities undertaken by the Administrative Department of Security (hereinafter, the Spanish acronym “DAS” for “Departamento Administrativo de Seguridad”)1 against human rights organizations, including various surveillance activities, “neutralization” operations, offensive intelligence, and baseless persecutions with the goal of following, controlling, and intimidating such “entities with proopposition tendencies.”2 On May 7, 2009, the CCJ lodged a petition before the Attorney General of Colombia and the DAS in order to access intelligence archives related to the CCJ and its members, as well as the outcome of criminal and disciplinary investigations begun to determine the possible responsibilities of DAS agents. In this regard, the CCJ said it had not gained full access to the investigatory records, and that these records had been subject to theft and deletion of information on the part of DAS agents themselves to avoid journalistic and judicial inquiries. The DAS affirmed on May 28, 2009 that its records do not contain “information or intelligence documents against either the CCJ or Gustavo Gallón [director of the CCJ].” However, the Attorney General’s Office announced that in the course of its investigation into illegal information intercepts attributed to DAS agents, it planned to call Gustavo Gallón to testify as a victim of such activities. Furthermore, various media outlets reported that Mr. Gallón was the target of constant monitoring as part of the DAS’s operation “Rattlesnake.” These situations only add to the continuity of official statements attempting to discredit the work of human rights organizations in Colombia, which in turn create insecurity for their members and subject them to a highly vulnerable situation that directly affects their rights to life, safety, personal liberty, honor, dignity, and freedoms of thought and expression. 1 The members of the CCJ also mentioned the existence of specialized intelligence groups within the Administrative Department of Security (DAS). They confirmed that between the end of 2003 and late 2004, the Special Intelligence Group (G-3) was created “to collect intelligence on different human rights organizations,” “for Executive decision-making in investigations and to restrict and neutralize oppositionleaning groups.” 2 According to the Commission as indicated in the newspaper El Tiempo, “the G-3 created a sort of guide for surveillance and harassment [...] to investigate these targets.”