Government Calls Rebels ‘Leaderless’

Mexico’s army and police appear to have dealt a crippling blow to a leftist guerrilla group that officials say planned to sabotage the 2000 election, analysts and media reports said. The government took the unusual step of declaring the Insurgent People’s Revolutionary Army, or ERPI, “leaderless” after an accused rebel commander and three other people were arrested over the weekend. The ERPI, a splinter group from another guerrilla force that emerged in the impoverished rural state of Guerrero three years ago, had never been considered much of a military threat. But a top national police official said the group planned an “insurrectional war” to disrupt next year’s presidential election.