MEXICO CITY, Mexico (AP) -- Masked Zapatista rebels urged passage
                  of an Indian rights bill after riding triumphantly into the heart of Mexico's
                  capital in a march supported by the president and welcomed by 75,000
                  cheering supporters.

                  Fulfilling a vow in their declaration of war seven years ago, the rebels entered
                  Mexico City's Zocalo plaza on Sunday. They assured they had no intention of
                  seizing power.

                  "Mexico, we do not come to tell you what to do. We do not come to guide you
                  in any direction. We only come to ask respectfully that you help us, that you do
                  not allow that there be another dawn for this (Mexican) flag without us," said
                  rebel leader Subcomandante Marcos.

                  The entrance capped a two-week tour of southern Mexico -- part of a campaign for a
                  sweeping series of constitutional amendments that would guarantee greater political autonomy for
                  Indians and expanded rights for their cultures.

                  On Monday evening, the 24 Zapatista leaders were to meet with a congressional commission to
                  press for an Indian rights bill. They say they will stay in the city until the measure is passed.

                  Sunday's event marked the first time a rebel group had openly paraded into the
                  city since revolutionary leaders Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapata -- the rebels'
                  namesake -- did it in 1914.

                  The 23 rebel commanders and their military leader, Subcomandante Marcos,
                  rode a flatbed truck into the city's main plaza, to chants of "You are not alone"
                  from a massive crowd.

                  "Once again, the federal government and Congress have a chance to choose between
                  peace with dignity and justice, or war against the indigenous peoples," said rebel leader
                  Comandante David.

                  Marcos made a poetic appeal for a multiethnic Mexico and criticized President Vicente Fox,
                  who has gone further than any of his predecessors to meet the Zapatistas' demands.

                  Marcos said the Zapatistas were a different brand of rebels; like the original army of
                  peasants led by Zapata, "we do not aspire to hold power," Marcos said.

                  Comandante Esther more directly attacked Fox's promise to use market forces to give
                  Mexicans a better standard of living.

                  "We don't want a little business, a compact car and a television," Esther said,
                  repeating one of Fox's frequent phrases. "We want recognition of our rights."

                  The criticism of Fox was relatively muted compared with what the rebels
                  directed at his predecessors. Fox himself submitted the Indian rights bill to
                  Congress but has not yet freed all rebel prisoners or removed all the army bases
                  demanded by the Zapatistas.

                  Both Fox and the Zapatistas have staked prestige on the rebel march. The rebels
                  hope to win support as a political force, and Fox hopes it will help him achieve
                  what two previous presidents failed to do: Convince the rebels to abandon their
                  guns.

                  "Welcome Subcomandante Marcos, welcome to the Zapatistas, welcome to the
                  political arena, the arena of discussion of ideas," Fox said in a radio address on
                  Saturday. Fox said the rebel tour was proof of the new democracy ushered in
                  when he broke the former ruling party's 71-year grip on the presidency.

                  Still, the rebels repeatedly expressed wariness of Fox. In an interview
                  published Sunday in the magazine Proceso, Marcos said he and Fox were
                  "diametrically opposed."

                  "We are part of the world moving toward recognizing differences, and he
                  is working toward hegemony and homogenizing, not just the country, but
                  the world," Marcos said.

                  The Zapatistas have roots in Indian peasant organizations, church activists
                  and a Leninist guerrilla group from northern Mexico.

                  Their only significant military success was the seizure of Chiapas towns.
                  Fighting with the government lasted only 12 days before a cease-fire took hold.

                  Copyright 2001 The Associated Press.