Southern Mexico is still in turmoil after the recent peasant revolt, but the saga may be finished for three University students who were there during the uprising.

Kimi Eisele (senior-English and geography) and Karen O'Brien (graduate-geography) may be returning to the United States this week, said Fred Eisele, Kimi's father, after talking with her Friday. Libby Wentz, a graduate student, is also working with them.

The return would end the 10-day uneasiness since the Mexican guerrilla rebellion New Year's Day in Chiapas, a Mexican state. Two days after the uprising, the students left San Cristobal de las Casas, said Fred Eisele, head of the University's health policy and administration department.

The three students were scheduled to meet in San Cristobal de las Casas Jan. 1 to sightsee and work toward O'Brien's doctoral dissertation, Eisele said. Eisele, who is unsure of the dissertation topic, believes they left for Mexico in mid-December and were originally scheduled to return sometime in February.

According to the U.S. Embassy in Mexico, the threesome left the Don Quixote Hotel in San Cristobal de las Casas and the embassy has no record where they are now. Eisele said his daughter is out of the war zone, but he knows only that she and her friends are still traveling.

Although the students were amid the fighting and CNN reported a death toll of 105 Saturday morning, Eisele would not say if his daughter saw any violence.

"She will have a chance to tell her story when she gets back," Eisele said.

This is Mexico's first uprising in two decades. Located in the poverty-stricken state of Chiapas, the armed rebels are challenging 70 years of single-party rule. President Carlos Salinas de Gortari's administration is seeking a truce with the rebels and the army is trying to counter the rebels' attack.

George Summers, chief of American citizen services at the embassy, said the students' current whereabouts are private information. They were not escorted from the city by embassy or military officials, and it is their decision when to return to the United States.

"The roads are open during the day," he said. "The buses are operating."

Summers said the only role the embassy played was to help the students and their families to communicate by telephone. Eisele confirmed that his family had little contact with the embassy.

Eisele does not know if his daughter will continue with her research after the rebellion is crushed. "We'll just have to wait to see what happens," he said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.