4 With its letter, the State enclosed a plan of operations for protection of the members of the Sarayaku community; however, that report did not indicate whether the security measures had actually been implemented; m) on October 16, 2003, during its 118th regular session, the Commission held a hearing to discuss issues related to the precautionary measures. At that hearing, the petitioners alleged that the State was not in full compliance with the precautionary measures; they stated further that rather than protect the Sarayaku community, the actions undertaken by the State had been prejudicial to it. They added that Ecuador had never contacted the Community’s representatives to agree on the implementation of those measures, as the Commission had requested. At that hearing, the State contended that the increased military presence in the area in question had to do with the border situation with Colombia, and not with the Sarayaku community; n) on December 5, 2003, the petitioners informed the Commission that on December 4, 2003, approximately 120 people from the Sarayaku community –women and children included- who were traveling along the Bobonaza River en route to the city of Puyo to participate in a march protesting the government’s oil policy, were attacked and assaulted by workers from the CGC. The indigenous people were hit with sticks, stones and machetes and their belongings were hacked to pieces. Many of the inhabitants of Sarayaku sustained very serious injuries; the assailants abducted four others, one of whom was a boy, and released them the following day; ñ) on December 17, 2003, the Commission extended the precautionary measures for another six months. It also gave the State 15 days in which to report to the Commission on the precautionary measures adopted. Ecuador requested an extension, but when the new deadline expired, it had still not provided the requested information; o) on April 8, 2004, the petitioners supplied the Commission with information on the failure to implement the precautionary measures and asked it to request the Inter-American Court to adopt provisional measures. In that request, the petitioners reported that on March 31, 2004, a military command allegedly launched a surprise incursion into the community’s territory. That very same day, the Chief of the Joint Command of the Ecuadorian Armed Forces, General Octavio Romero, had flown aboard an Army helicopter into the populated center of Sarayaku, accompanied by two military police and ten Army officers, all heavily armed. The purpose of the General’s visit was allegedly to tell the authorities of the Sarayaku community that if the community adopted a more extreme position and refused to allow the oil company to enter, “decisions will be made in Quito and the territory will be militarized”; p) in that same communication of April 8, 2004, the petitioners reported on nine attacks against the lives and physical person of members of the indigenous community and its defenders: