Vélez family home when Mr. Luis Gonzalo Vélez Restrepo was not there, pretending to be officials from the Public Prosecutor’s Office [Procuraduría] and trying to obtain information about the journalist’s schedule. 15. They affirm that the threats intensified dramatically after Mr. Vélez Restrepo testified before a military court in late September 1996, concerning the attacks against him and a group of peasants in Caquetá (see infra paras. 26-29). They mentioned the following threats against Mr. Vélez Restrepo: “you’re going to die, you son of a bitch,” “…you have the power of information but we have the power of weapons. You’re going to die, dog.” They also related the following specific threats, as among those made against his wife and family: “you’re very pretty; I’m going to make you a widow,” and “I’m going to get rid of that pair of bastards of yours,” referring to their children. 16. They claim that due to the threats and harassment, Mr. Vélez approached the Office of the Public Prosecutor and the Office of the Attorney General, but neither institution initiated the relevant investigations. Because of this he had to change his residence. They assert that the threats stopped temporarily after Mr. Vélez Restrepo reported the harassment to two influential government officials. 17. They state that, despite the temporary respite, the death threats resumed and intensified after Mr. Vélez Restrepo testified in July 1997 before the Prosecutor General of the Nation about the incidents during the protest in Caquetá and the threats against Mr. Vélez Restrepo and his family. They indicate that the death threats were aimed at convincing him not to testify against the army. They assert that due to these incidents, Mr. Vélez Restrepo reported the new threats to the Attorney General’s Office, which told him that his reports would be included in a broader investigation currently underway against certain military officials and that no action against them would be taken in the short term, if at all. 18. They claim that in addition to the threatening telephone calls and visits, an unknown man on a motorcycle took photographs of their son, Mateo, at school. They state that Mr. Vélez Restrepo took his son out of school and the family was virtually living in hiding. They assert that Mr. Vélez Restrepo recognized military personnel among his attackers on different occasions. 19. They indicate that due to the aforementioned incidents, they tried again to request the protection of the State which, through the Office of the Presidential Advisor on Human Rights, registered them in the Ministry of the Interior’s Program for the Protection of Witnesses and Threatened Persons in Cases of Human Rights Violations, relocated the petitioner and his family, and provided them with police protection and a bullet-proof vest. However, they claim that those authorities did not notify the competent legal authorities of the threats and acts of harassment against the petitioners. 20. They assert that the death threats and harassment against the family culminated with an “attempted forced disappearance” on October 6, 1997, as Mr. Vélez Restrepo was walking to work. They state that a taxi stopped and a man armed with a pistol forced Mr. Vélez Restrepo to get into the vehicle, but that he fortunately was able to escape his attackers. Mr. Vélez Restrepo contends that he recognized military personnel among them. 21. They assert that as a result of the threats, acts of harassment and intimidation, and the “attempted forced disappearance”, Mr. Vélez Restrepo’s professional career also was affected since he had to self-censor his journalist work and, later, has to leave its country. 22. They indicate that by the same reasons stated in the preceding paragraph, Mrs. Aracelly Román, Mr. Vélez Restrepo’s wife, had to affect her professional life since she was forced to stop her studies and the children had to stop attending school temporarily. On account of these events, the children experienced terrible fear and anxiety, and this was intensified by the fact that they were unable to live a normal childhood. The family had to seek individual and marriage psychotherapy. 3