18 her expertise (supra, para. 23). The expert witness points out, mainly, the present situation of the indigenous peoples but a few of them relates, clearly, to the time during which the facts of the instant case occurred. In that sense, she mentioned that [I]n the last two decades, some of the regions of Colombia are facing an agrarian counter-reform sponsored by the drug traffic that is accumulating lands in areas of high potential valuation […] The expansion of the drug cultivation is supported by the "paramilitary" violence, which is displacing peasants and farmers, black peoples and indigenous communities. […] Since the end of the ’70, the CRIC (Cauca Indigenous Regional Council) made its best efforts to have a conversation with the Secretary of the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) in an attempt to stop the murders of indigenous leaders on the part of such organization. [T]he indigenous communities, since its beginning, thirty years ago, have been seen by insurgent groups with precaution and fear for the political independence that has characterized them. The “paramilitaries”, in its turn, consider that those communities are a subversive movement.58 52. Flor Ilva Trochez Ramos, witness, stated to the Court that "up to the moment, we have registered in the Department of Cauca, 503 murders [...] involving Nasa peoples," since 1971 up to the present time. 53. Finally, the Court notes that the State pointed out that “its regrets that along the national history there have been violent events involving indigenous communities.” 54. As to the connection of the facts of the instant case to the general situation described in the above paragraphs, the Commission alleged that the death of Mr. Escué Zapata has "a direct relationship with the participation of the victim in the political activity of the community, as sponsor of productive projects that were [...] a key of the strategy of the indigenous social organization in Cauca." The representatives sustained that “the extrajudicial execution of Germán [Escué Zapata] was linked to his position as a leader and traditional authority of his Town and to the work, as leader, that he carried out that was actively engaged in the recovery of the ancestral land of Paez People and the survival and development of its particular way of life." The State disputed the above mentioned paragraph and pointed out that the victim "was not an indigenous leader at the time of the events" and that his death occurred as a consequence of "an internal ethnic conflict that resulted in wrong information for the Army on the part of an indigenous person of the same ethnic and the abuse of power of some state agents." 55. Gloria Lucy Zamora Patiño, expert witness, explained to the Tribunal the social and political organization of the indigenous Paeces and the differences between each of their traditional authorities. The expert witness stated that: The Tu Tenza or Cacique-Gobernador is the believable subject, the one that generates confidence within the community, who is useful for the service; he is a communitarian product assigned to that position by the [Nasa Wala or Indian Meeting] in order to fulfil the fundamental mandate of Nasa and he has certain “tasks" for which he has been preparing and according to which he will continue accumulating knowledge and expertise. That is why the election in the meeting is compulsory. Once he has fulfilled his position, the Tu Tenza delivers the baton of authority to his successor, who, together with the Te’wala [Chamán] should go to a sacred lagoon to “clean” the dirt off the baton of authority; the retiring governors constitute the Consejo de Exgobernadores [Council of Former Governors] who support and assess the new cabildantes, as well as guide the community through complex and delicate issues; the Te Wala accompanies them in the "harmonization" task of the communal life. Though he is the head of the governing organ called Cabildo, he is not a self-sufficient subject; otherwise, he is accompanied by other members who will help him to carry out the assigned tasks. In this institution, all the community is equally represented, though he may have not received the 58 Cf. Anthropological expert's opinion developed by Esther Sánchez de Guzmán (records of the merits, Volume III, page 617, note 33).