FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 8, 1993
Contact: John Lindsay-Poland (408) 423-1626 (Thur/Fri)
(415) 864-7549 (Mon.-Wed.)
Phil McManus (408) 426 6537
F.O.R. TO SEND EMERGENCY DELEGATION TO CHIAPAS
Phil McManus, Chairperson of the Santa Cruz-based Fellowship
of Reconciliation Task Force on Latin America and the Caribbean,
will lead an emergency delegation to Chiapas, Mexico to investigate
reports of human rights abuses resulting from the peasant uprising
and the counterinsurgency of the Mexican army. The delegation will
depart for Mexico on Monday, January 10. Delegation members will
meet with government authorities, church leaders, human rights
groups, and peasant groups in San Cristobal de las Casas, one of the
towns seized by insurgents on January 1. They will also visit a
remote rural area of Chiapas in order to assess the social climate
and the impact of the uprising. The delegation plans to return on
January 18.
The delegation will visit Mexico at the invitation of Mons.
Samuel Ruiz, Bishop of San Cristobal de las Casas, and a broad
network of independent Mexican human rights organizations. While
in Mexico they will travel with representatives of human rights
groups from the U.S., Mexico, and other countries.
Delegation members include:
- Phil McManus, Santa Cruz, FOR Task Force on Latin
America and the Caribbean Chairperson and Latin America
Program Coordinator at the Resource Center for
Nonviolence;
- John Sinclair, Minneapolis, retired Presbyterian minister
and former executive of the Presbyterian Church U.S.A.;
- Dennis Dunleavy, Salinas, free-lance photo-journalist
whose published work has focused on the conflicts in
Central America.
- Martin Shupack, of the Mennonite Central Committee team in
Mexico.
The Fellowship of Reconciliation is a 79-year-old interfaith
pacifist organization dedicated to building justice and peace through
nonviolent action.
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