2 sensitive case involving former General Álvaro Velandia-Hurtado, a senior army officer, in connection with the disappearance of Nydia Erika Bautista, sister of Yanette Bautista and José Publio Bautista and mother of Erik Arellano-Bautista, on behalf of whom the adoption of provisional measures was sought. At that time the Commission considered that this judicial pronouncement would have sweeping repercussions on the members of the Association. 3. The deeds which the Commission alleges to have been perpetrated against the persons on behalf of whom the adoption of provisional measures was sought; they include: threatening telephone calls, surveillance by DAS officials or State security organs, inquiries into their affairs, and harassment by alleged paramilitary groups. 4. The Commission's arguments on which its request for provisional measures is based, that Colombia has taken no effective action to protect those persons and that “despite the existence of precautionary measures requested by the Commission on behalf of various members of the organization ... the harassment has continued and increased, culminating in the attack on the Medellín section office on June 24, 1997.” 5. The Commission’s July 16, 1997, brief through which it informed the Court of subsequent stalking of and threats to of Yanette Bautista, Erik Antonio Arellano-Bautista, and José Publio Bautista. The Commission also claimed that the administrative petition for nullification in the case in which former General Alvaro Velandia Hurtado was sentenced for the disappearance of Nydia Erika Bautista (supra, Having Seen, section 2(e)) was denied on June 20, 1997, by the Administrative Contentious Tribunal of El Valle. 6. The Order of the President of the Court (hereinafter "the President") of July 22, 1997, through which he decided: 1. To request the Republic of Colombia, in strict compliance with the obligation to respect and guarantee human rights which it undertook in accordance with Article 1(1) of the American Convention on Human Rights, to adopt forthwith such measures as are necessary to protect the life and integrity of José Daniel Álvarez, Nidia Linores Ascanio, Gladys López, Yanette Bautista, María Helena Saldarriaga, Piedad Martín, María Eugenia López, Adriana Diosa, Astrid Manrique, Faride Ascanio, Carmen Barrera, Evidalia Chacón, José Publio Bautista, Nelly María Ascanio, Ayda Mile Ascanio, and Miriam Rosas Ascanio in order to prevent irreparable damage to them. 2. To request that the Republic of Colombia, as soon as Mr. Erik Antonio Arellano-Bautista returns to its territory, adopt such measures as are necessary to protect his life and physical integrity in order to prevent irreparable damage to him. 3. To request that the Republic of Colombia investigate the facts denounced and punish those responsible for them, particularly with regard to the attack of June 24, 1997, on the Association's offices in the city of Medellín. 4. To request that the Republic of Colombia adopt forthwith such measures as are necessary to ensure that all the offices of the Association of Relatives of Detainees-Disappeared Persons of Colombia may discharge its functions without danger to the lives or physical integrity of the persons working there, especially the Association's offices in the cities of Medellín and Ocaña. 5. To request that the Republic of Colombia submit a first report on the measures adopted within 15 days of notification of this Order and that the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights submit its comments on that report within a period of one month from receipt of that document. 6. To request that the Republic of Colombia, from the date of presentation of its first report, continue to submit every two months its reports on the provisional measures taken and that the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights submit its comments on those reports within 45 days of receiving them.