Guerrillas Mexico

The Mexican army abandoned another jungle base in the southern state of Chiapas, as the government moved closer to meeting the demands of leftist Zapatista rebels. President Vicente Fox has now shuttered four of the seven Chiapas bases whose closure the rebels have demanded. The rebels accuse the army of abusing Indians and supporting paramilitary gangs. They also demand passage of an Indian rights law and the release of about 100 imprisoned rebels as a condition for restarting peace talks.

Mexican legislators trying to restart peace talks between the Zapatista rebels and Interior Minister Francisco Labastida prepared to travel Saturday to Chiapas, Mexico's southernmost state, in a bid to get both sides to the negotiating table. Labastida said he would accept the intercession of a group of legislators after tensions were raised in Chiapas following one of the bloodiest clashes yet between Zapatistas and police.

Government negotiators vowed Monday to restart direct peace talks with Zapatista rebels in Chiapas, a day after the top mediator resigned and accused the government of torpedoing the peace process. Roman Catholic Bishop Samuel Ruiz, long regarded as the key mediator in the conflict but scorned by some as a Zapatista sympathizer, Sunday accused the government of "constant and growing aggression" against him and others who sought to aid the cause of peace.

A European fact-finding team pledged Sunday to be fair during its investigation of violence in Indian communities in southern Mexico. About 170 human rights activists and politicians are to begin their tour this week in Chiapas state, where 45 Indian villagers were slaughtered in a Dec. 22 massacre.

About a dozen assailants believed to be members of a leftist rebel group opened fire on a patrol car carrying three state police officers in southern Guerrero state, killing two and wounding the third. The attack by the masked, uniformed assailants occurred Saturday on a rural highway near the remote village of Tlapa, about 95 miles northeast of Acapulco, the government news agency Notimex reported.

Zapatista rebels forced 120 government supporters from their homes in the southern state of Chiapas on Saturday in the latest round of a series of sometimes violent land disputes. The rebels claimed that they owned the land in the mostly indigenous village of Nuevo Pavoreal, an area official said. He said several residents were injured. The ousted residents support Mexico's ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI.

Seven police officers were killed Monday when armed men ambushed a patrol in Mexico's troubled southern state of Chiapas, where Indian rebels took up arms six years ago, an official said. State prosecutor Eduardo Montoya said the attack occurred on a rural road northwest of the state capital, Tuxtla Gutierrez. Montoya said the identity of the gunmen was unknown and that a manhunt had been launched. Federal officials said the attackers seized seven high-caliber weapons.

In a possible breakthrough in one of Mexico's most intractable political problems, the leader of the 1994 Zapatista rebellion agreed Saturday to resume peace talks stalled for four years--but only if the government of new President Vicente Fox makes concessions first.

Calling them "terrorists and criminals" with an "absurd" social agenda, President Ernesto Zedillo vowed Friday never to negotiate with the armed rebels who staged half a dozen lightning attacks that left at least 14 dead this week in southern Mexico. "No way! No way!" Zedillo said, rejecting any talks with the rebels. He made the remarks in an interview with The Times at his presidential residence.

The arrest of eight alleged guerrillas this week may cast light on a new rebel group that appeared last month, Mexican officials said. Four of those arrested in the southwestern state of Guerrero confessed to membership in the self-proclaimed Popular Revolutionary Army, the Defense Ministry said. The suspects' families denied the four are guerrillas.