State's Indians complain of being neglected

 MEXICO CITY -- (AP) -- Already seeking to make peace with Zapatista rebels in
 Chiapas, President Vicente Fox headed to the southern state Friday to announce
 a campaign aimed at reducing poverty and boosting economic development in
 Mexico's poorest region.

 Fox was scheduled to announce a $50 million investment in improving the state's
 railroad infrastructure, as well as a credit program designed to encourage the
 development of the maquiladora, or assembly-for-export, industry there.

 Chiapas, a largely rural, mountainous state along Mexico's southern border with
 Guatemala, is Mexico's largest producer of coffee. It also has significant oil
 reserves, large hydroelectric dams and sprawling banana plantations.

 Yet further development has bypassed the state, where a quarter of the 3.6 million
 people are Indians who have long been fighting the government for land rights.

 On Jan. 1, 1994 -- the day the North American Free Trade Agreement took effect
 -- Indian rebels staged an armed uprising, sparking more than six years of
 skirmishes between rebel sympathizers and paramilitary armies.

 Fox has made peace with the rebels a priority since taking office Dec. 1. In an
 effort to restart long-stalled peace talks, he has closed military bases, released
 rebel sympathizers from jail and sent an Indian rights bill to Congress.

 The former Coca-Cola executive also has pledged to reduce poverty across
 Mexico -- especially in Chiapas. Since taking office, he has made two official trips
 to the state to lobby for his peace plan.

 On Friday, he made his third, with plans to announce a program to renovate 200
 miles of rail line between Chiapas and the Yucatan. The program is being funded
 by Mexican business owners and international banks.

 ``The railroad will bring a better life and commercial movement -- products from
 producers from there, mangos, other agricultural products,'' said Jorge Perez, a
 spokesman for Chiapas Gov. Pablo Salazar.

 The railroad has largely fallen out of use, transporting only the occasional
 shipment of cement or petroleum even though it crosses several areas that
 produce coffee, sugar, and bananas.

 Agricultural producers stopped using the trains to transport their goods,
 complaining that they weren't reliable.

 Government officials believe they can change that.