The Mexican President, Mr Vicente Fox, yesterday announced the imminent release of 14 remaining Zapatista prisoners and the dismantling of three army bases in Chiapas, hoping to persuade rebel commanders to stay in Mexico City and restart peace talks.
"At this moment I am sending a letter to Subcommander Marcos so we can meet before he returns to Chiapas," said Mr Fox in a national address.
The rebels have yet to respond to the presidential proposal, confirming instead their intention to leave the city tomorrow.
"We didn't come here to be ridiculed or to look for alms," said Commander Tacho, speaking to students on Tuesday. "We came here to speak inside Congress, a place which is the property of all Mexicans, not just the legislators."
The approval of indigenous rights legislation, under consideration by Mexico's legislators, is the final stumbling block to a return to direct talks between government and rebels, who launched an armed rebellion in January 1994.
President Fox yesterday urged congress to reach an agreement by which the rebel delegation could address the nation's parliament before tomorrow, the day the rebels plan to return to their jungle bases. "Have no doubt that we are within hours of a possible meeting where we can leave behind this quarrel," said Mr Diego Fernandez de Cevallos, leader of Mr Fox's National Action Party (PAN), one of the rebels' fiercest critics.
President Fox once more called for a personal meeting with rebel leader Subcommander Marcos, despite Zapatista insistence that the conflict "is not about a photo of Fox and Marcos" but about resolving deepseated issues of injustice and poverty.
Meanwhile the Catholic Church's Human Rights Centre, based in Chiapas, issued a report yesterday, stating that members of an anti-Zapatista paramilitary group attacked rebel sympathisers last Sunday, killing one man, a reminder that violence in Chiapas remains close to the surface.