Diocese of San Cristobal de las Casas

San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas

September 1, 1998

Dear brothers and sisters:

I salute you with affection in Christ and I ask Him, Lord of true and

profound Peace, the one that the world needs, to accompany you in your work

in favor of the fraternal unity of the peoples.

I address you today to share my reflections around the dialogue process

that remains stalled in Chiapas. As you well know I am no longer the

president of the National Mediation Commission and there is no other group

that carries out this role and that has the confidence of both parties.

However that has not stopped me or the people with whom I walk from

continuing to work very hard to find the path of dialogue that will take us

to peace.

Today the reality of the world is no longer hidden from our eyes and

conscience. The communications media allow us to know immediately the

things that affect the people. Today the pain and suffering of the peoples

of Africa or Asia are known quickly in the Americas and vice versa. This is

perhaps one of the positive aspects of globalization: to give a new sense

to humanity of the global family of brothers and sisters, different

inhabitants of the same house, the earth.

Today this globalization, so deadly in many senses, can contribute, and is

doing so, to the creation of a new humanity in which solidarity transcends

borders and where we can no longer be indifferent to the pain of those who

are far away. A humanity where the feelings and acts of compassion and

solidarity for those that suffer break the barriers of distance and the

lines that apparently separate us. Communications today have brought us

closer to the ones that were far before and have converted them into our

neighbors, in the biblical as well as in the proximity sense. Today, nobody

is far away.

Our brothers and sisters from other countries also have a word to say about

the steps that the people of the world are taking. In this sense, the

international community has played an important role in different moments

and ways, supporting all those efforts that by peaceful means can help to

raise the standard of living, to respect holistically the rights of all,

to promote a world where there is no longer any place for misery and

marginalization.

In the face of the uncertainty of the dialogue and the peace process, the

Chiapanecan reality of pain and suffering of thousands of indigenous people

becomes a call to the heart and conscience of the peoples of other

latitudes. What is at stake in Chiapas is a voice that alerts many peoples

of the world to transform humanity into this great family in which we are

all brothers and sisters.

It is from this perspective that I can understand the international

presence together with the suffering people of Chiapas, the interest of

peoples and governments from all over the world concerned about finding a

peaceful and just end to the conflict that we are living here.

Hence today the international presence is an extremely important

contribution to the peaceful negotiation that the Diocese of which I am

Bishop and many other people have supported. The presence and interest of

the international community, respectful of the will of the Mexican people,

play a relevant roll in the peaceful resolution of this and other

conflicts.

One of the first concrete and long-term expressions of this concern of the

international community is the SIPAZ project, which we rejoice in having

since 1995. It is a coalition of organizations from three continents that

accompany peace processes through the practice of active non-violence.

Their work in promoting ecumenical rapprochement among the churches,

training in the peaceful resolution of conflicts that are offered to

various organizations, and producing information about the Chiapas conflict

we believe is an important contribution to the peace process.

We ask your continued support for projects like this which are of great

importance in continuing to advance towards creating the conditions for a

peaceful end to the conflict.

May God allow us to continue building together this new humanity where, as

the psalm says, "Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace

have kissed each other": (Psalm 85.10).

Samuel Ruiz Garcia

Bishop of San Cristobal de las Casas,

Chiapas, Mexico.

For more information on SIPAZ please consult:

www.nonviolence.org/sipaz

P.O. Box 2415, Santa Cruz, CA 95063 USA

Tel. and Fax (831) 425-1257

email: sipaz@igc.org

Global Exchange is a founding member of the SIPAZ Coalition.