E/CN.4/2004/80/Add.2 page 7 15. In small rural communities with few resources, traditions are conserved to a greater degree and the cultural identity of the indigenous peoples finds more intensive expression - in language, social organization and institutions, spirituality and worldview, rites and ceremonies, medicine, oral literature and other expressions of art. The bracketing of poverty with the indigenous population is the result of a complex historical process which violated the fundamental human rights of indigenous peoples for centuries. III. PRIORITY HUMAN RIGHTS CONCERNS OF THE INDIGENOUS PEOPLES OF MEXICO 16. At the present time violations of the human rights of indigenous people frequently take place when levels of tension and dispute are running high, particularly in the countryside and over agrarian matters and local and regional political power struggles especially. The Special Rapporteur was repeatedly told of conflicts in indigenous communities, with acts of violence and interventions by the public authorities which may constitute human rights violations. According to the reports received, many of these violations go unpunished and lead to the aggravation of conflicts and the resurgence of violence. A. Agrarian disputes and tensions: land and resources 17. One of the main causes of the conflicts is the question of land. While the agrarian reform benefited more than 3 million peasants as from 1917, it left in its wake innumerable unresolved problems. Social and economic inequality was maintained through corruption and deceit to benefit large-scale ownership, and added to growing population pressure on agricultural resources. An increasing number of poor peasants lack access to land, and are obliged to earn their living as agricultural day labourers, migrant workers within Mexico and in the United States, and emigrants to urban centres. This is also due to the fact that there has been no effective policy of support for the peasant economy for decades. 18. Peasant struggles for land and resources have been made more acute by the ambiguities of agricultural rights and title deeds, disagreements as to the limits between ejidos, communities and private properties, conflicts over the use of collective resources such as woods and water, illegal encroachment and occupation of communal land by loggers, stock-breeders and private farmers, accumulations of property in the hands of local caciques (bosses), etc. The defence of the land, initially by institutional, judicial and political means, may lead to clashes with other peasants or with private owners, public authorities and the forces of order (police, military). In this context, there are reports of persistent human rights violations for which the local or State authorities and forces of law and order are on occasion not blameless, either by omission or by commission. 19. On 31 May 2002, 26 members of the Xochiltepec, Oaxaca, community were killed at Agua Fría by members of the neighbouring Teojomulco community. According to the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH), this was the result of an omission on the part of the federal and State authorities, and the lack of recognition of ownership and possession of land occupied by indigenous communities. The Commission also mentions the impunity encouraged by the failure to act of the Office of the State Attorney-General and the Office of the Attorney-General, and the lack of judicial safeguards ensuring due process and judicial protection for the victims of violence originating in agrarian conflicts and disputes over forestry resources. The National