Paraguayo”
17.
Regarding the evidence submitted during the public hearing, the Court heard
the testimony of the following persons:
1) Maximiliano Ruiz, teacher and member of the Community, alleged victim,
proposed by the Commission and the representatives. He testified, inter
alia, on (i) the Community’s social conditions owing to the lack of their
ancestral land; (ii) current social and educational conditions in the
Community; (iii) the situation of the Community’s children, and (iv) the
conditions experienced on the Salazar Ranch while the members of the said
Community lived there;
2) Antonia Ramirez, Community member, alleged victim, proposed by the
Commission and the representatives. She testified, inter alia, on: (i) the
current situation of the Community, particularly with regard to the general
situation of the women and children of the Community owing to the lack of
their traditional habitat, and (ii) the conditions experienced on the Salazar
Ranch while the members of the said Community lived there;
3) Rodrigo Villagra Carron, doctorate in social anthropology, witness proposed
by the Commission and the representatives. He testified, inter alia, on: (i)
the colonization and loss of the Enxet territory; (ii) the initial process carried
out by the different communities of this people to recover the said territory;
(iii) the specific situation of the land claim of the Xákmok Kásek people and
the applicable national laws regarding the land claims of the indigenous
peoples of Paraguay, and (iv) the relationship between the current territorial
claims, including that of the Xákmok Kásek, and their socio-adaptive
process before the Nation-State;
4) Lidia Acuña, current President of the INDI, witness proposed by the State.
She testified, inter alia, on “the steps taken to resolve the problem
described by the Xákmok Kásek Community,” and
5) Fulgencio Pablo Balmaceda Rodríguez, doctor, expert witness, proposed by
the Commission and the representatives. He testified, inter alia, on the
health and sanitation conditions of the Community, specifically on the cause
of death of those who have died.
2.
Admissibility of the evidence
18.
In this case, as in others,11 the Court accepts the probative value of the
documents that were presented by the parties at the appropriate opportunity which
were not contested or challenged, and whose authenticity was not questioned, as well
as those that refer to supervening facts.
19.
Regarding the testimony and the expert opinions, the Court considers them
pertinent to the extent that they correspond to the purpose defined by the President in
the order requiring them (supra para. 7), and they will be assessed in the
corresponding chapter. With regard to the statements of the alleged victims, since they
11
Cf. Case of Velásquez Rodríguez v. Honduras. Merits. Judgment of July 29, 1988. Series C No. 4,
para. 140; Case of Chitay Nech et al. v. Guatemala, supra note 8, para. 50, and Case of Manuel Cepeda
Vargas v. Colombia, supra note 8, para. 56.
6