The leader of Mexico's Zapatista rebels said Saturday that he would come out of hiding in the southern jungle and travel to Mexico City to restart peace talks that have been stalled since 1996. The ski-masked Subcomandante Marcos made the statement a day after Mexico's new president ordered a push for peace, pulling back some troops from Zapatista strongholds and sending a rebel-backed Indian rights bill to Congress. In a news conference deep in the southern Lacandon Jungle, Marcos said he was still distrustful of President Vicente Fox, whose inauguration on Friday ended a 71-year string of presidents from the same party. However, he said, Fox's first actions were encouraging, "a sign of better compromises to come." Smoking a pipe through his ski mask and with an AR-15 rifle strapped to his back, Marcos said he would travel in February to the capital with his top commanders in an effort to ensure that Congress approves the Indian rights bill. He said it would be his first time out of the jungle in 15 years. President welcomes rebel move"We will go and we will see what happens," he said. "We are leaving to do the work our companions are counting on us to do: to bring this war to an end." At a rally Saturday night in the northern city of Monterrey, Fox said he welcomed Marcos' statements. "The Zapatistas have accepted dialogue. There's a new attitude, a new way of thinking," he said. "Let's have dialogue." The Zapatistas walked out of talks with the government of outgoing President Ernesto Zedillo four years ago when he balked at the language of the Indian rights bill proposed by a Congressional committee. The bill, backed by the rebels, was supposed to implement the only substantive agreement so far between the two sides, which have maintained a wary cease-fire since January 1994. Troop withdrawal still a condition for talksThe Zapatistas, a leftist, predominantly Indian group, also have repeatedly demanded a pullback of the tens of th...
