12
48.
In 1992, some of the communities that inhabit Lots 14 and 55 created the Lhaka Honhat
46
(Our Land) Association of Aboriginal Communities, under the form of a civil law association. The
fundamental purpose for the creation of the Lhaka Honhat Association was that of obtaining a shared
47
collective title to territorial property for all of the indigenous communities of Fiscal Lots 14 and 55.
49.
On December 21, 2000, the IACHR received a handwritten communication signed by
thirty-five chiefs and representatives of communities who live in Fiscal Lots 55 and 14, in which they
confirmed their will to continue to have the Lhaka Honhat Association represent them and counsel them
in the framework of the proceedings before the IACHR. 48 In May 2011, the Provincial Government of
Salta submitted a “Report on the advances in the process of land adjudication in Fiscal Lots 14 and 55” to
the IACHR, where it included a list of indigenous communities, indicating which ones are associated to
Lhaka Honhat and which ones are not; it was reported that as of that date, the Association had twenty49
seven affiliated communities, whereas another twenty indigenous communities of the lots are not
50
associated thereto.
Situation of the indigenous communal property over the ancestral territory
First phase of the indigenous territorial claim: acquisition and formalization of successive
commitments by the Provincial Government to grant a single title to property (1984-1998)
50.
Despite different initiatives adopted since the beginning of the 20th Century to regularize
the occupation and property claims to the lands of Fiscal Lots 14 and 55, such occupation has not been
legalized as of the date of the present merits report, and those who live in the area, both indigenous and
non-indigenous, lack formal titles to property over these lands, which – as Fiscal Lots - are the property of
51
the Province of Salta. Consequently, their inhabitants have the status of de facto occupiers, except for
46
The petitioners state that “Lhaka Honhat was formally constituted as a non-profit civil association on September 17,
1992, as proven by Ministerial Resolution No. 449 of December 9, 1992, which approves its bylaws and grants it juridical
personality. Lhaka Honhat was forced to assume a civil law organizational format, given that the legal system does not contemplate
any other modality which is more adequate to the way of life of the indigenous communities.” [Petitioners’ observations on the
merits, received by the IACHR on January 4, 2007, and transmitted to the State through note of January 12, 2007]
47
Petitioners explain that said communities “recognize the Lhaka Honhat Association of Aboriginal Communities as their
legitimate representative, which obtained its juridical personality in 1992 as a requirement to obtain title to property over their lands.”
[Petitioners’ observations on the merits, received by the IACHR on January 4, 2007, and transmitted to the State through note of
January 12, 2007]
48
Communication sent by the petitioners to the IACHR, received on December 21, 2000, and transmitted to the State on
December 26, 2000.
49
Hence, it is reported that the communities that form part of the Lhaka Honhat Association are 27: (1) La Merced Nueva;
(2) Bella Vista; (3) Kom Lañoko – Misión Toba – Monte Carmelo; (4) Misión La Paz; (5) Misión La Gracia; (6) Santa Victoria 2; (7)
Pozo El Toro; (8) Pozo La China; (9) Lantawos – Alto La Sierra; (10) Misión San Luis; (11) La Puntana I; (12) La Merced Vieja; (13)
Las Juntas; (14) Rancho El Ñato; (15) Pozo El Tigre; (16) La Curvita; (17) Padre Coll; (18) Santa María; (19) Km 1; (20) Km 2; (21)
Pozo El Mulato; (22) El Cañaveral 1; (23) La Bolsa; (24) El Cruce; (25) Las Vertientes; (26) Pin Pin; (27) El Cercado.
50
The communities that do not form part of the Association, as informed by the Government, are: (1) Molathati; (2) Madre
Esperanza; (3) Nueva Esperanza – Lote Fiscal No. 55; (4) Ñande Yer; (5) La Esperanza; (6) Monte Verde; (7) El Cañaveral II; (8)
Roberto Romero; (9) Ebeneser; (10) Misión Algarrobal – La Puntana; (11) Al Pu; (12) Inhate; (13) Sop A Kweni – Represa de las
Víboras; (14) Misión Vieja – Santa María; (15) Pomis Jiwet (lugar de los tambores); (16) Santa Victoria I; (17) Misión La Paz –
Chorote; (18) San Ignacio; (19) San Lorenzo; (20) La Estrella.
51
As explained in a specialized historical study, “In 1902 the National Government founded the Buenaventura Colony,
granting 625 hectare lots to the pioneers. However, these titles would last very little. Between the years 1904-1907 the national
government granted other parcels of the same size to those settlers and others who had already established themselves in the Lot.
In 1905 the Government of Salta expressed its concern to the National Government about the fact that the lots adjudicated as
national fiscal lands could belong to the provincial jurisdiction. Therefore, and given the lack of definition of precise limits between
the Province of Salta and the National Territory of Formosa, a commission was designated to draw the dividing line among the two.
In 1909, Engineer Barilari and Mr. Garbiel Puló carried out the demarcation of the limits; with which the provisional titles granted by
the Nation lost all validity (…). Since then until the approval of Article 75, paragraph 17 of the National Constitution, which
recognizes to the indigenous the ‘communal possession and property of the lands that they traditionally occupy’, the creoles and the
indigenous became the ‘occupires’ of the fiscal lands (…). Throughout successive stages, the local governments would attempt to
regularize the situation of occupation. Those affected, on the other hand, would fight to obtain recognition of their Rights. // In 1919,
an officer from the National Directorate of Lands and Colonies anticipated the decadente of the colonization, and required the
Continúa…