ROANOKE TIMES 

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, January 4, 1994                   TAG: 9401040132
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: SAN CRISTOBAL DE LAS CASAS, MEXICO                                LENGTH: Medium

MEXICO ASKS FOR TRUCE

Indian rebels held onto three towns and battled soldiers in a fourth on Monday. The army appeared to be avoiding an all-out offensive on the conflict's third day.

President Carlos Salinas de Gortari's administration appealed for a truce in the country's first guerrilla unrest in two decades. The rebels, who are demanding better treatment from the government, did not respond.

Soldiers recaptured most of Ocosingo, site of the heaviest weekend fighting. A Defense Department statement said 27 rebels and two soldiers were killed and nine soldiers were wounded. Sporadic fighting continued Monday.

At least 65 soldiers, rebels, police and civilians have been killed since an estimated 1,000 rebels from the Zapatista Army of National Liberation attacked towns in Chiapas before dawn Saturday.

A former Chiapas governor, Absalon Castellanos, was kidnapped along with his brother and sister-in-law Sunday and remained missing Monday. Five kidnapped cattle ranchers were rescued by the government Monday.

The U.S. Embassy sent five representatives to the state Monday to help Americans find safety. Chiapas is popular with tourists for its scenery and traditional architecture and culture.

Monday morning, the rebels pulled out of Las Margaritas, one of the towns taken Saturday, said Ramiro Garcia, a 29-year-old engineer.

"Everything is quiet but the atmosphere is a bit tense," Garcia said.

The rebels set up checkpoints around some towns and demanded a $17 "war tax" from motorists.

The attacks took place in the poorest part of Chiapas, a state plagued by poverty and land disputes.

One rebel leader called the North American Free Trade Agreement "the death warrant for indigenous ethnic ground." Coffee and corn prices on which many Indians depend are low - and NAFTA is expected to reduce prices by allowing cheap American corn to enter the Mexican market duty-free.

"What we want is socialism, to exterminate capitalism," said one rebel.

Keywords:
FATALITY 


 by CNB