15 establish themselves alongside the public road, facing the land of Loma Verde estate, which is the land that “belonged to their ancestors and was lost.” Yakye Axa is a sacred place where their ancestors lived. The witness recalls that 47 persons died and were buried there. Living conditions of the members of the Yakye Axa Community at the place were they currently live are difficult. The settlement is surrounded by cattle ranchers’ land, which they are not allowed to enter. They cannot hunt freely, they have problems finding food and “protecting themselves in the country to avoid conflicts with the white persons.” The men of the Community cannot feed their children regularly. The witness has to go elsewhere to obtain water and food for the boys and girls. Most members of the Community are jobless. The State supplies some food to the Community. During drought periods, those supplies arrive twice a month, but they only last six days. After beginning the process of claiming their lands, the Community has constantly been threatened by the owners of the lands they claim or by persons hired by them. One night, three individuals wearing long clothes, like those of a priest, entered the Community with firearms, shooting at each house. The men planted a cross in the Community settlement and hung a slaughtered hen. When they left, they said they would do the same to the members of the indigenous Community. Although these facts were reported to the Paraguayan authorities, there have been no results. While the land claim was being processed, the witness regularly visited the Instituto Paraguayo del Indígena to request food supplies, medicine, and any other assistance, and he personally contacted both the President of that Institute and other officials. Sometimes they received aid from INDI, other times they did not. In September 2001 the witness was subjected to pressure to accept an offer of 30,000 hectares of land. Due to that pressure, the witness wanted to resign as leader, but the majority of members of the Community did not allow him to do so. The members of the Community met, and most of them did not accept the offer, but others did, so the witness signed certain documents, feeling very nervous. The Community also received other offers of land. Twice, the Instituto Paraguayo del Indígena offered them 25,000 hectares. However, since another indigenous community had previously requested that land, and the Yakye Axa Community did not reach an agreement with them, they did not accept that offer. It was better to turn down the offer and leave them in peace. Another time, the Community rejected an expropriation of 15,000 hectares on the land of the Chanawatsan, in Naranjaty, of which they were to receive 7,500 hectares, because they were “notified with no prior consultation.” b. Tomás Galeano, alleged victim and leader of the Yakye Axa Community His ethnic group is the Enxet. He is the chief of the Yakye Axa Community, as his ancestors were. He was born and raised in Yakye Axa, where his parents lived before.