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Bishop Samuel Ruiz Garcia (1924-2011) Mexican Indigenous Human Rights Activist. Bishop Samuel Ruiz Garcia (1924-2011) Mexican Indigenous Human Rights Activist 1996 Pacem in Terris Peace and Freedom AwardMore
Bishop Samuel Ruiz Garcia (1924-2011) Mexican Indigenous Human Rights Activist.

Bishop Samuel Ruiz Garcia
(1924-2011)

Mexican Indigenous Human Rights Activist
1996 Pacem in Terris Peace and Freedom Award
1997 Martin Ennals Human Rights Award Winner
1998 AFSC Nobel Peace Prize Nominee
2000 International Simón Bolívar Prize

birthdate: November 3
birthplace: ciudad de Irapuato, state of Guanajuato, Mexico
www.peacekids.net/…/samuel-ruiz.pdf
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24 January 2011 Mexico bishop and indigenous champion Samuel Ruiz dies
The Mexican bishop and indigenous rights campaigner, Samuel Ruiz Garcia, has died at the age of the 86.
He passed away in hospital in Mexico City from complications arising from respiratory problems and diabetes.
Samuel Ruiz served as bishop of San Cristobal de las Casas in the southern state of Chiapas for four decades.
He was …More
24 January 2011 Mexico bishop and indigenous champion Samuel Ruiz dies

The Mexican bishop and indigenous rights campaigner, Samuel Ruiz Garcia, has died at the age of the 86.
He passed away in hospital in Mexico City from complications arising from respiratory problems and diabetes.
Samuel Ruiz served as bishop of San Cristobal de las Casas in the southern state of Chiapas for four decades.
He was best known for his role as mediator in the conflict with Zapatista rebels, and was nominated for the Nobel Peace prize several times.
President Felipe Calderon said his death was a "big loss" for Mexico.
"Samuel Ruiz worked to build a fairer, more equal, more dignified Mexico without discrimination, where indigenous communities have a voice and where their rights are respected by all," Mr Calderon said in a statement.
Bishop Ruiz led the diocese of San Cristobal de las Casas from 1959 to 2000, when he stepped aside on reaching the retirement age of 75.
Inspired by the liberation theology that swept the Roman Catholic Church in Latin America in the 1960s, he was an outspoken advocate for the rights of the indigenous Maya people of Chiapas, who are among Mexico's poorest and marginalized communities.
His followers knew him as "The Bishop of the Poor" or simply as "Jtatic" - father in the Tzotzil Maya language.
Peace broker
On 1 January 1994 Chiapas saw a shortlived armed uprising by a previously unknown rebel group, the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN), which said it was fighting for indigenous rights.
Bishop Ruiz was chosen to mediate between the government and the rebels.
In 1998 he was pressurized to resign as mediator by the government, amid allegations that he was too sympathetic to the Zapatistas, but the uneasy truce he helped to establish in Chiapas has held ever since.
Bishop Ruiz was also criticised by conservatives in the Church who saw him as too influenced by left-wing political ideas and too flexible in his approach to indigenous religious practices that combined Catholicism with traditional Maya beliefs.
The conflict in Chiapas raised his international profile, and he became a widely-respected advocate of indigenous rights throughout Latin America.
One of his legacies is the Father Bartolome de las Casas Human Rights Centre, which he founded in 1989.
The organisation is named, like the diocese Bishop Ruiz represented, after a 16th Century Spanish priest and defender of indigenous rights.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-ame…
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Samuel Ruiz García (3 November 1924 – 24 January 2011) was a Mexican Roman Catholic prelate who served as bishop of the Diocese of San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas, from 1959 until 2000.[1] This zone in Mexico is characterized by its poverty and its indigenous population. Some 40,000 indigenous Mexicans received some kind of help from this bishop for over 10 years.[citation needed]
Samuel Ruiz …More
Samuel Ruiz García (3 November 1924 – 24 January 2011) was a Mexican Roman Catholic prelate who served as bishop of the Diocese of San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas, from 1959 until 2000.[1] This zone in Mexico is characterized by its poverty and its indigenous population. Some 40,000 indigenous Mexicans received some kind of help from this bishop for over 10 years.[citation needed]
Samuel Ruiz, who was born in Irapuato, Guanajuato, offered his help in conflicts in Central America and defended indigenous populations in Mexico and in Central and South America. He contributed largely to calm the difficult situation between the federal government and the Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional (Zapatista Army of National Liberation). He also presided over the funeral of 45 members of the civil society group Las Abejas after the 1997 massacre in Acteal.
In 1996, Ruiz was awarded the Pacem in Terris Award. It was named after a 1963 encyclical letter by Pope John XXIII that calls upon all people of good will to secure peace among all nations. Pacem in Terris is Latin for 'Peace on Earth.'
He won the Simón Bolívar International Prize from UNESCO in 2000 due to his efforts to fight poverty, exclusion, corruption, violence and for his help in the mutual understanding of Latin Americans.
Ruiz died on 24 January 2011, in Mexico City (Hospital Ángeles del Pedregal).[2]
[edit] Notes
^ "Mexico bishop and indigenous champion Samuel Ruiz dies". BBC News. 24 January 2011. www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-ame…. Retrieved 25 January 2011.
^ Obituary in Spanish
[edit] External links
Unesco: Samuel Ruiz García
Catholic Hierarchy: Samuel Ruiz García
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Ruiz
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Bishop Samuel Ruiz Garcia
(1924-2011)

Mexican Indigenous Human Rights Activist
1996 Pacem in Terris Peace and Freedom Award
1997 Martin Ennals Human Rights Award Winner
1998 AFSC Nobel Peace Prize Nominee
2000 International Simón Bolívar Prize

birthdate: November 3
birthplace: ciudad de Irapuato, state of Guanajuato, Mexico
www.peacekids.net/…/samuel-ruiz.pdfMore
Bishop Samuel Ruiz Garcia
(1924-2011)

Mexican Indigenous Human Rights Activist
1996 Pacem in Terris Peace and Freedom Award
1997 Martin Ennals Human Rights Award Winner
1998 AFSC Nobel Peace Prize Nominee
2000 International Simón Bolívar Prize

birthdate: November 3
birthplace: ciudad de Irapuato, state of Guanajuato, Mexico

www.peacekids.net/…/samuel-ruiz.pdf