39
filed (supra para. 73(18)) be enlarged “to at least fifteen thousand hectares,” on the
grounds that the initial request “was insufficient” in the light of Article 64 of the new
National Constitution of Paraguay (hereinafter “the National Constitution”).
Furthermore, they requested the IBR to take the necessary steps so that “an
injunction” be issued on the claimed lands, since the current owner had started to
“plunder the place.”64
73(30) On October 25, 1993 the Chief of the Office of the IBR Ombudsman decided
that, “in order to comply with the foregoing, […] it is necessary to send an official
letter to the [INDI] and request it to return case f[ile] No. 7595/91.”65
73(31) For their part, through a note of July 9, 1993 “the members of the Enxet
Indigenous People […] settled in Loma Porá village” referred to the letter sent to the
IBR in February, 1993 (supra para. 73(28)) “which [they] had signed” and “made it
c[lear] that their master had made [them] sign the letter without their
underst[anding] neither the meaning nor the contents thereof.” The indigenous
members argued that they reaffirmed their request for the “legalization of the lands
that were located around Sa[w]hoyamaxa.”66 In view of the foregoing, on November
5, 1993 the INDI forwarded case file No. 7597/91 to the IBR, expressing its opinion
that “for the above mentioned purposes, the relevant processing should be reset in
motion.”67
73(32) After the administrative case file was forwarded to the IBR, the Court of the
First Instance in Civil and Business Law, Fourth Rotation, requested said institution
to send a legalized copy thereof, since it had been seized with a request for a
preliminary injunction to be issued on the lands claimed filed by the members of the
Sawhoyamaxa Community68 (infra para. 73(55)). It was forwarded on December 29,
1993.69
73(33) On March 11, 1994 the leaders of the Sawhoyamaxa Community, through
their attorneys, requested the IBR to summon the corporations Urbana Inmobiliaria
S.A. (Urban Real Estate, Inc.) and COMPENSA to make an offer for sale of a piece of
land of at least 15,000 hectares in the place known as Retiro Santa Elisa in Loma
64
Cf. brief filed by the Sawhoyamaxa Indigenous Community with the IBR on September 7, 1993
(case file of appendixes to the answer to the complaint, appendix 1, folios 1433 and 1434), and brief
addressed by Mr. Tomás Galeano-Benítez, leader of the Indigenous Community Yakye Axa to the IBR on
October 6, 1993 (case file of appendixes to the answer to the complaint, appendix 1, folios 1418 to 1418).
65
Cf. report No. 823 issued by the Office of the Ombudsman for Indigenous Affairs of the IBR on
October 25, 1993 (case file of appendixes to the answer to the complaint, appendix 1, folio 1453).
66
Cf. communication addressed by some “members of the Indigenous Enxet People” to the IBR on
July 9, 1993 (case file of appendixes to the answer to the complaint, appendix 1, folio 1435).
67
Cf. note P.C. No. 415/93 of the President of the Board of Directors of the INDI addressed to the
President of the IBR on November 5, 1993 (case file of appendixes to the complaint, appendix 10, folio
811).
68
Cf. note of the Clerk of the Court of the First Instance in Civil and Business Law, Fourth Rotation,
addressed to the President of the IBR on December 21, 1993 (case file of appendixes to the answer to the
complaint, appendix 1, folios 1455 to 1456).
69
Cf. note of the President of the IBR addressed to the Clerk of the Court of the First Instance in
Civil and Business Law, Fourth Rotation, on December 29, 1993 (case file of appendixes to the answer to
the complaint, appendix 1, folio 1458).