Updated

The man who headed the Mexican government's peace negotiations with the Zapatista rebels after their 1994 uprising has died at the age of 69.

An aide to Manuel Camacho Solis said the senator died Friday of a brain ailment he had suffered for some time. Local media said it was a brain tumor.

Camacho Solis served as Mexico City's appointed mayor in the early 1990s, before that post was made an elected position.

When the leftist Zapatista rebels rose up in arms to demand Indian rights in January 1994, President Carlos Salinas tapped Camacho Solis to negotiate peace accords.

After two weeks of armed confrontations, peace talks started.

The Zapatistas have operated in their own autonomous enclaves in the southern state of Chiapas since then.