Entre la médiation politique et la recomposition sociale : l'Église catholique dans le conflit du Chiapas / Between Political Mediation and Social Realignment : the Catholic Church in the Chiapas Conflict

摘要

The mobilization of the zapatistas represents the first revolutionary movement of a new type to appear in Latin America since the fall of the Berlin Wall. The movement has no international point of reference and is, instead, attempting to build its own momentum in reference to local issues and the Maya cultural identity. The Catholic Church has a twofold intervention in this process: on the one hand it supports the formation and emergence of new political actors, on the other, it acts as a mediating force between the zapatistas and the Mexican federal government. The author studies this process of mediation in which Monsignor Ruiz has become an essential actor given the space and the function given him by the revolutionary movement and the indigenous organizations involved in the conflict. In this context the role of the Church is not limited to that of an active political agent (intervening through days of fast, pilgrimages, stations of the cross, reading of certain relevant passages of the Bible), but is also central in the processes of negociations (as in Central America) and pacification. The struggle in Chiapas calls for a reassessment of concepts such as religion, politics and modernity in situations where the Church assumes functions that go beyond its traditional spheres of influence.