REBEL LEADER -- J'ACCUSE

As Mexican soldiers continued to huntZapatista rebels in the southern Chiapas state, the long-masked guerilla leader, known as Subcomandante Marcos, released a letter saying that Zedillo wanted to destroy his insurgency to help pay for the international peso bailout. Back in the U.S., Marcos' accusation resonated amid a similar controversy: Chase Manhattan bank today disavowed a statement by its leading Mexico expert, Riordan Roett, that Zedillo's government would need "to eliminate the Zapatistas" in order to restore financial stability. Since Roett is now on leave, his opinions "represent his personal views as a scholar," not the bank's, the Chase statement said. The Roett affair was reported in this week's TIME.