LA REALIDAD, Mexico, May 9 (Reuters) -- Enigmatic Zapatista leader
                  Subcommander Marcos has emerged from the Mexican jungle for the first
                  time in more than two years to denounce what he said was the government's
                  desire for conflict and not peace in Chiapas.

                  Smoking his trademark pipe and wearing a black ski mask, the head of an
                  uprising five years ago to demand Indian rights opened a meeting on Saturday
                  night in the rebel village of La Realidad.

                  The government "decided to make war and abandoned all real commitment to
                  dialogue and a peaceful solution to the conflict," Marcos told around 1,200
                  Zapatistas, unionists, teachers, students and human rights activists gathered in
                  the highlands of the poor, southern state.

                  The surprise appearance of the commander of the bloody revolt on New
                  Year's Day 1994 was the first since January 1997, and dispelled rumours he
                  had died or fled Mexico.

                  Marcos and his Zapatista rebels have been holed up in the Mexican jungle on
                  the border with Guatemala since 10 days of bitter fighting in January 1994.

                  The meeting in La Realidad, 125 miles (200 km) from the Chiapas city of San
                  Cristobal, was the second such encounter since November and was called to
                  discuss a non-binding plebiscite on Indian rights held by the Zapatistas in
                  March.

                  The government had decided to let the encounter go ahead so long as no
                  foreigners or armed rebels took part.

                  On the road to La Realidad, the military set up at least four roadblocks. Every
                  car passing through was searched. Soldiers video-taped and photographed
                  their occupants and jotted down license plate numbers and names.

                  In his appearance, Marcos said some 2.85 million people of a nation of 96
                  million voted in the rebels' nationwide referendum and overwhelmingly
                  endorsed giving Mexico's 10 million Indians special constitutional rights.

                  They also agreed the government should respect a peace deal struck with the
                  Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) in February 1996 in the town of
                  San Andres Larrainzar.

                  Marcos, who was cheered and flanked by commanders Moises and Tacho,
                  read a document called "The Zapatistas and Newton's Apple."

                  In it, he blasted the government, opposition parties and financial markets for
                  pursuing the "rotten apple of power" as the 2000 presidential elections
                  approaches.

                  President Ernesto Zedillo, Marcos said, was "the chief of the ridiculous," while
                  the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which has held unbroken power
                  since 1929, was "a band of criminals."

                  He said the conservative opposition National Action Party was "trapped in
                  pragmatism," divided between those who sought deals with the government
                  and those who wanted to oppose it.

                  As for the leftist Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), Marcos said it
                  moaned it was "a victim of conspiracy but forgets its most painful blows come
                  from within."

                  The EZLN military commander noted the Mexican economy was doing well,
                  boosted by strong inflows of foreign capital into its stock market, which has
                  risen some 40 percent this year.

                  "The rapacious and migratory birds of international financial capital have come
                  back to roost in Mexican lands. but it will only be for a moment," he said.

                  "The economic bubble, which is filling the Mexican financial rats with such
                  enthusiasm, is inflated by money that expects to multiply itself, with no regard
                  for the debris its profits will leave behind tomorrow."

                  After his appearance, Marcos vanished back into the Chiapas jungle.

                     Copyright 1999 Reuters.