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:
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.