LA REALIDAD, Mexico (AP) -- Chiapas rebels danced into the New Year to a
                 ski-masked Mariachi band in their jungle outpost, celebrating the eighth
                 anniversary of their uprising which drew world attention to the plight of
                 Mexico's impoverished Indians.

                 But this year's celebration was more of a party than a political event as in past
                 years. The rebels' leaders, including Subcomandante Marcos, did not attend nor did
                 they send out their traditional New Year's communique.

                 Subcomandante Marcos -- who built a career on being unreachable, mysterious and
                 masked -- has not been seen publicly since he led a triumphant tour through Mexico
                 more than nine months ago, culminating in an address to Congress by rebels to
                 demand an Indian rights law.

                 A watered-down version of an Indian rights bill -- intended to put an end to the
                 uprising by Zapatista rebels in southernmost Chiapas state -- went into effect in
                 August. The law includes sweeping bans against discrimination of almost any kind.

                 But the Zapatistas and other Indian groups flatly rejected the measure because it
                 weakened clauses for Indian autonomy and rights over land and natural resources.

                 The Zapatistas claimed they had been betrayed and halted talks, leaving an uneasy
                 cease-fire in place despite sporadic clashes between pro- and anti-rebel factions in
                 Chiapas.

                  Copyright 2002 The Associated Press.