petition of the Community of San Juan. At that same time, the Commission forwarded the relevant parts of the petition to the State and set a period of two months for it to submit its reply, as provided in Article 30 of the IACHR Rules of Procedure in force at the time. Following an extension granted on September 18, 2006, the initial response of the Honduran State, dated December 21, 2006, was received. 6. The Commission received information from the petitioner on the following dates: October 18 and 31, 2006; February 6 and 20, April 20, and November 2, 2007; February 6, and July 7, 2008; May 21, July 19, and August 6, 2010; October 26, 2011; and February 13, 2013. While the State submitted additional information on the following dates: August 23, 2007, April 11 and September 15, 2008, and September 22, 2010. The communications submitted by each party were duly forwarded to the opposing party. Additionally, during this stage of the proceedings before the IACHR, two working meetings were held and were attended by both parties: the first one, on October 24, 2008, during the 133rd session and the second one, on October 26, 2011, during the 143rd session. − Precautionary Measures (MC 304-05)2 7. In the communication received on June 9, 2006, the petitioner requested the IACHR to approve precautionary measures to ensure an end to threats and harassment leveled against Community leaders Wilfredo Guerrero, Jessica García and Ellis Marin; as well as to violations of the territorial rights of the Community of San Juan as a result of imminent danger of irreparable damage to their physical and cultural survival. 8. On July 7, 2006, the IACHR granted precautionary measures on behalf of the Community of San Juan and the leaders thereof, specifically ordering the Honduran State “to protect the lives and personal integrity of the leaders of the Civic Association (Patronato) and the Committee for the Defense of the Land of the Community of San Juan, particularly, Jessica García, Wilfredo Guerrero and Ellis Marin.” It also requested the State “to protect and respect the right to property over the ancestral lands belonging to the Community of San Juan; specifically, to take the necessary measures to avoid or suspend execution of any judicial or administrative action, which affected the right to ancestral property of the Community of San Juan, until such time as the bodies of the Inter-American human rights system issue a dispositive decision on petition 674-06.” The IACHR continues to monitor the situation. III. POSITIONS OF THE PARTIES A. The Petitioner 9. The petitioner claims that the origin of the Garifuna people dates back to the 18th Century and is the product of syncretism between indigenous and African peoples. It notes that the Garifuna people have been inhabiting the Honduran Atlantic coast since 1797 and that the people maintains its “language, customs, culture and practices regarding communal land; … its own tradition-based institutions of social and political organization.” It contends that the Garifuna communities have long been calling on the State to recognize the lands that they have possessed since the times of their ancestors. They argue particularly that, since its founding in 1901, the Community of San Juan “struggled for recognition of its territorial rights over an area of 1770 hectares.” 10. The petitioner notes that, far from recognizing its property rights, the National Agrarian Institute (hereinafter, the “INA,” its Spanish acronym) granted the community two guarantees of occupation: the first one, in 1979, over 46.40 manzanas (approximately 32.5 hectares); and the second one, in 1984, over 72 hectares. It contends that in 1992, the Community filed a request with the INA to be granted title to 1,770 hectares, attesting to the ancestral occupation of the territory. The petitioner claims that the case file, identified by number 27.660, containing the request of the community along with “the documents that prove its right to 2 This situation was originally reported by the petitioner in the context of precautionary measure 253-05, pertaining to the Garifuna Community of Triunfo de la Cruz, in Honduras. Because the instant case involves a different Garifuna Community facing a particular situation, it was severed from the original request and assigned Precautionary Measure number MC 304-05.