Authorities have charged a municipal president in southern Mexico with murder after the massacre of 45 villagers, claiming he provided the weapons for last Monday's slaughter.
Meanwhile the rebel leader, Sub-comandante Marcos, has charged that the masterminds of the massacre came from "very high" within the Mexican federal government and within the government of the state of Chiapas.
The slaying in the village of Ac teal was planned with "with a political, military and social motive: to annihilate rebel Indians", the Zapatista National Liberation Army leader said.
Possibly as many as 8,000 Indian refugees, often barefoot, fled their homes and villages and huddled around the village of Polho yesterday fearing fresh attacks from armed paramilitaries.
Mr Jacinto Arias Cruz and 23 supporters from villages near Ac teal, a highland Maya hamlet in Chenalho, Chiapas, were formally charged yesterday with murder, causing injuries and illegal association.
Including Mr Arias Cruz, 40 people - all peasants from Chenalho - now have been arraigned on the same charges. Most are being held at a prison in Tuxla Gutierrez, the state capital. In addition, three minors have been remanded to juvenile authorities.
Mr Arias Cruz is mayor of Chenalho municipality, which includes both Acteal and Los Chorros, where many of those arrested live.
An official with the federal attorney general's office, Mr Jose Luis Ramos Rivera, said Mr Arias Cruz lied to investigators about his knowledge of the massacre.
He said Mr Arias Cruz claimed to have learned of the massacre only on Tuesday, but an entry in a notebook dated Monday recorded the killing of the villagers.
Masked gunmen wearing uniforms arrived in Acteal on Monday, methodically gunning down villagers - mostly women and children - with weapons ranging from .22-calibre rifles to AK-47s. Thirty-one people were injured in the four-hour attack.
The massacre has outraged Mexicans and brought calls for the resignation of the governor, the interior secretary - even President Ernesto Zedillo.
Human rights activists say the killings were probably carried out to strengthen the ruling party's political control in an area county split between government supporters and sympathisers of the Zapatista rebels.
Mr Arias Cruz and his supporters are members of Mexico's ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI. Most of the victims were members of the peasant group Las Abejas - The Bees - who support the Zapatistas' goals but not their armed struggle.
Officials with the Catholic church, human rights groups and Zapatista rebels have charged that the attackers were paramilitaries supported by the PRI.
The Mexican Attorney General, Mr Jorge Madrazo, however, described the clash as stemming from "inter-community and even intra-family conflicts in a context of constant disputes over political and economic power". Subcom andante Marcos said that explanations of the events were "false".