Several hundred Mexican government troops were headed Tuesday toward the Chiapas town of Simojovel, which has been occupied by armed peasants thought to be linked to the rebels, a reporter said.
The wintess said the column of about 30 vehicles included trucks, two light tanks and an ambulance and heeps mounted with heavy machine guns. Along with the troops were heavily armed police wearing flak jackets. The column was traveling toward Simojovel along the road from San Cristobal de las Casas.
Simojovel is one of at least 11 towns that declared loyalty Monday to a rebel-supported "parallel government" set up by Amado Avendano Figueroa, a lawyer and newspaper publisher who the rebels say was cheated out of the governor's post in August elections.
Hundreds of rebels of Maya Indian descent infiltrated a cordon of tens of thousands of army troops that had encircled so-called "rebel territory" since a cease-fire ending an Indian insurgency last January. The rebels had been believed trapped in their hideouts deep inside the Lacandon Jungle, a mountainous area bordering Guatemala.
Rebels and their sympathizers Monday blocked highways and roads with tree trunks, rocks and trash. Many of the main roads were cleared by the end of the day.
The military high command announced in a statement Tuesday that the thousands of troops in Chiapas will maintain their cease-fire as part of President Ernesto Zedillo's pursuit of a peaceful solution.
Armed rebels were reported to have infiltrated about 38 towns in Chiapas, Mexico's poorest state.
The rebel movement came almost a year after their uprising last New Year's Day, which they launched to demand better living conditions and unbiased courts. At least 145 people were killed in battles with government troops before a cease-fire was called Jan. 12.
Avendano, the candidate of the leftist Democratic Revolutionary Party, established a "transitional government" on Dec. 8, the same day that the ruling party candidate, Eduardo Robledo Rincon, was sworn in as governor.
The rebels had insisted that Robledo's installation would mean the end of the cease-fire. They had demanded clean elections, democratic reforms and measures to give the state's impoverished Indian majority a better life.
"The majority of the country sympathizes with their just and valid demands," Avendano told a news conference Monday night.
Zedillo has named a seven-member panel, made up of congressmen from the PRI and three opposition parties, to pursue negotiations. But rebel leaders have rejected his proposal, insisting upon church mediation. (AP, Reuters)
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