115. In her statement before the Court, María Elena Toro said that: [...] [they are] currently in exile because of serious threats. [Her] son disappears, and immediately packages start arriving that hadn't before. Sometimes packages were delivered to [her] personally, and sometimes it was phone calls, telling [her] that they would give [her] a sum of money to stop searching for Tabares, and [she] immediately told them: “You do business, I do business too. Don’t give me money—give me the body of my son,” and hung up. They also pressured [them], saying they were going to cut them to pieces, and [...] the deceased [FL] knows about that. She was crucial in [her] efforts, supporting [her] and saying: “We must never tire. We cannot abandon our children.” One of the other serious threats was when [she] was with [her] daughter María Isabel Gallego, son-in-law, and two small grandchildren in a shopping mall, and they did not even try to hide that they were trying to take [their] pictures, then followed [them] in the car, and when [they] realized it, [they] took a picture of that truck and reported it to the prosecutor's office. Since [their] son disappeared, [they] have been followed constantly [...] it never stops, and [she] begged the lieutenant [...] “you already killed my son, so leave us in peace now, you already made me leave the country, because I left everything behind, including my two daughters. So why don’t you leave us in peace, these phone calls at all hours, taking the young kids to get their shots and being denied because they weren’t listed as children of my son-in-law or my daughter, but of someone else; I reported that also. No, I just wouldn’t have enough time to tell about all the persecution against us by the Colombian army. 155 116. In view of the foregoing, the Court finds that the situations described had an immediate impact in terms of breaking up the family, causing physical and psychological harm to María Elena Toro’s family members. This Court also observes that two of her daughters currently live in Colombia with their respective families and that recently Ms. Toro, another daughter, and that daughter's family left Colombia in exile. Mr. Tabares’s relatives have been harmed by these events, with his mother being away from home for extended periods of time to look for her son, as well as by stigmatization prompted by the allegation that Óscar Iván Tabares Toro had joined the FARC, all of which caused fear and pain for the family. The disappearance of their loved one changed the family dynamics and clearly undermined family members’ right to family protection. 117. Furthermore, this Court finds merit in the representatives’ arguments regarding gender-based harm to María Elena Toro, which it analyzes here. In this case, María Elena Toro suffered gender-based harm as she abandoned her life plans to focus on looking for her son, lost her job, and became the person who has fought to uncover the truth about the disappearance of her son. Concerning her mother's work, María Bibiancy Tabares Toro stated that “[w]hile [her] mother asked questions and sought justice, [she] had to take care of [her] younger sisters. Even though [she] had been taking care of them anyway, [she] had to do it now for a specific purpose: to give [her] mom space to do what she needed to do to find [her] brother. That allowed [her] mom to talk to a lot of people who told her what she could do, what steps to take to get answers. According to her, and to an uncle who accompanied her, it was thanks to one person, who is still unknown today, that the case was not closed. [She feels] that [she] even had divine help.” 156 118. It is clear from the above that the relatives of serviceman Tabares received no official protection whatsoever from the risks they faced, and the body of evidence in the case shows a failure to take effective steps to prevent those risks. The Court understands that María Elena Toro and her family moved repeatedly—and some family members left the country—for several reasons, among them the State’s failure to adopt protective measures, the lack of diligence and progress in the investigations, and the ongoing impunity in the case. These factors have created risks that led the family members to relocate. This situation remains unchanged, which led the Court to order provisional measures for certain relatives of Mr. Tabares Toro (supra para. 12). 155 156 Statement of María Elena Toro before the Court at public hearing, supra. Affidavit of María Bibiancy Tabares Toro, supra. 28