* Mexico's Zapatistas took up arms in 1994
* Movement was armed struggle for indigenous rights
MEXICO CITY, Jan 24 (Reuters) - Mexican Bishop Samuel Ruiz, who mediated an end to the Zapatista rebel uprising and was seen as a candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1995, died in hospital on Monday aged 86, his family said.
Ruiz was credited with ensuring the bloody revolt in the southern state of Chiapas in 1994, in which 150 people died, was short-lived, eventually pushing the government and rebels to agree ceasefires and piecemeal peace accords that helped stifle the conflict.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton paid tribute to Ruiz during a one-day visit to Mexico on Monday. "I have been told by my colleagues that he was a tireless mediator," Clinton told a news conference in the city of Guanajuato.
Mexican President Felipe Calderon also praised Ruiz, who died of a respiratory infection in Mexico City.
Masked Zapatista leader Subcomandante Marcos launched the armed struggle for indigenous rights on Jan. 1 1994, emerging from a jungle lair to briefly capture the attention of the world's media with his signature black ski mask and pipe.
The Zapatistas have lost much of their influence inside Mexico, while Marcos has turned to writing romantic fiction. But the movement still inspires leftist groups in Europe. (Reporting by Miguel Angel Gutierrez in Mexico City and Cyntia Barrera Diaz in Guanajuato; editing by Chris Wilson)
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