MEXICO CITY (Reuters) -- Thousands of Zapatista rebels from small
                  towns in the southern state of Chiapas will travel in March to every corner of
                  Mexico to poll people on Indian rights, guerrilla leaders said on Wednesday.

                  They are ready to travel by "plane, bus, car, cattle truck, boat, launch,
                  canoe, bicycle, horseback, scooter, donkey, skates, foot, etc.," to 2,433
                  municipalities in all 31 Mexican states, Zapatista leader Subcommander
                  Marcos said in a statement from Chiapas.

                  "A pair of delegates (a man and a woman) will go to each municipality to
                  carry out the referendum," the statement by the National Zapatista Liberation
                  Army (EZLN) said. The group took up arms in 1994 to fight for improved
                  rights for Mexico's 9 million Indians.

                  It said it would complete by March 21 the "national consultation" meant to
                  sound out popular opinion of a draft Indian rights law agreed on by the
                  government and the rebels during peace talks in 1996.

                  The Zapatistas say the government reneged on promises by changing the
                  proposed law before presenting it in 1998 to Congress, where it is currently
                  under consideration.

                  The proposal was part of peace talks that began in 1995 but broke down in
                  September 1996 in an atmosphere of mistrust because of differences over
                  how to guarantee Indian rights through law.

                  A commission known as Cocopa -- a 16-member congressional body set
                  up to help bring peace to Chiapas -- is not supporting the referendum
                  because it was not the result of a direct agreement between both parties.

                  The Red Cross, which has provided safe passage for the Zapatista
                  movement outside the so-called "conflict zone" in Chiapas, said it was not
                  supporting it for the same reason.

                  One member of Cocopa, Gilberto Lopez, a congressman belonging to the
                  leftist Democratic Party of the Revolution (PRD), told Reuters on Tuesday
                  his party would ask the government to guarantee free movement for the
                  Zapatista delegates.

                     Copyright 1999 Reuters.