Chiapas Groups Renew Fighting

Pro-government militants and angry peasants clashed late Monday in the southern state of Chiapas, where a New Year’s Day uprising by Indians has sparked a wave of protests and land seizures.

Opposition activists said Tuesday that 1,000 supporters of the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) used sticks to attack protesters who had occupied the town hall in Copainala in northern Chiapas. The demonstrators told reporters that they were forced to flee and that 40 people were wounded in the attack. State government officials confirmed the clash but declined to say how many people were involved or how many were injured.

Civil unrest has surged in recent days despite the imminent opening of peace talks between the government and representatives of the 2,000 indigenous guerrillas of the Zapatista National Liberation Army, which declared war on the army Jan. 1.

Groups of peasants with no links to the Zapatistas have occupied 10 town halls across the state and are demanding the removal of 21 mayors who belong to the PRI and are accused of corruption.