42 of Fuel, in which although a certain interest in solving the matter transpired, no real and precise 132 commitment was assumed to reverse the situation.” 150. In a note dated October 4, 2001, the National Government stated before the IACHR that “the Federal Government – through the governmental agency with jurisdiction in the matter - has convoked working meetings with the entrepreneurs who obtained – through a public tender - the concession of the oil exploitation and exploration activities in the area affected by the claim, in order for them, prior to conducting the activities necessary to fulfill their purpose, to invite the communities to 133 dialogue so as to secure them the conservation of their territories.” V. LEGAL ANALYSIS A. Preliminary issues 1. The indigenous communities who are the alleged victims of the present report 151. The IACHR notes that the number of indigenous communities that inhabit Fiscal Lots 55 and 14 has varied in the course of the present proceedings. The initial petition of 1998 referred to 35 indigenous communities, while in October 2007 the petitioners pointed to a total of 45 communities; in turn, the State, in February 2009, referred to 50 communities, and in May 2011 it informed about 47 communities. 134 152. The petitioners provided a clear anthropological explanation of this numerical variation, given the nomadic, hunter-gatherer way of life of the indigenous peoples of the Salta Chaco. They have a significant fluidity in the composition of the communities and in their places of settlement, in the course of which it is frequent for some groups to separate themselves (transitorily or permanently) from the larger communities to which they are ascribed, establishing their own independent settlements, or to the same extent, some groups that were previously separated come together in one settlement to establish a new community. This “fission-fusion” dynamic, which is a distinctive trait of the Wichí, Chorote, Toba, Chulupí and Tapiete indigenous peoples, corresponds to the socio-cultural characteristics described by specialized ethnological literature, in general, for nomadic societies whose mode of subsistence is based on hunting, fishing and gathering. This distinctive feature of these indigenous peoples is found by the IACHR to be a proven fact which the State has not questioned. 153. The IACHR also notes that the precise counting, identification and mapping of the indigenous communities of the area are processes which are unfolding still, and which have been part of the territorial claim process from the beginning. Both the Lhaka Honhat Association and the organizations that support it, as well as the Provincial Government, have undertaken during the past several years different “survey” initiatives, censi and cartographies of the indigenous settlements of Fiscal Lots 55 and 135 14, which would appear not to have been completely finalized. Regardless of the ongoing character of 132 Communication by the petitioners to the IACHR of July 19, 2001, received by the IACHR on July 19, 2001, and tansmitted to the State on August 31, 2001. 133 Communication by the State to the IACHR, received on October 4, 2001, and communicated to the petitioners on October 12, 2001. 134 Petitioners’ observations on the merits, received by the IACHR on January 4, 2007, and transmitted to the State through note of January 12, 2007. 135 Thus, it is proven in the case file that (i) between 1989 and 1991, the indigenous communities of Fiscal Lot 55 carried out a census and counting initiative in order to submit their first formal claim to title to property to the Government; (ii) in 2001, the Provincial Government of Salta adopted Decree 339/01, creating a technical commission in charge of carrying out a precise mapping of the location of the indigenous and creole communities that resided in Fiscal Lots 55 and 14; (iii) at the end of 2001, pointing to the delays in the implementation of Decree 339/01, the Lhaka Honhat Association, with the support of the organizations ASOCIANA, IWGIA and others, undertook a new mapping process, and reports on its advances were submitted to the IACHR; (iv) during the different meetings held in the course of the friendly settlement process during 2001, the parties reported to the IACHR that the National Government, through the INAI, had also carried out its own process of survey and mapping of the indigenous communities, which would be completed through the process derived from Decree 339/01 of the Provincial Government; (v) in the working meeting held on October 4, 2002, between the parties, in the framework of the friendly settlement process, the petitioners Continúa…