MEXICO CITY, Mexico (AP) -- The leader of Mexico's Zapatista rebels said his
                  group is moving away from armed struggle and acknowledged that further
                  fighting "would be a failure," in an interview published Saturday.

                  In an interview with Colombian novelist Gabriel Garcia Marquez,
                  Subcomandante Marcos acknowledged personal details that have long been
                  suspected: that he is the son of a middle-class, provincial family, and that he is
                  the movement's military leader, not its "assistant commander" as he has long
                  depicted himself.

                  "If the Zapatista National Liberation Army continues as an armed force, it is
                  destined for failure," Marcos told Garcia Marquez, whose novel "100 Years of
                  Solitude" he praised.

                  The interview was published in the Mexican newspaper Reforma.

                  Marcos said the Zapatistas' military wing had been "dwarfed" by the political
                  movement built after they staged a brief armed uprising in the southern state of
                  Chiapas in January, 1994, demanding greater democracy and Indian rights.

                  "In that sense, it not only wasn't a burden to move without weapons, but in a
                  certain sense it was a relief," he said, referring to the rebels' current unarmed,
                  monthlong bus caravan tour of Mexico.

                  That tour will culminate Wednesday when 24 rebel leaders are scheduled to
                  address legislators on the floor of Mexico's congress.

                  Rebel leader critical of President Fox

                  In the interview, Marcos -- who the government identified in 1995 as former
                  university instructor Rafael Sebastian Guillen -- loosed his usual string of hostile
                  remarks against conservative President Vicente Fox, who has repeatedly invited
                  the rebels to a face-to-face meeting, only to be snubbed by the Zapatistas.

                  Marcos accused Fox of wanting "a piece of the media pie" and of wanting to
                  have his picture taken with rebel commanders. He said the rebels would rather
                  meet with Fox's peace negotiator, Luis H. Alvarez.

                  "It's not one of our wet dreams to have our picture taken with Vicente Fox," he
                  said. Fox has ordered officials to meet the Zapatistas' demands, by closing seven
                  Chiapas military bases and freeing Zapatista prisoners.

                  However, a final rebel demand -- the approval of an Indian rights bill -- remains
                  in the hands of Congress.

                  Marcos was coy about the possibility of the Zapatistas expanding into a broader
                  political movement. He said they had consciously limited their demands to Indian
                  rights. "We came to lead the fight for this demand, and based on that, others
                  could follow," he said.

                  Copyright 2001 The Associated Press.