4
9.
As a consequence of the sale of the ancestral lands of the indigenous Enxet
people, they found themselves forcibly displaced. In its abovementioned application,
the IACHR pointed out that
"In view of the deplorable life conditions, memebers of the Sawhoyamaxa Community
[of the Enxet people] who lived in villages located inside private estates decided to move
to a public roadside, facing the reclaimed lands, while waiting for the State to decide on
their petition for recognition of part of their ancestral territory "11.
10.
In fact, members of the Sawhoyamaxa Community of the Enxet people are, to
this day, living in infra-human conditions12, —or surviving, or in several cases, dying
— on the side of the road known as Coronel Franco road, in the Santa Elisa and
Kilómetro 16 settlements13. This —as the representatives of the victims remark in
their abovementioned brief— in spite of the fact that
"The Enxet people historically preexists the Paraguayan State, as it has acknowledged
on its own accord, and therefore its rights over its territories are, in consequence,
previous to such State (...).
(...) The area reclaimed by the Sawhoyamaxa Indigenous Community is part of its
traditional habitat, a fact not contested by the Paraguayan State. In spite of that, the
State has not guaranteed the community and its members the possession and the
ownership of such territory "14.
11.
In its answer to the application, of July 13, 2005, the agent of the respondent
State admits that the aforementioned indigenous peoples
"exist as cultures from before the Paraguayan State was formed, as it is acknowledged
in the National Constitution"15 and it furthermore “accepts the legislation on the subject
to be perfectible"16, and it "deeply regrets the demise" of 31 members of the
Sawhoyamaxa Community, but contests the responsibility of the State for such deaths.17
12.
The sufferings of the members of the Sawhoyamaxa Community have lasted
in time. To their struggle for survival, and for the preservation of their modus
vivendi, the pain of facing indifference and oblivion from the social environment must
be added. The conditions in which they survive seem to deprive them of their own
history, Do the poor and the bereft have a history? That was the question posed in
an International Forum organized, in March 1988, by UNESCO and the Universal
Academy of Cultures. There, a reflection developed by J. Wresinski, founder of the
ATD Fourth World movement, was remembered in its eloquent terms:
"The other day I passed that way again, but I did not even recognize the place where
the shanties had once been, nor the location of the old town. Nevertheless, how many
11
.
12
.
Page 12, paragraph 50 of the abovementioned application.
Described in paragraph 73.61-75, subparagraphs "e" and "f", of the instant Judgment.
13
.
And other estates; cf. page 23 of the abovementioned independent brief on arguments, petitions
and evidence by the representatives of the victims.
14
.
Ibid., page 22.
15
.
Page 21, para. 47, of the abovementioned answer to the application.
16
.
Ibid., page 70, para. 8.
17
.
Cf. ibid., pages 52-60, paras. 143-163.