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Don Samuel Ruiz Garcia (1924-2011†)
CRIC -GC EZLN - 31.01.2011 15:59
The EZLN breaks a long period of silence to express their sorrow at the death of Bishop Samuel Ruiz, who walked alongside the poor and oppressed people of Chiapas for over 50 years.
He followed Liberation Theology, defined as 'the preferential option for the poor'.
COMMUNIQUÉ FROM THE CLANDESTINE REVOLUTIONARY INDIGENOUS COMMITTEE -
GENERAL COMMAND OF THE ZAPATISTA ARMY OF NATIONAL LIBERATION - MEXICO - 26-01-2011
EZLN communique on the death of Don Samuel Ruiz Garcia
UK Zap Sol translation| 30.01.2011 21:05 | Zapatista
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COMMUNIQUÉ FROM THE CLANDESTINE REVOLUTIONARY INDIGENOUS COMMITTEE -
GENERAL COMMAND OF THE ZAPATISTA ARMY OF NATIONAL LIBERATION
MEXICO
JANUARY 2011.
TO THE PEOPLE OF MEXICO:
The Indigenous Revolutionary Clandestine Committee - General Command of the Zapatista National Liberation Army expresses sadness and regret at the death of Bishop Emeritus Samuel Ruiz García.
In the EZLN there are people of different religious faiths and people of no faith at all, but the stature of this man as a human being (and of those who, like him, are walking alongside the oppressed, the dispossessed, the forgotten and the despised), calls for our word.
Although our differences, disagreements and distances were neither few, nor superficial, today we want to recognise a commitment and a path that is not only that of an individual, but forms a whole current within the Catholic Church.
Don Samuel Ruiz Garcia not only practiced Catholicism for and with the dispossessed, his team also trained a generation of Christians committed to the practice of Catholicism. He was not only concerned about the condition of poverty and marginalization of the indigenous peoples of Chiapas, he also worked, along with a heroic pastoral team, to improve their inhumane conditions of living and dying.
Those whom the governments deliberately forgot, in order to cultivate death, were given memory by life in the diocese of San Cristóbal de Las Casas.
Don Samuel Ruiz García and his team not only insisted on peace with justice and dignity for the indigenous people of Chiapas, they also risked, and are still risking, their lives, liberty and property on this path made hazardous by the arrogance of political power.
Even long before our uprising in 1994, the Diocese of San Cristóbal suffered harassment, attacks and threats sometimes from the Federal Army and sometimes from the state governments.
At least since the time of Juan Sabines Gutiérrez (remembered for the slaughter of Wolonchan in 1980) and through the time of General Absalón Castellanos Dominguez, Patrocinio González Garrido, Elmar Setzer M., Eduardo Robledo Rincón, Julio César Ruiz Ferro (one of the perpetrators of the Acteal massacre in 1997) and Roberto Albores Guillén (better known as "croquetas”), the governors of Chiapas attacked people in the diocese of San Cristobal who were opposed to their killing and running the state as if it were a hacienda from the time of Porfirio Diaz.
Since 1994, while working at the National Mediation Commission (CONAI), in the company of the women and men who formed that body of peace, Don Samuel came under pressure, harassment and threats, including attempts on his life by the paramilitary group so badly named "Peace and Justice."
And, as president of CONAI, Don Samuel also suffered, in February 1995, the threat of imprisonment.
Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de León revived the war against the Zapatista indigenous communities, as part of the strategy of distraction (which is still in operation now), aimed at hiding the serious economic crisis in which he and Carlos Salinas de Gortari had left the country.
At the same time as launching a major military offensive against the EZLN (which failed), Zedillo attacked the National Mediation Commission.
Obsessed with the idea of doing away with Don Samuel, the former president of Mexico, and now transnational employee, took advantage of the alliance which, under the auspices of Carlos Salinas de Gortari and Diego Fernández de Cevallos, had been forged between the PRI and the PAN.
At that time, in a meeting with the Catholic Church leadership, the then Procurator General of the Republic, Antonio Lozano Gracia, a PANista and fanatic of spiritualism and witchcraft (like that of Chambon), held a document in front of Don Samuel Ruiz García, with instructions for his arrest.
They say that the Procurator, a graduate of Occult Sciences, was confronted by the other bishops, including Norberto Rivera, who came to the defence of the holder of the Diocese of San Cristobal.
The PRI-PAN alliance (which was later joined by the PRD and the PT in Chiapas) against the progressive Catholic Church did not stop there. Since then federal and state governments have fathered attacks, slanders and attacks against members of the Diocese.
The Federal Army was not far behind. While financing, training and equipping paramilitary groups, they were promoting the idea that the diocese was sowing violence.
The argument then (still repeated by idiots writing for the left) was that the diocese had formed the grassroots supporters and the leaders of the EZLN.
An example of the wide range of these ridiculous arguments was when a general showed a book as proof of the links of the Diocese with the "lawbreakers" (“transgresores de la ley”).
The title of the incriminating book was "The Gospel according to St Mark" (San Marcos).
Today, these attacks have not ceased.
The "Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas" Human Rights Centre continually receives threats and harassment.
In addition to being having been founded by Don Samuel Ruiz García, and having a Christian inspiration, the "Frayba" commits the "aggravated offences" of believing in the Integrity and Indivisibility of Human Rights, in respect for cultural diversity and the right to Self-Determination, in justice as a prerequisite for peace, in the development of a culture of dialogue, tolerance and reconciliation, and in respect for cultural and religious diversity.
Nothing could be more annoying than these principles.
And this discomfort reaches as far as the Vatican, who are manoeuvring to split the diocese of San Cristóbal de Las Casas in two, so as to dilute the alternative option, that of, for, by and with the poor, in an agreement where money washes consciences. Taking advantage of the death of Don Samuel, they are reactivating this project of control and division.
Because up there they understand that the option for the poor will not die with Don Samuel. It lives and breathes in the whole section of the Catholic Church which has decided to follow the path that he preached.
Meanwhile, the pastoral team, and especially the deacons, ministers and catechists (indigenous Catholics from the communities) suffer slanders, insults and attacks from the neo-lovers of war. Power still longs for his days of dominion and sees the work of the Diocese as an obstacle to reinstating his “knife and fork” regime.
The grotesque parade of figures from local and national politics beside the coffin of Don Samuel is not to honour him, but to check, with relief, that he is dead; and the local media simulate sorrow when they are actually celebrating.
Above all these ecclesiastical attacks and conspiracies, Don Samuel Ruiz García and Christians like him, had, have and will have a special place in the dark heart of the Zapatista indigenous communities.
Now that it is fashionable to condemn the entire Catholic church for the crimes, excesses, commissions and omissions of some of their superiors...
Now that the so-called "progressive" sector delights in making fun of and deriding the whole of the Catholic church...
Now that everyone is encouraged to see in every priest a potential or active paedophile...
Now it would be good to turn around and to look towards those from below and find there those who, as they did before Don Samuel, challenge and defy Power.
Because these Christians believe strongly that justice should reign also in this world.
And in this way they live and die, in thought, word and deed.
Because if it is true that there are Marcials and Onésimos in the Catholic Church, there also have been and are Roncos, Ernests, Samuels, Arthurs, Raúls, Sergios, Bartholomews, Joels, Heribertos, Raymundos, Salvadors, Santiagos, Diegos, Estelles, Victorias, and thousands of other religious and lay people who, being on the side of justice and freedom, are on the side of life.
Among the EZLN, Catholics and non-Catholics, believers and nonbelievers, today we not only honour the memory of Don Samuel Ruiz Garcia.
Also, and above all, we salute the commitment of Christians and believers in Chiapas, Mexico and the World, who do not remain silent against injustice, nor remain inactive against war.
Don Samuel is going, but there remain many, many others who, in and for the Catholic Christian faith, struggle for an earthly world that is more just, more free, more democratic, that is to say, better.
Good health to all of them, because from their efforts tomorrow also will be born.
FREEDOM!
JUSTICE!
DEMOCRACY!
From the mountains of the Mexican southeast
For the Clandestine Indigenous Revolutionary Committee - General Command of the EZLN
Lieutenant Colonel Insurgente Moisés, Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos
Mexico, January 2011
UK Zap Sol
 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2011/01/473107.html
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http://enlacezapatista.ezln.org.mx/2011/01/26/26-enero-el-ccri-cg-del-ezln-manifiesta-pesar-por-don-samuel-ruiz-garcia/
http://chiapas.indymedia.org/
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PDF bestand
www.frayba.org.mx
http://www.frayba.org.mx/archivo/boletines/110124_01_fallece_jtatic_samuel_ruiz.pdf
Hoy, lunes 24 de enero de 2011, falleció en la Ciudad de México jTatic Samuel Ruiz García. Durante su trayectoria son innumerables los encuentros que tuvo con distintas y muy diversas personas a quienes acompaño en la defensa de sus Derechos Humanos. Su caminar es hoy un reto para quienes vemos resplandecer en el horizonte el ejemplo de su vida al servicio del pueblo pobre.
http://www.frayba.org.mx/fotos.php?ID=1568&language_ID=1&hl=es
http://www.frayba.org.mx/videos.php?ID=1574&language_ID=1&hl=es
http://www.frayba.org.mx/archivo/noticias/110124_a_don_samuel_en_el_cuc_24_ene_11.pdf
http://www.frayba.org.mx/archivo/noticias/110128_nota_presiden_raul_i.pdf
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| Read more about: antimilitarisme vrijheid, repressie & mensenrechten | | supplements | | Mexico: Bishop Don Samuel Ruiz Garcia dies | SIPAZ / Laura Carlsen - 31.01.2011 17:07
During the morning of 24 January, Don Samuel Ruiz García, bishop emeritus of San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas, died due to complications related to diabetes mellitus, a condition he had suffered for several years. A mass is planned for Monday at 2:30pm in the installations of CUC in Mexico City, as well as mass in the cathedral of San Cristóbal at 7pm the same day. Mass will also be celebrated at 12 and 7pm, and the burial will be carried out this Wednesday 26 January at 12pm.
For more information (in Spanish):
Bishop Samuel Ruiz dies (El Universal, 24 January)
http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/notas/739544.html
UN-HR highlights Samuel Ruiz’s commitments (El Universal, 24 January)
http://www.mexiconews.com.mx/notas/739627.html
Samuel Ruiz, bishop emeritus of San Cristóbal, dies (La Jornada, 24 January)
http://www.jornada.unam.mx/ultimas/2011/01/24/fallecio-samuel-ruiz
Lamentable news: Don Samuel Ruiz Garcia dies
(Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas Center for Human Rights, 24 January)
http://www.frayba.org.mx/sobre_nosotros.php
Diocese announces funeral program for Samuel Ruiz (La Prensa, 24 January)
Chiapas government laments death of Don Samuel Ruiz (La Prensa OEM, 24 January)
For more information from SIPAZ (in English):
Chiapas: Call announced for the 2011 “ jTatic Samuel jCanan Lum” Honor (2 August 2010)
http://sipazen.wordpress.com/2010/08/02/chiapas-call-announced-for-the-2011-jtatic-samuel-jcanan-lum-honor/
Chiapas: Presentation of the “JTatic Samuel JCanan Lum” Honor (26 January 2010)
http://sipazen.wordpress.com/2010/01/26/%EF%BB%BF%EF%BB%BFchiapas-presentation-of-the-“jtatic-samuel-jcanan-lum”honor/
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http://sipazen.wordpress.com/2011/01/26/mexico-bishop-don-samuel-ruiz-garcia-dies/
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A Man of Peace: Don Samuel Ruiz 1924-2011
It was a remarkable mass for a remarkable man.
Laura Carlsen
Mexico City, Wednesday, January 26, 2011
The news spread rapidly yesterday morning of the death of Bishop Samuel Ruiz. He died at the age of 86, the day that marked 51 years since his ordination as Bishop of the Diocese of San Cristobal. By 2:30 the Mexico City church had filled with an unusual group of religious leaders, peace activists and figures who have marked Mexican politics over the years. All recalled their work alongside Tatik ("father" in Tzeltal) with a bittersweet blend of loss and gratitude.
I sat in the pews, listening to the first strains of "métale a la marcha, métale al tambor, métale que traigo un pueblo en mi voz..." (Join the march, join the drum, join in, I carry the people in my voice...) watching the faces of hundreds of committed people who in various moments of a long and full life walked alongside Don Sam, El caminante. A history that changed Mexico forever flooded into the room.
Bishop Raúl Vera recalled that Samuel Ruiz arrived in the state of Chiapas to face a reality he had not imagined, a reality that many in Mexico didn't know existed. He set out to travel to the far corners of the region-- not an easy task--and saw with his own eyes the scars of the plantation-owners' whips on the backs of indigenous men and heard the accounts of how young girls were routinely forced to have their virginity "tested" (lost) by the owners when they decided to marry, among other terrible examples of the feudal conditions his new parishioners suffered. He encountered a system of oppression and brutality that changed his life and he decided the system had to change, through the word of God and an intense social commitment.
It's worth mentioning that Bishop Raúl Vera came to know his counterpart when the Church sent him as a "coadjutor" to Ruiz in 1995, presumably to temper his radical influence. The opposite happened. In what Vera describes as a conversion experience, he encountered the conditions that had led Don Samuel to embrace a church of and for the poor and soon became a partner in bringing the church down to the people and building a movement to allow its indigenous members to gain their rightful place in the church and in society. To this day, Don Raúl remains as a successor to the work of Don Samuel; now based in Coahuila, his is a strong voice in defense of a human rights as Mexico suffers a new phase of violence and repression.
Next, Father Heriberto Cruz recounted that the reflection among some members of the church, initiated in large part by Don Samuel and his experience in Chiapas in those early days, did not just center on the traditional concern of how the church could alleviate the burden of its members. Ruiz and others began to ask themselves what role the church itself played in their oppression and how to break that oppression. A deep critique of the role of traditional methods of evangelization in suppressing indigenous culture followed. Ruiz learned to speak Tzotzil and Tzeltal and became conversant with other indigenous languages of the region. He insisted on respect for indigenous cultures--another factor that would bring him into conflict with some elements of the Church that criticized what they viewed as the excessive syncretism of his theology and practices.
Don Samuel Ruiz formed part of and led a movement within the Roman Catholic Church that based its theology on the Vatican II commitment to greater lay participation, the "option for the poor" that shifted attention to the need to serve the historically downtrodden, and the idea that the church cannot ignore injustice without being complicit.
These would become the principles he acted on. As mediator in the Zapatista indigenous uprising of 1994, Ruiz helped create the conditions for the new indigenous movement that marked not only Mexico but the world. His work as leader of the National Mediation Commission (CONAI) led to an unprecedented dialogue that resulted in the San Andrés Accords on Indigenous Rights and Culture, signed and later violated by the federal government. The Accords stand as a tribute to his work and the work of scores of indigenous leaders. They also stand as a tragic reminder that the word of the powerful cannot be trusted. But the spirit of emancipation and peaceful dialogue codified in the Accords survives in the individuals gathered at the mass for Don Samuel Ruiz, one of the principal architects of the peace process, and among the thousands of indigenous people who wait to receive his remains in his beloved state of Chiapas.
Don Samuel insisted that the church of the poor needed a human rights organization in Chiapas faced with the extreme human rights violations taking place. In 1989, he founded the Fray Bartolome de las Casas Center for Human Rights. The Center's mission is to "walk alongside and at the service of the poor, excluded and organized people who seek to overcome their socioeconomic and political situation, by taking direction and the strength from them to contribute to their project of building a new society where people and communities fully exercise and enjoy their rights." The mission embodies the strong belief that the church cannot be separated from the struggle for social justice and that it should play a supporting role rather than pronouncing from on high.
These beliefs often put Bishop Ruiz at odds with the powers-that-be in government and in the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church. They also made him a target of the local caciques, or rural bosses, that ran Chiapas with a iron hand and lorded over the lives of indigenous peoples. He faced aggressive attacks on his character with magnanimity, and patiently continued to build from below. The Diocese became an example of the leadership role of indigenous peoples in defining a new church and empowering communities and the 1994 Zapatista uprising catapulted his patient labor onto a world stage, as the long-ignored demands of indigenous peoples became the lens through which to conceive of a new society.
There were, of course, efforts to dismantle the deep processes of empowering indigenous people within the church and within society. The Mexican government sent in troops and launched military offenses against the communities well after the truce with the EZLN. Meanwhile, the Vatican began to attack the practice of making indigenous men deacons within the church--a centerpiece of effort to break down the distance between indigenous communities and a distant and privileged hierarchy, to literally change the face of the church. When the Roman Catholic hierarchy decided not to name Bishop Vera to the San Cristobal diocese following the retirement of Don Samuel, which would have been a natural choice but for the politics involved, it was seen as an indication of the desire to suppress the progressive religious movement in Chiapas. More recently a plan to divide the San Cristobal diocese has led to suspicions that the hierarchy seeks to weaken Mexico's only diocese guided by the Second Vatican Council's decision to promote a closer relationship to the social and political context of parish members.
There was a deep sense of loss among the those attending the mass, but few tears. Over the years, many people feared that Don Samuel would become a martyr rather than die a natural death. He received death threats and created enemies among those who abhorred the idea of a church that championed the rights of the poor and indigenous peoples, since their own power and wealth rested on preserving near-slavery conditions. Bishop Ruiz accepted the risk to his own life. His death at 86 ended a journey on earth that was consistent and effective in following his convictions and that touched and inspired thousands of people who will carry on. The liturgy on Monday did not dwell on the loss, but rather emphasized the meaning of his life and the Catholic belief that he passed into a higher realm.
Bishop Samuel Ruiz's remains have been sent to San Cristobal, Chiapas to be buried in the Cathedral. Surely he will be welcomed there by the indigenous people he walked alongside over the years. Some fifteen thousand indigenous people came down from the mountains to bid him farewell in 2000 when Ruiz left Chiapas, in a testament to the relationships he forged and his role in their lives and their movement for liberation.
This final farewell reminds us that Don Samuel's deep commitment to indigenous rights and social justice is not some folkloric moment in Mexico's colorful past, nor is his life merely a chapter neatly written into our religious and social history. His is not a legacy. Something that hasn't died leaves no legacy.
Although many of the people present at his mass have gone on to other battles and fronts, Don Sam's death is a reminder of the enormous tasks still pending. Bishop Vera began the mass by stating "in these dark times, a star has been lifted." Somber nods from the congregation--mostly human rights defenders and Catholics who work with the poor--reflected agreement that Mexico faces one of the worst moments in recent history for the poor, indigenous and vulnerable, and that Don Sam's example gives hope and strength.
This reminder brings a renewed sense of responsibility to act. It encourages us to see through the darkness of the times and seek each other out, just as he helped bring together the many diverse individuals that went out to honor him yesterday. The passing of the "Bishop of the Poor" urges us to keep walking the path he cleared and to forge new paths of peace and justice.
Source: Americas MexicoBlog:
http://americasmexico.blogspot.com/2011/01/man-of-peace-don-samuel-ruiz-1924-2011.html
Photo: Samuel Ruiz García (ALC)
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http://www.alcnoticias.net/interior.php?lang=688&codigo=18878&format=columna
| | Bishop who brokered Zapatista peace talks | Bill Weinberg - 12.02.2011 02:29
Don Samuel Ruíz, bishop who brokered Zapatista peace talks, dead at 86
Submitted by Bill Weinberg on Thu, 02/10/2011 - 23:20.
Don Samuel Ruíz García, bishop emeritus of San Cristóbal de Las Casas in the Chiapas highlands, died in Mexico City on Jan. 24 at the age of 86. Known to his flock as Don Samuel or Tatic—"father" in the Maya tongue—Bishop Ruíz was long an advocate for the poor in marginalized Chiapas state, and came to national prominence when he brokered peace talks with the Zapatista rebels in 1994. The day after his passing, thousands of indigenous campesinos from throughout Chiapas filed past the coffin at a memorial mass in the San Cristóbal cathedral that also commemorated the 51st anniversary of his ordination there. Bishop Raúl Vera López of Saltillo, who served as Bishop Ruíz's coadjutor in Chiapas from 1995 to 1999, presided over a memorial mass in Mexico City. The Vatican issued a message hailing him as the "bishop of the poor." Even President Felipe Calderón—on the opposite side of political battles with Bishop Ruíz in life—said his death "constitutes a great loss for Mexico." (Upside Down World, Feb. 9; NYT, El Universal, Jan. 26; Catholic News Service, Jan. 25)
Ruíz won his honored place in Mexico's political landscape despite—or, paradoxically, because of—his long years as a political pariah for the country's elite. In 1993, following years of pressure from conservatives in Mexico's Catholic hierarchy, the Vatican ordered that Ruíz step down, accusing him of doctrinal errors in his advocacy of an "indigenous theology" that incorporated elements of Maya tradition. When the Zapatista rebellion broke out months later, it became obvious that Ruíz was the only man in a position to broker a peace dialogue, and the Vatican backed off. In March 1994, with Ruíz presiding, masked Zapatista comandantes met with a government-appointed negotiator at the San Cristóbal cathedral, in what was seen by many in Mexico's political establishment as a grave humiliation.
Don Samuel's work resulted in sometimes violent religious conflicts in the state of Chiapas, with both conservative Catholics and evangelical Protestant converts demonizing him as the "Red Bishop." In the '90s, as he sought to bring peace to Chiapas, death threats mounted against Ruíz. But his dialogue with the Zapatistas arguably saved Mexico from civil war. When he finally stepped down as bishop in 2000, the peace talks were long stalemated, but the Zapatistas had committed themselves to civil rather than armed struggle—albeit without surrendering their weapons or coming out from clandestinity.
Ruíz remained active even in retirement. He relentlessly sought justice in the case of the 1997 Acteal massacre, returning to Chiapas to preside over the commemoration each year—and even called for charges to be brought against ex-president Ernesto Zedillo as author of the attack, in which 45 unarmed campesinos were killed by a paramilitary group. Ruíz repeatedly warned of the potential for renewed warfare in Chiapas if lingering injustices were not addressed.
He remained a harsh critic of Mexico's neoliberal economic program. He advocated on behalf of San Salvador Atenco, the central Mexican village that mobilized to defend its traditional lands from expropriation for the construction of a new Mexico City airport. He was similarly outspoken on the Oaxaca uprising of 2006, where he again sought to mediate an end to the crisis. In 2008, he was also named to help establish a dialogue with the Popular Revolutionary Army (EPR), a guerilla group that took up arms in the mountains of Oaxaca and Guerrero.
Bishop Raúl Vera, while denying the he considers himself Don Samuel's successor, has been outspoken on the wave of violence now shaking Mexico's north, where his diocese is—and has also met with threats and harassment. He received new anonymous death threats just days before Ruiz's passing, after accusing authorities of turning a blind eye to kidnappings and other abuses by narco gangs. Vera also remains involved in Chiapas, and has assumed leadership of the Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas Human Rights Center that Ruíz founded. (Milenio, Vanguardia, Saltillo, Feb. 8; Vanguardia, Feb. 2; El Universal, Jan. 29).
http://ww4report.com/node/9463
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