Chiapas’ New Bishop Appeals for Peace

The new bishop of strife-torn Chiapas, Mexico’s poverty-stricken southernmost state, has warned that the region will have no peace as long economic and other injustices remain.

Bishop Felipe Arizmendi Esquivel, formerly the bishop of Tapachula on the Chiapas coast, used his inaugural homily as the new bishop of San Cristobal de las Casas to call for reconciliation and an end to the six-year war between the Mexican government and the Zapatista leftist rebels seeking greater rights for Indians.

“Chiapas is hungry and thirsty for peace,” the bishop said. “No more war, because no reason or person is superior to another. It is time for reconciliation and brotherhood.”

He encouraged the rebel Zapatista National Liberation Army to honor human rights, and appealed to the group to resume peace talks with the government.

The bishop succeeds the popular Bishop Samuel Ruiz, known by his supporters as the “bishop of the poor” and by detractors as “the red bishop” for his support of liberation theology and his outspoken advocacy on behalf of the indigenous population of Chiapas.