Mexican Bishop Who Was Nobel Nominee Aims to Fact-Find in Syria

Bishop José Raúl Vera López of Saltillo, Mexico, will be part of a fact-finding delegation headed to Syria in early June.

The Fides agency reported that the 67-year-old prelate will be one of a dozen observers hoping to enter the war-torn nation for the mission. They aim to collect data and information on the atrocities and human rights violations taking place in the country.

The Dominican bishop served as coadjutor of San Cristobal de Las Casas in the years when that archdiocese of Chiapas was led by Bishop Samuel Ruiz Garcia. 

In 2000, he became bishop of the Diocese of Saltillo, in northeastern Mexico. 

He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in 2012 for his commitment to the defense of human rights.