Guatemalan rebels ended a three-decade electoral boycott today with the declaration of a unilateral cease-fire to coincide with general elections to be held Nov. 12.

Discussions between Guatemalan rebels and Government officials collapsed after one meeting, and the civil conflict in El Salvador has continued.

Though the Guatemalan rebels say they have more than 3,000 fighters, most analysts put the number much lower.

Guatemalan rebels had demanded the ratification as a crucial part of an eight-step United Nations plan to end the war.

Special attention was focused on the talks because the Mexican Government has claimed that Guatemalan rebels were involved in the uprising that began Jan. 1 in southern Mexico.

Geoffrey Bing MP asked the Conservative government's Foreign Secretary, Selwyn Lloyd, to ask the US government whether it sold the ammunition to the Guatemalan rebels.

According to Burgos-Debray, an old friend of the Guatemalan rebels who was once married to the engage French intellectual Regis Debray, her own contribution was merely to rearrange the interviews into a more coherent narrative.

Hundreds of Guatemalan rebels also operate near that country's border with Mexico, and several of them have been captured during the past year carrying or stockpiling arms inside Mexico.

In 1992 a Guatemalan rebel who escaped from military detention to find sanctuary in Mexico testified that he had seen Mr. Bamaca alive, under torture.

But in a small glimpse of the politics of the region, Guatemala officials condemned Mexico in turn for allowing Guatemalan leftist rebels to set up supply routes and camps in Mexico.