NEWS ANALYSIS : Is Controversial Bishop Key to Mexico Peace? : Chiapas: Congressional delegates call on cleric, underlining his enduring role in talks with rebels.

Peace commissioners, governors and even the president of this nation have all been replaced in the 11 months since the last round of peace talks between the government and the Zapatista National Liberation Army.

Thursday, as new negotiations appeared increasingly likely, the only major players who remain from a year ago are the angry Mayan Indian rebels and Samuel Ruiz, the indefatigable bishop of San Cristobal de las Casas.

A Mexican congressional committee trying to re-establish contact with the Zapatistas on Thursday trod the well-worn path up the curving mountain road from the state capital at Tuxtla Gutierrez to call on the 70-year-old bishop.

Their presence here is a tribute to the durability of Ruiz, variously known as: Tata Samuel, a Mayan designation for elders; Don Samuel, a Spanish title of respect, and Comandante Sammy, a put-down by those who believe that he helped organize the rebellion that broke out Jan. 1, 1994.

That provokes questions about what his role should be in negotiating the peace, especially after Interior Secretary Esteban Moctezuma Barragan, Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo’s chief national security adviser, on Thursday declared the weeklong military operation a success.

“Mexican society should know, truthfully, that five days after the operation began, it re-established law and order in the region, in all the territory occupied by the (Zapatistas) and known as the ‘zone of conflict,’ ” Moctezuma said in a statement distributed in Mexico City.

He also stressed the government’s new approach is twofold: to urge Congress to find solutions to the conflict and to initiate amnesty for the rebels. But the interior secretary appeared to take a hard line on the amnesty issue.

“The amnesty will benefit those who decide to opt for politics, lay down their arms and expressly agree to commit themselves to peaceful causes that respect the constitution and the law,” he said, adding that the government is not suspending arrest warrants against Subcommander Marcos and four others whom Zedillo has identified as top Zapatista leaders.

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An interview with one senior rebel commander, who has identified himself only as Commander Tacho, indicated that the Zapatistas were not prepared to accept those terms.

“If the government speaks of change, of dialogue, it must be profound--not superficial, not a patchwork,” Tacho said in the interview published Thursday in Mexico City’s La Reforma newspaper. “We want a change that is truly Mexican, for the good of all the people. If it is necessary to die for that, we’re ready. The Zapatistas never will surrender, and we will never hand over our weapons.”

But their cause suffered a blow and the government achieved a political triumph with the announcement Thursday from the left-leaning opposition Democratic Revolutionary Party that it has withdrawn its support from the Chiapas government-in-rebellion of Amado Avendano. Instead, the party recognized the administration of interim Gov. Julio Cesar Ruiz Ferro, no relationship to the bishop.

As for Ruiz--one of the last visible Mexican proponents of liberation theology, a Marxist-tinged movement that swept the Roman Catholic Church in Central America during revolutions there more than a decade ago--the cleric will almost surely be called on again to attempt to find common ground between the two sides. It is a job unlikely to make him popular. But he is accustomed to controversy.

In his 35 years as bishop in a city named for Fray Bartolome de las Casas, colonial defender of Indians, Ruiz has been under constant fire for following his predecessor’s example. That barrage has intensified over the last 13 months with persistent rumors that the Vatican has asked him to resign.

After Zedillo ordered the arrest of five alleged Zapatista leaders last Thursday, Ruiz’s enemies leaked reports that the attorney general’s office had proof that he helped organize the guerrilla movement.

Lay church leaders, known as catechists, are known to have been heavily involved in the Zapatista movement. On Friday, when Zapatista communities fled into the hills and deep jungle, their catechists went with them.

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The government’s view of the church was reflected in federal agents’ raid on church buildings in San Juan in Ocosingo; at the height of the military operation, officials claimed that they were conducting an arms search of the facilities.

Parish priest Jorge Rafael Diaz, in a formal complaint filed before a local judge, called the raid “a grave act” that indicated the government was trying to implicate local priests in the Zapatista movement.

Ruiz has adamantly denied any involvement with the armed movement.

As recently as Tuesday, when Gov. Eduardo Robledo Rincon resigned, meeting a rebel demand, he called on Ruiz to step down too, as a sign of good faith. Ruiz did not. And, publicly, church leaders have eased pressure on him. “If the people of Chiapas ask for his resignation as part of the peace process, he should resign,” said Cardinal Juan Sandoval, archbishop of the conservative western city of Guadalajara.

As each new wave of criticism crests, Ruiz’s standard reply is: “This is not the first time.”

The bishop is an unlikely hero--or villain--for the media age. Even wearing an elaborately embroidered miter and white robes, he looks more like a bespectacled gnome than the dangerous fanatic his detractors see.

While nearly always courteous, Ruiz makes no attempt to be personable. As for eloquence, reporters struggle to extract quotes from statements that ramble into non sequiturs and tangents before arriving at the often-muddled point.

Ruiz became bishop of San Cristobal de las Casas in 1960. Born in the conservative mining state of Guanajuato, he was ordained in 1949 in Rome, where he studied theology and sacred Scripture. He arrived in San Cristobal de las Casas strait-laced, but he soon changed, according to reports of anthropologists who studied the area at that time.

“The direction of our pastoral action was never in question,” he said in an interview with La Reforma in 1993. “It was obvious where there was the most need, and, for that reason, our ministry was directed toward the Indians. It was like that from before, although less intense because of the difficulty of visiting the places because of poor communications.”

Early on, Ruiz tried to crack down on the heavy drinking that had become part of the syncretic religion in Indian communities. That created clashes with the tribal leaders who sold the moonshine and were linked to the ruling party structure. More encounters followed, as Ruiz defended the three-fourths of his diocese that consider themselves Indian.

Darling reported from San Cristobal de las Casas and Fineman from Mexico City.