Paris, September 20 {No.2000-90}- UNESCO Director-General Koïchiro Matsuura has decided to award the 2000 International Simón Bolívar Prize to Samuel Ruiz Garcia and Julio Sanguinetti, at a public ceremony to be held on October 23.

The US$25,000 UNESCO Prize was established in 1978 by the Organization's Executive Board on the initiative of the government of Venezuela and thanks to its financial backing. It is awarded every two years in recognition of activity of outstanding merit which, in accordance with the ideals of Simón Bolívar, has contributed to the freedom, independence and dignity of peoples, as well as to the strengthening of ties of solidarity between nations.

The International Jury - which met at Organization Headquarters on September 19 - unanimously selected the two candidates, taking into account both levels of activity in Latin America today: the institutional, represented by Uruguayan politician Julio Sanguinetti, and the informal, represented by Mexican bishop Samuel Ruiz Garcia and his life of devotion to improving the living conditions of indigenous peoples and to the enhancement of their cultures.

Samuel Ruiz Garcia served from 1959 to 1999 as Bishop of San Cristóbal de Las Casas (Chiapas State, Mexico), a Diocese characterized by extreme poverty and an indigenous majority population. Around 44,000 thousand indigenous refugees received assistance from his Diocese for a period of more than ten years. Samuel Ruiz Garcia served as mediator in the conflict in Guatemala, and was the instigator of the collegial mediation system, CONAI.

Julio Sanguinetti, the former President of Uruguay, has had active careers both as a journalist and as a politician. An opponent of the 1973 Military Coup, he later played a crucial part in the negotiations that led to the restoration of democracy in his country.

The Prize has previously been awarded to Nelson Mandela and King Juan Carlos of Spain (1983), the Contadora Group, which played a decisive role in restoring peace to Central America (1985), Chile's Vicariate of Solidarity (1988), Václav Havel (1990), the Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and Julius Nyerere (1992), Muhammed Yunus, founding director of the Grameen Bank, known as the "banker of the poor" (1996), and Mário Soares and Milad Hanna (1998).

The prize-giving ceremony will take place October 23 (6.30 p.m.) at Organization Headquarters (Room XI).