4 b) After the El Caracazo decision by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, COFAVIC began to receive a number of threats and acts of harassment that have subsequently increased, especially after the April, 2002 events and in connection with its work as a litigant before the inter-American System. For this reason, it began to suffer a systematic campaign including phone calls, e-mails, and the presence of individuals threatening the life and safety of several of its members. c) Once, while performing tasks pertaining to its work in Falcón State, COFAVIC’s investigative group “was approached by some eight officers of the Armed Police Forces of Falcón State who sought to intimidate them and make them cease the task they were carrying out, which was to gather information and convene the victims of executions by alleged parapolice groups of that State [...].” d) COFAVIC’s activities have been affected by the violence taking place near the area where its offices are located and due to lack of security guarantees. Members of COFAVIC are called murderers and are linked to opposition groups to try to deny legitimacy of the work they have been doing in Venezuela for over 14 years. Next to the Mayor’s Office in the Municipality of El Libertador there is a poster of Liliana Ortega with a text that reads: “recognize them as traitors to the Fatherland, beatings.” e) “[S]ince the Provisional Measures, there ha[s] been no meeting with the State of Venezuela [in which] the protection measures [...] request[ed] have been realized.” “[P]olice protection [for COFAVIC] has been completely uncertain, [and] even though the Metropolitan Police has done its best to comply with said protection, [...] the Ministry of Interior Relations and Justice and the Ministry of Defense have constantly hindered the possibility of said protection being regular and truly effective.” f) The “evidence of these acts of harassment and intimidation” has been submitted to the Office of the Attorney General of the Republic and to the Public Prosecutor’s Office. However, the “Public Prosecutor’s Office upholds the prosecutors who were commissioned” and who “in nine months have not moved the investigations forward in a significant manner.” On January 30, 2003 they requested from the Office of the Attorney General of the Republic a copy of the files processed regarding the intimidation and harassment against COFAVIC and to date they have received no reply to that brief. g) They have filed “before the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic, a brief in which they specif[y] the measures that they believe could improve the security situation of the members of COFAVIC,” asking the officers of the Metropolitan Police to be given adequate equipment for them to be able to carry out their task effectively; to take a number of steps to protect the other members of COFAVIC who are covered by the Provisional Measures; to conduct an effective and extensive investigation of the fact to avoid impunity. h) In Venezuela there is a situation of “clear weakening of [...] guarantees to be able to work.” “[I]t is [...] important for the Venezuelan State to give a clear sign of respect for human rights defenders in Venezuela