Click here for Full Issue of EIR Volume 21, Number 22, May 27, 1994 Dateline Mexico byCarlosMendez Samuel Ruiz and 'the poster' Making it cle/lfthat he is in no hur­ The [bero-American Solidarity Movement has made things a ry to solve the co�flictin Chiapas, Don Samuel took off for Rome on May 6, little bit hot for "Comandante Ruiz" lately. without anyone iJilvitinghim there. Ex­ celsior reported that according to an ecclesiastical source in Rome, his trip On May 3, one week after Bishop names of Camacho Solis, Cuauhtem­ could represent �n effort by the wily Samuel Ruiz told a group of support­ oc Cardenas-who will be here next bishop to avoid lileing forcibly retired ers that "we brainwashed" govern­ week-and of Comandante Marcos from his diocese. The day of his depar­ ment peace commissioner Manuel Ca­ and the NGOs." ture, the spokestiJ.anfor the communi­ macho Solis, the two men publicly The fact is that the majority of the cations commis�ion of the Mexican met in his diocese San Crist6bal de las population does not back Don Samuel Bishops Confe�nce, Msgr. Genaro Casas, Chiapas. But a surprise await­ and his "Zapatistas," whose only real Alamilla Arteagll, declared: "Only a ed them: That very morning, the city support comes from abroad, from cer­ lunatic would sit down to dialogue had awakened to find itself plastered tain news media, from the liberation with hooded ones .... No one with with a poster headlined "Samuel Ruiz: theologists, and fromCamacho's own the slightest cotIlIDon sense would sit Wanted for Treason!" political circles. down to deal w�th those who won't Ruiz is the ringleader of the Marx­ That same day, May 3, Don Sam­ show their faces. much less when the ist liberation theology network in Chi­ uel and Camacho took off for the La­ fate of a nation of more than 85 million apas, which created and now protects candona jungle of Chiapas, to meet inhabitants is at $take." the Zapatista insurgency. with the terrorists of the Zapatista N a­ In an open letter published by the The impact of the poster, signed tional Liberation Army (EZLN). Thus press May 10, i the Regional Civic by the Ibero-American Solidarity far, Camacho has issued no statement Front for Peace pf the Highlands and Movement (MSIA), was such that it on the meeting, but the EZLN and Don the Jungle accu$ed Don Samuel and was the lead headline in several na­ Samuel have. On May 6, Marcos told Camacho of exiending the conflict, tional newspapers the next day. For the daily La lornadathat "the govern­ and charged that "the delaying tactics example, Excelsior headlined its ment is giving clear signs that the hard being used by th� mediating bishop are page-one article, "Propaganda against line is winning," and he threatened that only serving to hold on to his pontifical Bishop Samuel Ruiz. MCS [Manuel "if there is no democracy, there will be mandate over th� San Crist6bal de las Camacho Solis] Is Surprised Upon civil war in the country." Casas diocese." i Arriving in San Crist6bal." For the EZLN, democracy means On May 9, G�stavo de Anda wrote The article, accompanied by a handing power over to Cuauhtemoc in El Heraldo fie Mexico that Don photograph of the poster, reported: Cardenas, the presidential candidate Samuel is "knOiWn from some time "Upon his arrival this afternoonin San of the Party of the Democratic Revolu­ ago" as a guerrilla trainer; he cited the Crist6bal, Manuel Camacho Solis dis­ tion (PRO). On May 9, El Heraldo de cases of Riobam�a, Ecuador, in 1974, covered the 'news of the day': posters Mexico reported that the EZLN was and Panama in �985. "Recently," De against Bishop Samuel Ruiz. Attached preparing a warm welcome for Carde­ Anda wrote, "lqtowledgeable circles to walls, including the front of the mu­ nas, including a banquet in his honor, in the U.S. and Mexico have learned nicipal palace just a few steps from the "because he has given us his full of another subv�sive effort inside the cathedral itself, the posters made by support." United States it�elf. In fact, Samuel the Ibero-American Solidarity Move­ Cardenas's envoys to the EZLN Ruiz has travel1ed punctually every ment-identical to those which ap­ were Pablo G6mez and Gilberto Rin­ year for the last 11 years to personally peared in Mexico City one month c6n Gallardo, leaders of the "former" give intensive �ourses in liberation ago-have provoked reactions. The Mexican Communist Party, now part theology in San Antonio, Texas. The city, already polarized, has seen clus­ of the PRD. Cardenas immediately ac­ courses, which �e sponsored and or­ ters of people gathered since dawn to cepted the invitation, adding for some ganized by Texas Bishop Patrick Flo­ read the poster, 'Wanted for Treason strange reason that "of course, the Za­ res-also froOl the mystical left to the Fatherland' (under the photo­ patistas did not pay nor will they pay wing-pull tog�ther primarily Mexi­ graph of Samuel Ruiz). And the post­ anything toward our travel costs to that can-American priests, to egg them ers that 'appeared' today add the place" (Unomasuno. May 12). on." EIR May 27, 1994 International 53 © 1994 EIR News Service Inc. All Rights Reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission strictly prohibited..