for the massacre to be carried out.” They report that the Pastaza provincial prosecution service launched an investigation into the incident and “visited the settlement and examined evidence”; the investigation, however, “was never completed,” nor was any substantive ruling or judgment issued in connection with the case. 17. They also report that on April 26, 2006, in the Cononaco Chico sector of the Yasuní National Park, near the Chiripuno River, other members of the Taromenani people were killed. The exact number, they state, is unknown because of the remoteness and inaccessibility of the location. They report that the bodies of two women with gunshot wounds were found; however, they claim that some accounts speak of a death toll of up to thirty, with the possibility that the bodies were thrown into the rivers or hidden in the undergrowth of the rain forest. They claim the massacre of April 2006 was in revenge for a Taromenani spear-attack on two illegal loggers on April 12, 2006, and on another illegal logger on August 11, 2005. They explain that the attacks by the Taromenani have occurred as a reaction to the constant invasions of their territory by loggers. 18. They further claim that on that occasion, “the local prosecutor did not investigate the facts,” and that “all the State did in this case was to fly over the area of the rain forest in a helicopter.” They report that they sent a series of communications to the Minister of the Interior, the Ministry of Defense, and the President of the Republic regarding the prosecution service’s failure to investigate the acts of violence and the urgency of adopting “real and effective measures to control timber trafficking”; according to their claims, however, those communications received no replies.4 They add that according to investigations, between 2005 and 2006 alone ten complaints were filed with the prosecution service in Orellana in connection with situations affecting indigenous peoples in isolation and/or involving illegal logging, all of which had been given “negligent attention.” 19. According to the petitioners, the massacres of 2003 and 2006 “were not the result of clashes between uncontacted groups: they were the result of authentic acts of genocide orchestrated by groups of illegal loggers and contacted Waoranis, who received money from the loggers.” They contend that illegal loggers, acting in conjunction with members of Waorani indigenous groups, planned and executed those attacks to exterminate the Taromenani in reprisal for the Taromenanis’ efforts to defend their territory. They note that “studies on uncontacted peoples have documented that they attack when their habitat is threatened by outside incursions.” They claim that although the connection between illegal logging activities and the extermination of the uncontacted peoples has been clearly established, the “Ecuadorian State, through its competent agencies, has taken no effective action to control illegal timber trafficking” even though “their transportation routes are well known and limited.” 20. They say that although the Ecuadorian State later took certain steps to protect the territories of the Tagaeri and Taromenani, those actions were insufficient. Specifically, they note that Executive Decree No. 552 of February 2, 1999, created the “restricted area” (Zona Intangible) covering some 700,000 hectares in the provinces of Orellana and Pastaza. They note that a part of that restricted area is included in the Yasuní Biosphere Reserve. They state that although the decree set a deadline of six months for demarcating the restricted area, its boundaries were not determined until January 16, 2007, by means of Executive Decree No. 2187, with a total area of 758.01 hectares. 21. They contend that those decrees did not include funding for the restricted area and the cessation of illegal logging activities, which constitutes one of the main threats to the indigenous peoples in voluntary isolation. They further note that the restricted area does not cover the entirety of the Tagaeri and Taromenani peoples’ territory, since there is evidence that they inhabit a zone to the north of the restricted area, as far as the Tiputini River. They add that a portion of their territory extends into Peru, and that Ecuador has pursued no steps with the Peruvian State to protect the Tagaeri and Taromenani as they move between the two countries. They also claim that on August 19, 2004, the Ecuadorian State granted the Brazilian company 4 Specifically, the petitioners presented the following documents: Circular deed No. 050-SPA of June 16, 2006, sent by Alfredo Barragán, Undersecretary for Environmental Protection, to the Minister of the Interior, the Minister of Defense, and the President of the Republic; letter sent by the petitioners to Alba Albán, Environment Minister of Ecuador, dated April 14, 2006; letter sent by the petitioners to Felipe Vega de la Cuadra, Minister of the Interior, dated April 19, 2006; letter to the Minister of the Interior and Police, the Environment Minister, and the Minister of Defense of Ecuador, presented by the petitioners on May 6, 8, and 9, 2006, respectively. 4