19 to visit the communities to explain that they had the right to claim there lands, and practically every community decided to explore the possibility of claiming them. In 1993, most members of the Yakye Axa Community decided to claim their lands. Also, in 1996 Tomás Galeano, with a small group of members of the Community, returned to Loma Verde estate. At that time several indigenous families lived in Estancia Loma Verde; however, the group led by Tomás Galeano was unable to enter, for which reason they were forced to establish their settlement alongside a public road, facing said estate. Several months later, spontaneously, almost all the Community decide to settle alongside the public road. The members of the Community did not receive external support to move there, but rather paid for this themselves. The Yakye Axa Community chose the land they wanted to claim on their own, where their settlement had been, where they, their parents and their grandparents were born. The Yakye Axa Community is a longstanding community. After they left El Estribo, the members of that Community visited Estancia Loma Verde, stayed there several weeks, fishing and hunting. The members of the Yakye Axa Community always spoke sadly of the fact that they had left their land to settle on the land at El Estribo, which was actually not good for anything, much less for agriculture. e. Rodrigo Villagra Carrón, witness In 1993, the Yakye Axa Community began to claim its lands before the Instituto Paraguayo del Indígena and the Instituto de Bienestar Rural. At that time, the Community requested 15,000 hectares in the area of its traditional habitat, which includes the Loma Verde, Ledesma, and Maroma estates. Subsequently, this claim focused on the complete surface of Loma Verde estate, 18,000 hectares. In 1997, the Instituto Paraguayo del Indígena requested the drafting of an anthropological report that subsequently corroborated that the area claimed by the Community constituted its traditional habitat. That same year, the Instituto de Bienestar Rural conducted a visual inspection that declared that the land claimed was under rational use, for which reason it transferred the file to the Instituto Paraguayo del Indígena. The Instituto Paraguayo del Indígena raised the possibility of expropriation of those lands, arguing that they are part of the Community’s traditional habitat and that this right can be exercised by other than private individuals, as the Community is prior to establishment of the State. In 2000, there were hearings for a friendly settlement between the Yakye Axa Community and the owners of the land; however, the latter refused to sell it. The Community requested expropriation of Estancia Loma Verde. That same year a bill was submitted to expropriate the 18,000 hectares of Estancia Loma Verde, which was ultimately rejected by the congressional committees that dealt with the agrarian reform, for which reason the bill was not discussed in the plenary. Subsequently, the Executive submitted another expropriation bill to the Senate, which discussed it and finally decided to reject it. In 1993 the Yakye Axa Community asked the Instituto Paraguayo del Indígena to acknowledge its leaders. The State took three years to grant said acknowledgment, while this could have been done in a few months. In 1998, the Community requested its legal status and the Instituto Paraguayo del Indígena only granted it in 2001.