Samuel Ruiz

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Samuel Ruiz García (born 3 November 1924) is a Mexican Roman Catholic prelate who served as bishop of San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas, from 1959 until 1999. 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. Samuel Ruiz 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 Mexican 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 Simon 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.