rejected. Finally, on February 27, 1997 the petitioners filed a complaint
for denial of the previous appeal before the federal Supreme Court,
which rejected that complaint on February 5, 1998.
74.
Once the petition was laid before the IACHR, and following
publication of Decree 461/99 of December 24, 1999 13 (whereby the
Governor of the Province awarded portions of fiscal lots 55 in community
ownership to members of various indigenous communities and to certain
criollos), the petitioners filed a motion for constitutional protection
before the Supreme Court of the Province of Salta against the executive
of that Province, on March 8, 2000. The petitioners argue that the
General Secretariat of Governance of Salta, prior to approval of Decree
461, had issued resolution 423/99 ordering the publication of edicts for
15 days in the Official Gazette and the newspaper El Tribuno citing the
unnamed occupants and all those who claimed rights over the lands of
fiscal lots 55 to be awarded and calling upon them to enforce their rights
according to law, something that would expressly violate the recognized
rights of ownership, equality and due process and, especially, those
recognized for the indigenous communities both in the national
Constitution and in the Constitution of the Province of Salta. The
petitioners also indicate that the individualized properties that were to
be awarded by means of Decree 461/99 were part of the original claim
filed in 1991, and Decree 3097/95 (which approved the actions of the
Honorary Advisory Commission) expressly established that the land to
be delivered "is held under single title without internal divisions". For
these reasons, the petitioners demanded that the effects be suspended
and that resolution 423/99 of the General Secretariat of Governance of
the Province and Decree 461/99 of the provincial executive be declared
unconstitutional because they violate Articles 14, 17, 18 and 75 (17) of
the national Constitution, and Article 15 of the provincial Constitution.
75.
The petitioners hold that, prior to submission of the
present appeal for amparo, they had filed an administrative motion for
revocation against resolution 423/99 and had demanded suspension of
the act, for grave shortcomings that disqualified it as an administrative
act. When that motion was rejected on December 20, 1999,14 the
petitioners filed an appeal on December 30, 1999, repeating the
demand to suspend the act, and that appeal had not been decided at
the date the motion for amparo was filed. For these reasons, the
petitioners maintained that it was because of the lack of any other
13 Boletín Oficial de la Provincia de Salta of January 14, 2000, Decreto Nº 461 of the
Secretaría General de la Gobernación, p. 223.
14 Resolución Nº 500/99 of the Secretaría General de la Gobernación, notified
December 27, 1999.
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