9
Guaraní. They are not given texts in their language (enxet), and therefore they
cannot teach it to the children who go to the school, and this endangers its
transmission.
Elderly men and women transmit values and practices of their own culture. The
witness explains to the boys and girls when there are celebrations and traditional
themes and regarding their ancestors, such as the Weykeneten festivity (celebrated
at the time of the first menstruation of a girl or of puberty, usually at age 15).
The danger of losing their language, their values and traditions is also associated
with the fact that the parents alternate their lives on the estates, where they interact
socially with Paraguayans who speak Spanish and Guaraní. The celebrations at the
Community settlement cannot be carried out fully in accordance with tradition. For
example, they lack the food they would use at the celebrations, which they would
produce on their lands. All this is because the Yakye Axa Community is not allowed
access to their lands and to their habitat.
The witness has seen acts of violence suffered by the community: attacks with
firearms in August 2000 and threats made by hooded men who planted a cross in
the community settlement, slaughtered some hens, and said that this would happen
to their leaders. The Community lives in fear and sadness. Its member families are
not at peace for lack of land and having to live alongside a road, where vehicles go
by at high speeds and there is a danger of accidents, such as the one suffered in
October 2004 by two young members of the Community. One of these youths,
Wilfredo Gómez Fernández, died, and the other, Arsenio Ramos, lost a leg.
Two of the witnesses’ children, Mauro who was two years old and Fidelina who was
one year old, died due to the conditions in which they lived alongside the road,
without even a health post or promoter.
Due to lack of land, deaths are a very bad thing for the Community. Deaths make
the families, due to their believes, have to leave their house to move away from “the
presence” of the deceased beloved one. When his mother died, the witness took
apart his house and built another one nearby. Their ancestors’ cemetery is in the
lands of Yakye Axa, east of the main buildings of Loma Verde estate. If they recover
their lands, they will continue burying their dead there.
To change and improve their situation, they need their lands. Without their lands,
the teacher suffers, the boys and girls suffer, and their parents suffer.
b.
Statement by Enrique Castillo, expert witness
The Paraguayan National Constitution, adopted on June 20, 1992, establishes that
Paraguay is a multicultural State under the rule of law. Being a multicultural State
places Paraguay in an advanced position in terms of Ibero-American law, as in
addition to acknowledging the indigenous component of its social structure, this
means that indigenous customary law is recognized by Paraguay’s legal system. In
this regard, chapter V of the Constitution defines a special legal system that applies
exclusively to the indigenous peoples of Paraguay, recognizing a number of specific
rights, guarantees and freedoms that acknowledge the cultural identity and the
situation of inequality of those peoples. Article 64 of the National Constitution
embodies the right of the indigenous communities to collective or communal