Bishop’s Convoy Attacked in Chiapas

In an apparent escalation of conflict in the troubled southern state of Chiapas, gunmen attacked a convoy carrying a Roman Catholic bishop who has been deeply involved in peace talks with the Zapatista rebels, the bishop’s office said Wednesday.

Bishop Samuel Ruiz was unharmed, but three other church workers in the convoy were wounded, according to a communique from the bishop’s office in Chiapas.

The communique said the attack appeared to have been carried out by Peace and Justice, a loose-knit group associated with Mexico’s long-ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party.

“This is very serious. It shows the extent of the deterioration in this society [in Chiapas], and the inefficiency of the authorities,” said Father Gonzalo Ituarte, who works with Ruiz on a peace commission. “This group has been identified for a long time.”

Ruiz is one of Mexico’s best-known bishops. A prominent advocate of Indian rights, he is one of the few figures in Mexican society who has the trust of the mostly Indian Zapatista rebels. But he is fiercely criticized by those who say he helped incite rebellion in Chiapas’ poor villages.

Chiapas was the site of a January 1994 uprising by the Zapatistas that left more than 145 people dead. The fighting lasted less than two weeks and was followed by peace talks with the government. But those negotiations broke down a year ago over an accord on granting Indian communities more autonomy.

While a fragile cease-fire still holds, clashes have broken out frequently between loosely organized groups that support either the Zapatistas or the governing party. More than 100 people have died in such battles in the past three years, human rights groups say. But a figure of Ruiz’s political stature has never come under fire before.

State Atty. Gen. Marco Bezares said Wednesday that no formal complaint had been received about the attack, and there were no reports of victims hospitalized. But he said he will investigate the incident.

In Mexico City, the Interior Ministry said it “repudiates and energetically condemns” the attack. It offered to assist local authorities in finding and punishing the attackers.

Ruiz was traveling in violence-torn northern Chiapas when his convoy came under attack Tuesday evening, the communique said. As he passed through the hamlet of Crucero, a Peace and Justice stronghold, gunshots rang out from behind a hill about 300 feet away, it said.

The car carrying Ruiz and a fellow Chiapas bishop, Father Raul Vera, was not hit. But other vehicles were peppered with bullets, wounding two lay catechists and another church worker, the communique said.

Ituarte said Peace and Justice had threatened a few weeks ago to disrupt the bishops’ trip.