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TheEnxet are anindigenous people of about 17,000 living in theGran Chaco region of westernParaguay. Originallyhunter-gatherers, many are now forced to supplement their livelihood as laborers on the cattle ranches that have encroached upon their dwindling natural forest habitat.[1] Nevertheless, the Enxet are engaged in an ongoing conflict with the government and ranchers,[1] who want to destroy what remains of the forest to open the land for massive settlement. Today,[when?] only a handful of Enxet are still maintain their traditional way of life, while the majority live in small settlements sponsored by variousmissionary organizations.[1] TheEnxet andEnlhet languages are still vigorous.
In 2006, 90 Enxet families, the Sawhoyamaxa, won a legal battle to 14,404 hectares of their traditional lands, bought up byHeribert Roedel.[2] The land was signed over in 2011.[3]
The Enxet tribe suffered devastating blows during theChaco War period (1932-1935). The Chaco War was fought betweenBolivia andParaguay over control of natural resources in the Chaco region of South America. The front of this war stretched directly through Chaco territory, ravaging ancestral lands and severely disrupting cultural way of life.[4]
During the military colonization of Chaco, the Enxet verbal history was damaged, as members of the tribe were killed before sharing their history.[5] To make matters worse, they were struck with a brutalsmallpox epidemic in 1932, which resulted in the deaths of nearly half of the Enxet population.[5] The Paraguayans also abused the Enxet natives, with a first hand Enxet report stating: "They {Paraguayans} wanted the women. If a man refused they would kill him, even if he was a leader. The Paraguayans had no qualms about shooting an Enxet."[5] Though no conscription is overly reported, the Enxet population was targeted by both Bolivia and Paraguay due to fears revolving around the Natives being spies.[6] This would lead to further devastation among the populace of theChaco region.
In the aftermath of Paraguay's victory in the Chaco War, the government became more committed to settling and developing the Chaco.[7] Subsequently, much of Enxet land would be divided, deforested, and given to cattle farmers.[8] The deforestation coupled with the overgrazing of cattle left the land forever scarred.[8] Today, the Enxet hold title to approximately 2.8 percent of the area they occupied before the start of the Chaco War.[9] Their population has yet to recover, and is currently only about 8,200 strong.[9]
The right to water was considered in theInter-American Court of Human Rights case of theSawhoyamaxa Indigenous Community v. Paraguay.[10] The issues involved the states failure to acknowledge indigenous communities' property rights over ancestral lands.[citation needed] In 1991, the state removed the indigenous Sawhoyamaxa community from the land resulting in their loss of access to water, food, schooling and health services.[10] This fell within the scope of theAmerican Convention on Human Rights; article 4, encroaching the right to life.[11] Water is included in this right, as part of access to land. The courts required the lands to be returned, compensation provided, and basic goods and services to be implemented, while the community was in the process of having their lands returned.[12]
In 2013, the land still not being vacated, the Sawhoyamaxa re-occupied the land.[13]
In 2014 the Paraguay Supreme Court rejected a claim that government expropriation of the land (in order to transfer it to the Sawhoyamaxa), was unconstitutional.[13]
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