BBC News Online: World: Americas

Suspects in Mexican massacre surrender to officials

Thirty-five men accused of taking part in a massacre of Indian peasants in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas have surrendered.

The attorney-general's office confirmed that the men were wanted in connection with the killing of forty-five Indians last December.

It was the most violent attack in Chiapas since a ceasefire in 1994 halted fighting between the army and Zapatista rebels.

The men now in custody said they gave themselves up because the Zapatistas had killed at least eighteen government supporters in the region, and they were afraid they too would be persecuted.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service