wfn.org | AFSC Nominates Mexican Bishop for Nobel Peace Award

[George Conklin <gconklin@igc.apc.org>]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 10, 1997

Mustafa Malik
Director of Media Relations
American Friends Service Committee
PH: 215/241-7060
FAX: 215/241-7275
E-MAIL: mmalik@afsc.org
http://www.afsc.org

Contact:  Mustafa Malik (215) 241-7060, or Aishah Shahidah Simmons (215)
241-7056

Mexican Bishop Nominated for Nobel Peace Award

PHILADELPHIA -- The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) has nominated
Mexican Bishop Samuel Ruiz Garcia for next year's Nobel Peace Prize.

During four decades as Catholic bishop in Chiapas, Mexico, Ruiz has
initiated social services for poverty-stricken Mayans, defended their
rights, and argued tirelessly for social change through nonviolent means.
And he has spearheaded efforts to mediate the conflict between the
Zapatistas and the Mexican government.

AFSC Executive Director Kara Newell said Ruiz's "exemplary struggle to
translate moral and religious principles into a model for human service"
deserves broader global recognition.   "By nominating him for the Nobel,"
she added, "we are trying to draw world attention to the plight of the
indigenous people of Mexico, and from a broader perspective, to the quest
for a just peace which we ourselves cherish deeply, and which the post-Cold
War world needs so badly."

A Philadelphia-based Quaker service organization, the AFSC shared the 1947
Nobel Peace Prize with its sister entity in Britain, awarded to the Quakers
for humanitarian work in Europe during and after the two world wars.

Mayans make up three-quarters of the population of Ruiz's diocese and are
generally landless and illiterate; most of them have no access to
electricity or potable water.  Most of the farmlands, oil, gas and timber
in the region are owned by a small group of landowners and political
bosses.  The Mayans speak five native languages, but the only language
recognized by their state is Spanish.

The bishop has traveled, often on muleback, to every village and town in
his vast diocese, learned Mayan languages and made all his assistants do
so, and helped build local leadership by educating religious teachers.  He
ended a traditionally cozy relationship between the church and privileged
classes.

--more—

2  Mexican Bishop

"It is impossible for the Church of God," he declared, "to connive with
social structures, which, through crushing exploitation, generate poverty
in the world....It would be an impossible task to try to construct peace
without renouncing the privileges and positions which unjust and irrational
social structures have made possible."

The 73-year-old bishop does not believe that social and economic
transformation in Chiapas or Latin America will result from the generosity
of the privileged.  It will come, he said, "when the poor begin to grow in
consciousness of their own dignity," adding that freedom "will come to all
of us through the poor."

His interpretation of church doctrine and his struggle for social and
political autonomy of the Mayans have earned him hostility from within the
Catholic Church hierarchy and from the Mexican government.  The papal
nuncio sought to have him removed, and fellow Mexican bishops have
sometimes opposed him.  The government has called him a Marxist and a
supporter of Zapatista insurgency.

Ruiz has, however, steadfastly opposed violence, and in 1994 when the
Zapatistas rebelled, the government engaged him to mediate the conflict.
On Nov. 4, he and a fellow bishop survived an armed attack by people whose
identity remains to be determined.

The AFSC committee that nominated Ruiz for the 1998 Nobel Peace award noted
that the bishop "consistently advocated peaceful means of struggle" and
"advocated the rights of people regardless of their religious profession,"
two of the seminal goals the Quaker humanitarian organization has been
pursuing for eight decades.

Last month the AFSC sent a former staff member, Phillip Berryman, to
participate in an observer mission to Chiapas organized by Mexican
nongovernmental organizations.  On his return last week Berryman, a scholar
in Central American religious movements, reported that the peace process
between the government and Zapatistas is "stalled for months, leading to an
aggravation of violence and human rights violations" in Chiapas.  "The
nomination of Bishop Ruiz," he said, "is very timely and may help restart
the peace process." 

--30—

The American Friends Service Committee is a Quaker organization which
includes people of various faiths who are committed to social justice,
peace and humanitarian service.  Its work is based on the Quaker belief in
the worth of every person and faith in the power of love to overcome
violence and injustice.