The suspects, participants of a left-leaning group known as the House of the
                 People, were arrested in a village of Venustiano Carranza, about 40 kilometers
                 (25 miles) east of the capital, Tuxtla Gutierrez, Chiapas Attorney General
                 Mariano Herran said.

                 The group members were arrested in connection with the execution-style
                 slaying of eight peasants belonging to a group known as the Fray Bartolome
                 Alliance in the nearby village of Canalucum on April 19.

                 The assailants used AK-47 machine guns to kill their victims, who also received
                 execution-style gunshots to the head. During Monday's arrests, police seized
                 three .22-caliber guns and 522 live cartridges.

                 The Fray Bartolome Alliance has long been accused of operating a paramilitary
                 band that opposed the Zapatista rebels and purportedly received arms and
                 support from the former ruling party.

                 President Vicente Fox began dismantling the paramilitary system in Chiapas
                 when he took office on Dec. 1, after bringing an end to the Institutional
                 Revolutionary Party, or PRI's 71-year grip on power.

                 Although there has been no other violent action on the part of the Zapatistas
                 since their brief uprising in 1994, the region has been the site of numerous land
                 feuds and religious conflicts involving pro- and anti-rebel groups.

                 The most dramatic of many continuing confrontations linked to the rebellion
                 came on Dec. 22, 1997, when a pro-government, paramilitary group killed 45
                 rebel sympathizers in the nearby village of Acteal.

                 The Fray Bartolome group accused the House of the People of trying to take
                 20,000 hectares (49,420 acres) of land from them and of having links to the
                 guerrilla group the People's Revolutionary Army, also known as the Popular
                 Revolutionary Army.

                 But House of the People leader Bartolome Perez insisted on the group members'
                 innocence in the April killings, denied a link with the guerrillas, and accused the
                 PRI mayor of Venustiano Carranza of trying to discredit the organization.

                 In April, the People's Revolutionary Army -- a guerrilla group that first emerged
                 in 1996 in the Pacific coast state of Guerrero _ issued a statement actually
                 accusing Mayor Isaias Montes of participating in the planning of the massacre.
                 Montes denied the accusations.

                 Perez also accused police of violating the rights of the villagers during Monday's
                 operation. He said they fired shots in the air, awakening and terrorizing people
                 who were asleep, then forced men, women and children to lie on the ground
                 while they searched their houses. He said they also hit some women and
                 children.

                 Police denied using any force or violating the residents' rights in any way.

                  Copyright 2001 The Associated Press.