A Mexican prosecutor is assessing into the possible role of former President Luis Echeverría in the disappearance of suspected guerrillas.

By E. EDUARDO CASTILLO
Associated Press

MEXICO CITY - A special prosecutor said Friday he is looking into the possible involvement of former President Luis Echeverría in the disappearance of suspected guerrillas during the 1970s.

''Yes, there is a line of investigation,'' Ignacio Carrillo told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. But he said it had not reached the stage of a formal investigation, a stage under Mexican law in which evidence is officially cataloged for a possible trial.

Echeverría was president from 1970 to 1976, when troops and police were fighting a low-level conflict against Marxist rebels.

A study by the federal Human Rights Commission found that at least 275 suspected rebels disappeared in government custody during the late 1960s and 1970s.

President Vicente Fox appointed Carrillo to investigate and bring charges where possible against officials who flouted the law in fighting the rebels. Previously, Carrillo had only said that Echeverría was being investigated in connection with two other cases: the mass shootings of students in 1968 and 1971.

''There are signals that point to his intervention or that he knew what was going on at the time'' of Mexico's crackdown against dissidents, Carrillo said. ``But these are the assertions of his accusers.''

On Wednesday, a judge in northern Mexico ordered Miguel Nazar Haro, who had served as domestic intelligence chief under Echeverría, to be held for trial on the charge of kidnapping a suspected leftist guerrilla.

Nazar Haro directed the now-disbanded Federal Security Directorate from 1978 through 1982.

He has said that his agency was assigned to infiltrate and gather information on the rebel movement but has denied any role in disappearances and killings.

Arrested Feb. 19 on kidnapping charges in the abduction of Jesús Piedra Ibarra, an alleged member of the guerrilla group Liga 23 de Septiembre, Nazar Haro now faces additional charges in connection with the disappearance of Ignacio Salas Obregon, founder of the same group, Carrillo said.

Luis de la Barreda, Nazar Haro's predecessor as domestic intelligence chief, also has been charged in the disappearance of Salas.

De la Barreda and former police commander Juventino Romero -- both wanted for Piedra's abduction -- were declared fugitives from justice in December.