SAN CRISTOBAL DE LAS CASAS, Mexico (AP) -- A Mexican state
                  court released the first of 70 Zapatista rebel supporters from prison Tuesday
                  in what the government called a good will gesture aimed at restarting peace
                  talks.

                  The Supreme Tribunal of Justice in Chiapas state said 30 inmates were freed
                  Tuesday and the remainder would be freed by Wednesday afternoon.
                  Charges against them would be dismissed.

                  State and federal police arrested many of the rebel supporters in May and
                  April while trying to retake control of two towns the Zapatistas claimed as
                  "autonomous municipalities," Ricardo Flores Magon and Amparo Agua
                  Tinta.

                  Prosecutors were dropping charges "as a demonstration of the willingness"
                  of the government to restart the peace process that broke down three years
                  ago, tribunal president Noe Castanon Leon said.

                  The Zapatista National Liberation Army took up arms briefly in January
                  1994 to demand greater rights and democracy for Chiapas' impoverished
                  Indian communities.

                  President Ernesto Zedillo, whose six-year term ends in 2000, has called on
                  the Zapatistas to return to negotiations. Rebel leaders have yet to respond
                  directly.

                  Rebel supporters who organized a sit-in protest on Chiapas highways
                  Monday said the government must first withdraw military troops from
                  villages in the Lacandona jungle, the Zapatista stronghold.

                    Copyright 1999 The Associated Press.